皇家华人

George received the 鈥楨arly Career Impact Award鈥� for his work, which led to the formation of MediSieve 鈥� a UCL spinout.

Last month the company also won the Investment Achievement Award at MedTech London Awards 2019 鈥� part of the annual Mayor of London Awards. MediSieve secured 拢1.75 million from private investors at the start of 2018, and two grants from Innovate UK, worth around 拢1.56 million, towards the end of the year.

A new approach to blood-borne diseases聽

George studied for a Master鈥檚 in Nanotechnology, followed by a PhD in Biochemical Engineering at 皇家华人. It was here that he first developed the idea for a revolutionary new method of treating blood-borne diseases by removing pathogens directly from a patient's bloodstream.

MediSieve鈥檚 technology circulates a patient鈥檚 blood outside their body, similar to a dialysis blood loop, in order to capture and remove specific disease-causing agents.听

The way in which traditional dialysis filters the blood is non-specific, and simply relies on molecular weight to remove individual blood components. By contrast, MediSieve uses biocompatible magnetic particles coated with binding agents (such as antibodies) which target specific blood components. It then uses magnetic forces to extract these magnetic particles, and crucially, the blood targets they鈥檙e bound to.听

The whole process takes place outside the body and the MediSieve system is designed to integrate with existing hospital peristaltic haemofiltration pumps.

George commented: 鈥淯sing this method, practically anything can be removed from the blood, including specific cell populations, pathogens, toxins, inflammatory cytokines and even potentially viruses.

鈥淭he vision is to revolutionise the treatment of diseases like malaria, sepsis, leukaemia and others, improving patient outcomes, and ultimately saving lives.鈥�

MediSieve鈥檚 first product for malaria has completed pre-clinical validation and is ready to enter clinical trials. Its second product for sepsis is undergoing pre-clinical validation.

From idea to commercialisation

Following completion of his PhD at 皇家华人 in 2015, George founded MediSieve in the same year, as a spinout from UCL, with assistance from UCLB (UCL鈥檚 commercialisation company 鈥� part of UCL Innovation & Enterprise).

Dr Steven Schooling, Director of Engineering and Physical Sciences at 皇家华人B, said: 鈥淲e're most encouraged to see another UCL medical device innovation progressing on the translational pathway towards clinical adoption with resultant societal impacts that MediSieve鈥檚 technology platform promises to unlock.鈥�

Now celebrating its eleventh year, the BBSRC Innovator of the Year competition recognises the important impact bioscience research and innovation has on lives, society and the economy. George received BBSRC help to develop his technology through an Enterprise Fellowship award in 2014, providing the training and mentorship to establish MediSieve.

鈥淭he Innovator of the Year awards continue to successfully recognise researchers and their teams for focusing their talents on transforming the future,鈥� said Professor Melanie Welham, Executive Chair of BBSRC. 鈥淚 congratulate all the named winners of the Innovator of the Year competition, and I anticipate their successes will continue to push the boundaries of bioscience, driving innovative solutions with the potential to change the world forward.鈥�

Links

Find out more about:

Top photo shows聽Dr George Frodsham collecting聽his Early Career Impact Award at the 2019 BBSRC Innovator of the Year Awards 漏聽BBSRC.

Small photo is MediSieve鈥檚 blood filtration device 漏 MediSieve.

Bottom photo is of Dr George聽Frodsham carrying out research and development in the lab 漏 Royal Academy of Engineering.

Read more news from UCL Innovation &聽Enterprise.听