Two PHYM members won the 11th edition of i-Teams
i-Teams brings together the brightest undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdocs, and the university’s ground-breaking research to develop commercially viable strategies and build valuable university-industry links. Four teams of students, doctoral students and post-doctoral students, coached by project leaders, competed in the 11th i-Teams session.
The first prize went to a project based on the research from Dr Viorica Patrulea, Dr Olivier Jordan and Pr Gerrit Borchard. The project has been developped by two PHYM members, Lorraine Ruffieux and Yasmina Merzouk, PhD students in the laboratory of Prof. Mirko Trajkovski in collaboration with three other members of the Faculty of Medicine, Cristina Colomer Winter, Arunima Muliyil and Soumaya Es Sarhdaoui and under the supervision of Alexandra Bondaz, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Pr Bernhard-Wehrle-Haller.
The aim of the project was to develop a marketing strategy for a new method to treat wounds. This new method consists of a bandage consisting of a gel, mixing a peptide with a biopolymer which can be directly applied to wounds to prevent and heal infections, thus revolutionising the way wounds are treated. Indeed this new bandage provides a valuable balance between high antibacterial activity and very low toxicity, providing a solution to growing concerns of antimicrobial resistance.
From left to right – Dr. Olivier Jordan (PHARMA), Dr. Viorica Patrulea (PHARMA), Yasmina Merzouk (PHYM), Cristina Colomer Winter (MIMOL), Arunima Muliyil (MIMOL), Soumaya Es Sarhdaoui (PATIM), Lorraine Ruffieux (PHYM), Alexandra Bondaz (PHYM, supervisor of the project).