UTAS innovator wins international science award

Professor Emily Hilder, from the University of Tasmania (UTAS), has won the prestigious LCGC 2012 Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award. This is the first time the award has been presented to an Australian researcher and the first time to a female researcher.

LCGC is the worldwide leading industry publication for peer-reviewed research and practical troubleshooting advice on liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and hyphenated techniques. It is based in New Jersey, USA.

Professor Hilder and her team at the UTAS-based Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS) are working with UniQuest to prepare for a global launch of the polymer-based MilliSpot functional media technology, which is a significant breakthrough in the storage of dry blood used in laboratory analyses.

MilliSpot-derived laboratory consumable products aim to help the pharmaceutical industry maximise operational and cost-saving benefits with bioanalytical aspects of drug development and advanced diagnostics. Environmental monitoring and military usage are other possible applications.

UniQuest Managing Director David Henderson said the LCGC award highlighted the leadership that Australian scientists like Professor Hilder are demonstrating in specific disciplines, and the contributions they are making generally to global endeavour in translational research.

“We are delighted to be supporting the University of Tasmania’s efforts to transfer ACROSS research into innovative products. This is the third significant endorsement Professor Hilder and her team have received in recent months,” he said.

“The LCGC award follows the release of a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) report indicating that all claims of the MilliSpot patent application appear to be novel and inventive; and late last year Commercialisation Australia awarded the project a substantial Skills and Knowledge grant to define the capital requirements for manufacturing scale-up versions of a product based on the technology.

“Such milestones along a project’s commercialisation pathway encourage potential investors to recognise the value this innovation could bring to global health care, opening up more opportunities for the research to attract and leverage private and public funding.”

The LCGC awards have helped previous winners heighten their visibility in the field of separation science globally and highlight their work on local levels.

Professor Hilder’s entry onto the honour roll will be publicised in the March issues of LCGC and e-Separation Solutions. A podcast interview with Professor Hilder is accessible from the LCGC website.

For more about the development MilliSpot, click here.