News
www.kaust.edu.sa
September 2014
5
Founding President of Ozyegin University in Seed Fund spring 2014 winners pose with members of the Seed Fund team during the Spring Gala 2014.
Istanbul, Turkey. Prof. Erkut discussed the mission of the world’s new “global universities,” which are “third-generation” universities that must focus on commercializing technology produced through their education and research. “Universities are breeding grounds for entrepreneurs,” Erkut said, “and universities today must make a point of producing and encouraging entrepreneurs. Through this, economic value, new companies, and employment opportunities will be created.” All these, he noted, are essential in the global economy today, as the world has an increasing need for more and better jobs for an ever-growing workforce.
SEED FUND SPRING GALA 2014 UNVEILS THREE WINNING STARTUP PROJECTS
Erkut also stated that he believes KAUST has many of the characteristics of a third-generation university, and has the potential of becoming a fully-fledged third-generation institution. This, he
New Ventures & Entrepreneurship hosted the 2014 Spring Seed Fund
The winning teams’ project titles and members were: “I3-Waste CO2
said, will be essential to fostering economic growth and creating new
Gala on June 4 to recognize and honor this spring’s winning Seed
to Commercial Products” (Dr. Jeremie Pelletier, Laboratory Manager
employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia, which is as essential for
Fund teams.
at Catalysis Research Center; Dr. Valerio D’Elia, Research Scientist
the Kingdom today as it is for his home country of Turkey. “There is
The KAUST Seed Fund functions as a product development funding
at Catalysis Research Center; Mr. Blake Ashwell, Center Manager
the important need,” he stated, “to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem
mechanism that helps budding entrepreneurs move their ideas
at Catalysis Research Center); “ONCOGENOMICS - Highly Accurate
in our respective countries.”
through the commercialization process and ultimately form them
Test for Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer” (Prof. Vladimir Bajic,
The event concluded with the Seed Fund winning teams presenting
into new businesses. The University aims to provide the Kingdom
Director of the Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC); Dr
their innovative business ideas through a series of short videos and
with innovative startup companies leading to new jobs, and present a
Roberto Incitti, Bioinformatician at the CBRC; Dr. Hicham Mansour,
presentations. The teams then had a chance to network with event
successful startup model that may be used Kingdom-wide.
Research Scientist in Biosciences Core Lab; Dr. Claude Hennion,
visitors from academia and industry.
As Amin Al-Shibani, KAUST Vice President for Economic
external member; Dr. Jean-Pierre Roperch, external member); and
The Seed Fund is led by Nicola Bettio, who has recently joined
Development, noted during the event: “The Seed Fund program
“ZAD - Microbes to improve agriculture under drought, heat and
KAUST and who has been managing a venture capital fund in Europe
is geared at empowering interested faculty, research scientists,
salinity” (Prof. Heribert Hirt, Biological Sciences and Engineering
for the last 13 years. Saifuddin Tajuddin Mohamed, another new hire
postdoctoral fellows and students, and providing them with the space
Division (BESE); Prof. Daniele Daffonchio, BESE; Dr. Axel de Zelicourt,
with long experience in entrepreneurial ventures in North America,
needed as well as the seed capital to turn their ideas into successful
postdoctoral fellow, Center for Desert Agriculture (CDA); Dr. Feras
is managing the Fund portfolio. Other members of the team include
businesses. We recognize they are working in deep science with real
F. Lafi, Research Scientist, CDA; Dr. Ramona Marasco, postdoctoral
Osman Sayeed, Award Financial Administrator; Amal Dokhan, Project
business potential.”
fellow, Red Sea Research Center).
Coordinator; and Ozden Yurtseven, Pre-Award Specialist.
The Seed Fund hosts two rounds of applications for funding during
“It is just the beginning of the teams’ journeys,” Al-Shibani noted.
The Seed Fund team is always ready to meet people with novel
the year, one in the spring and one in the fall. This spring’s three
“The teams will face incredible pressure, the need to make difficult
business ideas to discuss their projects and investigate how to
winning teams were drawn from a pool of 37 applications, and were
decisions, and take risks – and all of this in addition to honoring their
commercialize them. For further information and to schedule a
selected by a panel of judges from academia to industry. A final
dedication to their current professional and scientific engagements.”
one-on-one meeting, contact the Seed Fund team at seed.fund@
selection was made by the Seed Fund Oversight Committee.
The event featured Keynote Speaker Professor Erhan Erkut,
kaust.edu.sa.
:تتمة الصفحة األولى
DIVERSITY | Continued from p1 of people who will take the results and be curious
With this particular project, they took a powder
enough to go forward and find the real beauty of
from a polymer and stirred in it different organic
Xiaoyan saw things differently. When she looked at
it,” said Nunes, Professor of Environmental Science
solvents. As they stirred it, the structures formed
Qiu’s knowledge gave the chemistry and
and Engineering.
and changed over time. “In the end, we made quite
membrane team insight from a new perspective. She
it, she said it looked like biomaterials,” said Yu.
