Start-up co-founded by IBME Doctoral Student Carla V. Fuenteslópez wins a prize from Chemovator at #StageTwo, Europe’s largest university startup competition.

#StageTwo awards ceremony, October 2024, Image Copyright Kuiper, Ruiz Alonso

The start-up BioFragment, aims to revolutionise sustainable biocatalysis by unlocking the potential of otherwise unusable molecules for drug discovery, with future applications across multiple industries. The work has the potential to create more efficient, environmentally friendly processes for pharmaceutical innovation, reducing waste and reliance on traditional chemical methods.

BioFragment, an Oxford spinout with four co-founders, including Carla V. Fuenteslópez from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME), Victoria Barros Metlova (DPhil candidate in Chemistry), Olena Didenko (MSc in Neuroscience), and David Hamer (BA in PPE), is pioneering sustainable biocatalysis for drug discovery. The team won the prize from Chemovator at #StageTwo, Europe’s largest university startup competition, where they competed against 50 start-ups from top universities. This recognition will help accelerate their venture development, building on their earlier success as second-place winners in Oxford’s StEP programme and incubator. The team’s journey exemplifies the impact of initiatives like MPLS’s Scientific Entrepreneurship course in fostering innovation and translating research into real-world solutions.

Chemovator is the business incubator and early-stage investor of BASF and supports venture teams to turn great business proposals into scalable and investable business opportunities. It leverages the unique connection to BASF knowledge and domain expertise, ambitious founders, industry partners, universities, investors and the entrepreneurship ecosystem to create deep tech opportunities that truly matter for our industry.

Carla is supervised by Professor Cathy Ye Beng DPhil, Associate Professor in Engineering Science, Director of the Oxford Centre for Tissue Engineering and Bioprocessing (OCTEB), and Fellow in Engineering Science, Linacre College, and by Professor Mark Thompson MEng PhD CEng, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Tutor and Fellow in Engineering Science, Wadham College. She is a qualified engineer with extensive international research experience in biomedical applications and wet lab techniques, and is undertaking her doctorate degree in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford with the Tissue Engineering and the Mechanobiology groups, specialising in microvascular trauma and vascularised bioartificial muscle. Carla also collaborates as an Expert Partner with BIOMATDB, an EU-funded project for the development of an Advanced Database and Marketplace for Biomaterials.

Carla says “Winning the Chemovator award at #StageTwo has been an inspiring milestone for BioFragment. This recognition reflects the hard work of our team and the invaluable guidance of our mentors, all of whom have played a pivotal role in our journey. We are proud to be driving innovation in sustainable healthcare, and this prize is a testament to the power of collaboration and determination. It motivates us to continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible in drug discovery.”