University aids region's `high-tech' boom

The University has launched its latest new company, coinciding with the publication of a new study which shows that Oxfordshire—with the University to the fore—is rapidly emerging as one of Britain's fastest growing high-technology regions. The new company, called Microgenics, is the third to be spun-out by the University since March 1998 and draws on the bacterial research of Professor Jeffery Errington, Professor of Microbiology at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. The recently published study, by Elizabeth Garnsey of Cambridge University and Helen Lawton Smith of Coventry University, shows that Oxfordshire now has around 26,400 people employed in 730 high-tech companies. This compares with 30,000 employees in 1,000 businesses in Cambridgeshire, sometimes regarded as the UK's answer to Silicon Valley. The study pays tribute to a switch in University policy over the past decade, with the establishment of Isis Innovation in 1988 a turning point. Isis, the University's technology transfer company, helps scientists to protect their intellectual property rights and assess the potential for commercial development. It also seeks to ensure a fair return for inventors, departments, and the University. The establishment of the Oxford Science Park in 1991 was a further boost to the county. It attracted internationally renowned laboratories, including Sharp Research, and also provided facilities for smaller, rapidly expanding, companies and University spin-outs. A University spokesman said: `This study is excellent news for Oxfordshire and for the University. It focuses on the important role played by University research in developing high-tech industries in the county, and proves that scientific research at the University has never been in better shape. It is creating new jobs and opportunities in Oxfordshire.' Basic research in Professor Errington's laboratory has led to the discovery of several important proteins that bacteria need in order to grow and multiply normally. When these proteins are damaged, bacterial growth is compromised. The new company seeks to use methods developed in Professor Errington's laboratory to search through the millions of new chemical compounds being made by pharmaceutical companies to find ones active against these new `targets' in bacterial cells. Existing antibiotics are chemicals that can safely be taken by humans but which kill or severely damage invading bacterial pathogens. Unfortunately, bacteria are gradually becoming more and more resistant to existing antibiotics, so there is a pressing need to develop new kinds of drugs to keep the threat of resistance at bay. Professor Errington, a Senior Research Fellow of BBRSC and Fellow of Magdalen, said: `For the last ten or fifteen years, the research in my laboratory has been driven by curiosity; a desire to understand in molecular terms how bacterial cells grow, develop and divide. By chance, we are now in a position to exploit this work and apply our findings to a significant medical problem.' Isis Innovation recently launched a new programme designed to maximise the commercial potential of Oxford science. The University will provide an annual grant of £300,000 over a five-year period to cover the expected cost of patents, and a lump sum of £1 million to create a development fund for new ventures.