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Commercialisation Office

Murdoch University Spin-off Companies

A key strategy for the management of Murdoch’s intellectual capital is the establishment of spin-off companies to protect, disseminate and commercialise its innovations. With the support of the exclusive Murdoch Westscheme Enterprise Partnership Fund and Stone Ridge Ventures, Murdoch University has successfully established 6 spin-off companies in the past 3 years. These spin-off companies are highlighted below:  

SPIROGENE Pty Ltd

An R&D company focused on the development of vaccine and diagnostic solutions for the poultry industry.

Spirogene Pty Ltd. builds on the technical competency of its founders in reverse vaccinology and bioinformatics to develop a vaccine and diagnostic kit for Avian Intestinal Spirochaetosis, a bacterial disease causing significant production losses to high-value poultry markets. Leveraging on a A$500,000 pre-seed investment from Stone Ridge Ventures, Spirogene has received additional COMET and Commercial Ready support to commercialise its IP portfolio.

Investment Profile

NEMGENIX Pty Ltd

Western Australia’s sole GM crop development company

Nemgenix Pty Ltd. is developing new varieties of wheat, sugarcane and high-value crops that will be resistant to plant parasitic nematodes. Plant parasitic nematodes cause losses in excess of US$100 billion to crops per annum worldwide, with an estimated A$ 450 million of losses in Australia. Using RNAi technology from CSIRO, Nemgenix aims to develop synthetic resistance genes against a range of economically important nematode pathogens.

Investment Profile

CELLUMINA Pty Ltd

Delivering advanced medical technologies for wound healing and tissue repair

Cellumina Pty Ltd. is an R&D company committed to the development of platform technologies for improved wound healing and tissue repair. Cellumina’s flagship product is an aluminium oxide scaffold (“Kerapore”), a novel porous membrane developed in collaboration with researchers at Murdoch University, the McComb Foundation and Curtin University. 

Investment Profile

 DIVA SOLUTIONS Pty Ltd

Improved surveillance technology for Avian Influenza

Controlling outbreaks in poultry is the first line of defence against Avian Influenza pandemics in humans.  This involves measures such as increased biosecurity, quarantine, surveillance and vaccination. To enable improved surveillance of poultry flocks, DIVA Solutions Pty Ltd. has developed a highly specific biomarker for incorporation into avian vaccine preparations. The proprietary biomarker is highly specific and sensitive, and circumvents the many shortcomings of conventional surveillance technologies for Avian Influenza in poultry.

Investment Profile

CRYPTOGEN Pty Ltd

Improved public health through better diagnosis of cryptosporidium in complex samples

Cryptosporidium is an enteric parasite, which has a global impact on the health, survival and economic development of more than 10 million people and animals world-wide.  Approximately 2.3 million tests are performed p.a. worldwide for Cryptosporidium in the clinical setting, and in water testing, approximately 210,000 tests performed p.a. worldwide.

Cryptogen Pty Ltd. has developed three separate products to address the shortcomings of current Cryptosporidium monitoring methods used in drinking water and human diagnosis.
Cryptogen has protected these technologies with two separate patent families (at national phase in 9 countries) and is currently assessing commercial partners for its technologies.

Investment Profile

DESAL

Novel desalination technologies

The production of drinking water from seawater is one of the most important problems facing us in the near future. The market for large scale desalination is growing rapidly, fuelled by government and business alike. The United Nations has labelled this century as “the century of ocean water desalination” with a desalination market for 2005-2015 generating expenditure in the region of $95 billion. Professor Richard Pashley of Murdoch University has developed a novel, single-stage desalination technology with significant advantages over existing technologies. The technology is protected by provisional patent application and is undergoing laboratory proof-of-concept with pre-seed investment from the Murdoch Westscheme Enterprise Partnership Fund.

Investment Profile