Using their combined experience with block
interesting particles. We are trying to learn from
noted when looking at the pore size, that it might
copolymers and self-assembly, the team utilized
nature and are using the principle of self-assembly
be suitable to separate something like proteins. And
what they knew to learn something they didn’t.
like nature does,” Peinemann said.
because the pores were so regular, they were not only
When the initial results were not as planned, they
The particles the team found contained attributes
continued to explore to see what happened. Taking
that could be useful in biotechnology, medicine and
the chance on waiting was worth it. “They found
catalysis applications. They were able to separate
a nice biomaterial application. Then investigated
specific proteins by electrostatic interaction or by
why this structure is that way and not in the way
size. The particles were also able to absorb these
we expected it to produce,” Nunes said.
able to separate proteins, but ones with almost equal molecule weight.
LOOKING TO NATURE FOR FUTURE MEMBRANE SOLUTIONS
proteins. “Another potential application for the
Currently, many groups are looking at natural
Their results were published in Nature
particle is the control and release of certain proteins.
structures and trying to mimic what they can do.
C o m m u n i c a t i o n i n M a y ( D O I 10 . 10 3 8 /
For example, they may perhaps be loaded with a
Nunes says their case is unique as the structure is
ncomms5110). The paper explains how they found
drug and injected into the body that then slowly
completely porous. It can absorb the protein similar
a simple way to fabricate microspheres through
release the drug,” Peinemann said.
to how it would work in nature. “It’s the way many
block copolymer self-assembly. The particles they
But this discovery might have not occurred
of our own organs work. We, ourselves, are in a way
found are able to act as pH-responsive gates and
without the dynamics of the team involved. They
a self-assembly. This is amazing to get this structure
have a highly porous infrastructure, which allows
say without their mix of expertise, they may not
just by mixing without a planned specific design
them to have ultrahigh protein sorption capacity.
have immediately seen the potential in the initial
or probing. You have an order that is happening
It was the first time this simple strategy to fabricate
structures. Nor would they have realized how time
spontaneously,” she said.
micrometer-sized spheres with complexed porous
would have changed the shape of the particles.
order and gated nanopores by BCP self-assembly had been reported.
A WINNING DIVERSIFIED TEAM
The team said they are trying to learn from these
As members of KAUST’s Advanced Membranes
biological channels as they are much more effective
& Porous Materials Center and Water Desalination
than artificial channels. This research was one of
and Reuse Center, Peinemann has decades of
their ways to approach it, but other groups around
experience creating large-scale membranes,
the world are trying different things.
For over a year, the team had been working on this
while Yu is experienced in block copolymers and
“We—and I mean the scientific groups around
block copolymer research with an interest in self-
Nunes’ specialty is in membranes and polymer
world—are in a state of development where we can
assembly. “We always want to develop structures
thermodynamics. But it was Xiaoyan Qiu’s
afford to explore much more complex mechanisms of
which can do new types of polymer separations –
expertise in proteins and biology that gave them
transport,” said Nunes. “I think with all the knowledge
separations that are difficult to do. This is our main
the breakthrough they needed.
we now have on membranes, it’s time to go a step
goal,” explained Peinemann, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
“When I looked at the structure, I looked at it as a chemist. But because her background is in biology,
forward and mimic some of the special biological channels that allow for complex separation.”
أستاذة العلوم،تقول الدكتورة سوزانا نونيس "أكثر ما شدني في هذه: والهندسة البيئية هو حقيقة أن معظم الباحثين عندما،التجربة يصلون إلى مرحلة متقدمة في أبحاثهم ثم يكتشفون أن النتائج مغايرة تماما عن ما هو متوقع فإنهم في معظم الحاالت يتوقفون ولكن األمر لم يكن. .عن البحث والمحاولة كذلك بالنسبة للدكتور هايشياو يو والدكتور فهم من العلماء المجتهدين.زياويان كوي الذين ال تثنيهم غرابة النتائج عن مواصلة ال يكفي ً ال علميًا جمي ً البحث ويمتلكان فضو لدفع نتائج البحث إلى األمام والخروج بأشياء ."جديدة منه وتمكن الفريق باستخدام خبراتهم في مجال المحاكاة البيولوجية لكتلة جسيمات كوبوليمر من التعرف على أشياء لم يكونوا على علم فعندما كانت النتائج األولية مخالفة لما.بها استمر الفريق في البحث،كان يتوقعه الفريق .واالستكشاف لمعرفة ما يمكن أن يحدث وكان قراره في المواصلة واالنتظار يستحق كل "اكتشفوا: قالت الدكتورة نونيس.هذا العناء ثم.جسيمات مادة بيولوجية ذات تركيب فريد قاموا بدراسة بنية هذه الجسيمات ولماذا هي ."مغايرة عن ما كانوا يتوقعونه ووجد الفريق أن هذه الجسيمات تمتلك خصائص مفيدة و لها تطبيقات عديدة في مجاالت مختلفة كما استطاعوا.مثل التقنية الحيوية والطب والحفز فصل بروتينات محددة بالتفاعل الكهربائية الساكن وتبين أن هذه الجسيمات قادرة على يقول الدكتور بينيمان.امتصاص هذه البروتينات " إحدى تطبيقات هذه الجسيمات هو قدرتها: حيث.الكبيرة على التحكم بإطالق البروتينات يمكنها حمل العقاقير الطبية وإطالقها في مجرى ."الدم داخل الجسم بفاعلية