Students solve universal lab problem

A team of students at the Howard Florey Institute has won a national award for developing the most innovative product in the Young Achievers Australia Biotechnology Entrepreneur program for 2004.

The Cochlear Innovative Product or Service Award for 2004 will be awarded to the students at tonight's YAA National Award ceremony in Sydney for their Rackyatips pipette sorter/loader -- a simple and affordable solution to the tedious laboratory task of racking pipette tips.

Under the auspices of the YAA program, the group of ten students have formed a company -- Floreya -- to develop and commercialise the Rackyatips device, and is in competition with 12 other teams from Victorian research institutes and universities provide a return to investors from the development and commercialisation of the product.

The idea for the product has been credited by the team to PhD student Daniel Scott who said he was frustrated by the time-consuming but necessary task of putting pipette tips in boxes -- the bane of most students' lives.

The device allows two boxes of tips to be rapidly filled in a matter of 2-3 minutes, while manual filling of the boxes takes longer, carries the risk of repetitive injury and is tedious, Scott says.

The students went into production with the affordable product last week, and hope to sell plenty of the devices prior to the end of the YAA program in December, when the company will be liquidated.

"Because our product was more complicated to develop, we haven't got as long to sell it [as some of the other YAA companies]," Scott said.

As for the future, the young entrepreneurs are considering their options, including continuing to produce and sell the products themselves, or selling the concept to an equipment supply company.

Scott says participation in this year's YAA biotech entrepreneur program -- the first official year of the program -- has been valuable.

"Programs like this are great because they let you tune your skills to other aspects like business -- it gives you other options," he says. "And it's rewarding to take something you've designed into an actual product -- it makes you think that anything is possible if you have the will to do it."

Other awards for the program will be announced next year, once the companies have been wound up.

Details of the Rackyatips tip sorter/loader can be found at: http://www.hfi.unimelb.edu.au/floreya