Smart Bio Awards recognises innovators making an impact in Biotechnology

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming increasingly ubiquitous in lifesciences, it should come as no surprise that it plays a crucial part in the field of biotechnology. Today, it is a given that any entrant to the space will have AI capabilities. And data has been the fuel that is driving this change.

To recognise the impact that smart technologies such as AI, Blockchain, Robotics, etc. have had in biotechnology, the final day of The Bangalore Tech Summit 2020 saw various trailblazers in the space being recognised at The Smart Bio Awards, given by the Department of IT BT, and S&T, Government of Karnataka. The winners were biotechnology firms that have shown dynamic leadership and made stand-out contributions in their chosen fields of biotech. It also recognised organisations in the state who have made significant contributions supporting existing technologies, nurturing innovative ideas and product development.

The presence of world-class bio-incubators and programmes like Elevate Idea2Poc and Karnataka Startup Advancement Programme BIO 50 (KSAP Bio50) has supported many of these startups in their initial years by providing the much-needed scientific infrastructure, funding, and mentorship, thereby increasing the number of bio-startups escaping the so-called “Valley of Death”.

Further, Dr. CN Ashwath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, said that his government will leave no stone unturned in making Bengaluru a global biotech hub.

Dr. EV Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Department of Electronics, IT BT and S&T joined the Honorable Deputy Chief Minister in congratulating all the winners of the SmartBio Awards and wished them many more awards in the future.

This year, the awards were conferred in five categories.

Startup of the Year

Winner: Fibroheal Woundcare Private Limited

Fibroheal is a healthcare biotech startup that has developed biomaterial-based wound healing products. They contain bio-active silk protein in the form of fibroin and asiaticoside, which heals wound faster and with reduced scar formation. It is suitable to treat all types of wounds.

Innovator of the Year

Winner: Nibedit Dey, Founder & CEO of Ibrum Technologies

A multi-disciplinary engineer and creative technologist with a background in biomedical engineering, embedded system, and BioDesign, his company is developing a novel point-of-care pneumonia screening device for primary care healthcare users to screen babies with early symptoms of pneumonia without adding any additional diagnostic burden to their guardians. The device aims to drastically reduce the number of deaths caused by pediatric pneumonia.

Woman Entrepreneur of the Year

Winner: Kavitha Iyer Rodrigues, Co-Founder & CEO of Zumutor Biologics Private Limited

A well-known name in the biotech community, she is being recognised for her entrepreneurial acumen and leadership qualities. She is passionate about setting new global benchmarks through Zumutor biologics company, which is developing novel immune-oncotherapeutics leveraging a proprietary antibody engineering platform to harness the body’s immune system to generate antibodies against cancerous tumors.

Best product against COVID-19

Winner: ShanMukha Innovations Private Limited

ShanMukha is a company with a grand vision to bring the diagnostic lab to the samples through the translation of technologies developed at the lab into products and solutions for the Indian market. The company has developed Mobile Infection Testing and Reporting (MITR) Labs to create a unique end-to-end RT-PCR testing infrastructure. MITR Labs provides a compact, safe, compliant and cost-effective mobile lab solution for COVID-19 and other infectious disease diagnostic tests. These are 100 percent safe and fully equipped molecular diagnostic laboratories that reduce turnaround times for RT-PCR tests.

Best Social Enterprise/ Institute

Winner JALODBUST

JALODBUST is an organisation working on the problems of manual scavenging and exposure of sanitation workers to disease, drudgery, and social discrimination. JALODBUST™ is safe in operation and is an easy-to- handle-and-maintain system that replaces the physical handling of fecal sludge with a one-man-operated system. JALODBUST SaniPreneur empties and transports the settled/ hardened sludge in the septic tanks and leach-pits through combined action of attrition, agitation and suction through a smart control panel, display and an IoT dashboard.

The Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister congratulated all the winners and said that he was sure the award would inspire them to set the bar high for other entrepreneurs and power India to have more global companies in years to come.