UK AND US BIOTECH EXPERTS GATHER IN LONDON FOR AWARD CEREMONY

"Touchdown" competition dinner

Biotechnology experts from Britain and the United States will gather in central London on Wednesday to celebrate the success of two companies that have been given a unique opportunity to expand into each others marketplaces.

The vehicle that gave the companies the golden opportunity was a Trans-Atlantic competition organised by the Fairfax County Economic Authority in Virginia in conjunction with the United Kingdom Science Parks Association and other technology organisations.

The Touchdown" competition will allow a Cambridge-based biotechnology company, SmartBead Technology, to set up in a Fairfax incubator where it will have rent-free space for a year as well as valuable advice and guidance about the US market.

At the same time, a Fairfax-based company, Enlightened Technologies Associates Inc, will move across to the York Science Park from where it will be able to expand into the UK market.

This years competition is the second to be run by FCEDA with the winners being announced at a dinner at Londons Savile Club on Wednesday and attended by around 100 guests from Britain and America.

SmartBead technology allows it to etch a barcode on microparticles no longer than a hairs width, with enormous implications for the development of new drugs enabling more precise control of compounds during experiments than has previously been possible. It will help too in continuing research on the human genome providing a new precise way of analysing proteins in what Chief Executive Robert Booth described as the gold rush" area of biotechnology developments today.

It will also make for much speedier diagnosis of illnesses allowing doctors to test for several diseases in a patient at the same time rather than in sequence.

Enlightened Technologies development uses eyeglass-based products with fibre-optic cables embedded in the lenses to deliver light, replacing the need for anti-depressants like Prozac. Its glasses can overcome the effects of Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome, which affects around half of the over 65s, jet lag and SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which many people suffer with the onset of winter.

The innovative devices and technologies enable doctors to alter patients human circadian cycles without the use of drugs. The company has patented its technology, developed prototypes, and run NIH-sponsored clinical trials.

The principal speaker at Wednesdays dinner event will be a senior representative of BAE SYSTEMS who recently won, with Lockheed Martin, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) contract. This is worth 8,500 jobs in the UK and income in excess of 8 Billion.

Note to Editors:
For further information please contact Ross Clarke/David Wallen on tel: 020 7630 1100 or e-mail: fairfaxcounty@livepr.net