NWO funds investigation on commercialization of ultra-sensitive proteomics technologies

To stimulate real-world application of protein research at the TU Delft Bionanoscience department, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) has appointed researcher Carlos de Lannoy as fellow of the Faculty of Impact.

Identification and analysis of individual intact proteins

Carlos and colleagues of the Chirlmin Joo group recently demonstrated a technology that could identify and analyse individual intact proteins, the molecules that make up most of living organisms. This is a unique technology worldwide. They reported their findings in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. This technology could have major applications, such as accelerated drug development and detection of diseases before patients feel sick. However, the commercialization of the mentioned applications still requires a lot of work with new challenges from the researchers. 

“While the published proof of concept of this versatile technology is exciting progress, we realize that it is only the first step towards true societal contribution“, says Carlos. “With the Faculty of Impact, we can take the next steps down that road; ensuring we have a market to serve and then pour our technology into a product for that market.” As a Faculty of Impact fellow, Carlos is provided with €185.000 for market research, technical development and entrepreneurship training.
 

NWO’s Faculty of Impact program

Every year, researchers at Dutch institutes invent hundreds of new technologies, yet only a fraction of these end up having real-world applications. To mitigate this waste, NWO’s Faculty of Impact program seeks to stimulate inventors to develop their technology into products, by guiding them on the path to entrepreneurship. For this year’s cohort, NWO has selected TU Delft postdoctoral researcher Carlos de Lannoy as a program fellow to explore the commercialization of protein analysis technologies developed at the BioNanoscience department.