Imperial team scoops Pounds 1,000 biotech prize

A team of undergraduates from Imperial College, London last week won a competition aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among young biotechnology researchers. Imperial's team produced a business plan for "InCap Technologies", an imaginary biotechnology company which aimed to produce an orally administered insulin product for the treatment of diabetes.

The team's success in the competition, which was launched by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, won them Pounds 1,000. A team from Reading University won a parallel competition for postgraduates with a business plan for the creation of "Inulinx", a firm specialising in developing genetically engineered crops to produce a fat substitute for food and non-food applications. The team won Pounds 500.