Published on 23/10/2024
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Luke Southan
  • Luke Southan, director of SPARK UK, which is hosted at Aston University, spoke at Health Tech 2024
  • The all-day event, part of Birmingham Tech Week, was designed to showcase the best of the region’s health and medtech innovation
  • Southan highlighted how SPARK UK is supporting projects to develop novel therapeutics, medical devices and diagnostics for unmet clinical needs

Luke Southan, the director of SPARK UK, a preclinical accelerator hosted at Aston University, has given a presentation at a Birmingham Tech Week event showcasing healthcare innovations.

Health Tech 2024 brought together innovators, healthcare professionals, industry leaders and support networks to explore the latest breakthroughs and collaborative opportunities in health and medtech.

Southan spoke at the event to explain how SPARK UK is supporting 20 preclinical projects across therapeutics, medical devices and diagnostics for unmet clinical needs across the West Midlands Combined Authority region.

These projects are not just from Aston University, but SPARK supports innovations across all West Midlands universities and NHS trusts across the West Midlands Combined Authority region.

SPARK UK is the first UK branch of Stanford University’s prestigious global SPARK programme. The SPARK scheme helps to provide mentorship and forge networks between researchers, those with technical and specialist knowledge and potential sources of funding. Aston University was chosen to host SPARK UK due to its recognised leadership in developing preclinical innovations and active involvement in the delivery of the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator (WMHTIA) – a government-funded project aimed at helping companies drive their innovations towards market success.

As well as introducing SPARK UK, Southan highlighted some of the projects already being supported, including CHAT2MA, a decision-making app to support parents caring for children who have had complex surgery for congenital heart disease, and Medicaite, an AI-enabled platform for prescribing medicines for complex conditions. Southan also mentioned the Remedier project, currently under development in Aston University’s new Sir Peter Rigby Digital Futures Institute, which is developing AI software to automate the detection of diseases in lung scans, such as cancer and COVID.

Southan said:

“It was a privilege to explain how Aston University is driving forward the health and medtech sector through bringing in a globally recognised accelerator. We are already seeing the launch of spin-out companies as a result of SPARK’s support and hope to rapidly drive forward innovations into changing healthcare outcomes.”

The event also featured Aston Vision Sciences (AVS), a spin-out from Aston University’s School of Optometry, which aims to develop original and innovative devices at accessible prices. It is particularly dedicated to serving less affluent regions of the world. AVS launched its first product, a low-cost filter for eye examinations, earlier in 2024.

Visit the SPARK The Midlands website for more information about the scheme.

Notes to editors

About Aston University

For over a century, Aston University’s enduring purpose has been to make our world a better place through education, research and innovation, by enabling our students to succeed in work and life, and by supporting our communities to thrive economically, socially and culturally.

Aston University’s history has been intertwined with the history of Birmingham, a remarkable city that once was the heartland of the Industrial Revolution and the manufacturing powerhouse of the world.

Born out of the First Industrial Revolution, Aston University has a proud and distinct heritage dating back to our formation as the School of Metallurgy in 1875, the first UK College of Technology in 1951, gaining university status by Royal Charter in 1966, and becoming the Guardian University of the Year in 2020.

Building on our outstanding past, we are now defining our place and role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (and beyond) within a rapidly changing world.

For media inquiries in relation to this release, contact Helen Tunnicliffe, Press and Communications Manager, on (+44) 7827 090240 or email: h.tunnicliffe@aston.ac.uk.

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