ASPIRE-BioNEST, UoH has been recently selected as ‘‘The Best Emerging Bioincubator in the country’’, announced in the valedictory function of Global BioIndia 2021.
Global BioIndia is a biannual conference conducted by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), DBT, Govt. of India, in the presence of Hon’ble Vice President Sri M. Venkaiah Naidu and Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan. Incidentally, ASPIRE BioNEST has celebrated its third foundation day on 2nd March 2021.
ASPIRE BioNEST is a Life Sciences incubator, set-up with the support of BIRAC in 2018, by renowned Biochemist Prof. G. Padmanaban of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore – who applauded it “By Far, The Best Bio-incubator”. BioNEST is located on the 3rd floor of the School of Life Sciences at University of Hyderabad.
University of Hyderabad (UoH), established in 1974, has been recognised recently as the Institute of Eminence. Moving forward, the UoH is endeavouring to create an enabling and vibrant ecosystem for translating part of its research into novel, innovative and commercially viable technologies, products and services. Towards this, as a first measure, the University had created over 40000 sft sophisticated plug and play incubation space organised in three independent incubation centres (ICs) under a not-for-profit section 8 company named “Association for Scientific Pursuits for Innovative Research Enterprises (ASPIRE)”. These ICs viz. ASPIRE-TBI (supported by DST), ASPIRE-TIDE (supported by MEITy) and ASPIRE-BioNEST (supported by BIRAC/DBT) are equipped with state of the art instrumentation infrastructure covering almost all the major areas of research in the campus.
ASPIRE manages all incubation and innovation activities in the campus and has been recognized by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) certification, independent Institutional Bio Safety committee (IBSC).
ASPIRE BioNEST, formed as a knowledge-based incubator, nurtures innovation and entrepreneurship in scaling technologies of Agriculture, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, and allied areas. ASPIRE BioNEST is a deep science incubator with 20000 sft dedicated plug-and-play laboratory space equipped with modern instrumentation to perform any research in Life Sciences. Presently, there are 26 incubatees and ASPIRE BioNEST offers incubation services mainly to the start-ups who are actively working to address the pressing needs like medical requirements, environment protection, agricultural innovations, human wellness, animal ethics etc. ASPIRE BioNEST also encourages and supports young budding individual entrepreneurs through bench space incubation. For selecting start-ups for incubation, ASPIRE BioNEST follows stringent selection criteria with the help of a Project Appraisal Committee that mainly focuses on novelty, feasibility, commercial potential, social impact, scalability and economic viability of ideas. The facility has been recognized by Department of Scientific & Industrial Research and at least 10 competitive grants have been bagged by its start-ups. ASPIRE BioNEST provides its facilities to start-up entrepreneurs at a minimal charge (License fee), to meet the operational expense of the facility. Revenues generated through operations & services are utilised for improving the facilities so as to cater the increasing needs of the start-ups. Some portion of the revenues are spent for student awareness programmes and workshops to encourage new ideas and translating them into technologies through Pre-Incubation programme.
LIST OF INCUBATEES at ASPIRE BioNEST of UoH
Currently Incubated
1 Mark Therapeutics Pvt. Ltd.
2 Algen Biotech Pvt. Ltd.
3 30M Genomics Pvt. Ltd
4 Provis Biolabs Pvt. Ltd.
5 Albus Ecoprojects Pvt. Ltd.
6 Avulas CEG Pvt. Ltd.
7 Bycus Therapeutics Pvt. Ltd.
8 Reagene Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
9 Vydya Biotech Pvt. Ltd.
10 Lazuline Biotech Pvt. Ltd.
11 UR Advance therapeutics
12 Green Eco Life sciences
13 Bionsys life sciences Pvt. Ltd.
14 Hexanoyl Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.
15 Onceoseek Bio Pvt. Ltd.
16 Convergent Bio Systems Pvt. Ltd.
17 YMC India Pvt. Ltd.
18 Vectrogen Biologicals Pvt. Ltd.
19 Grus Grade Pvt. Ltd.
20 Avyantra Health Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
21 Panaceja Biotherapeutics Pvt. Ltd.
22 Phosyn Fuels LLP
23 Dr. Usha Kumari
24 Mr Vydyanath Narsimha
25 Varient Genomics Pvt. Ltd.
26 Dr. Amitava Mazumder
Graduated
27 Innov Accel Health Care Pvt. Ltd.
28 Novick Bio Pvt. Ltd.
29 Sri Bioaesthetics Pvt. Ltd.
30 Sasyaved research labs LLP
31 Terra Scientfics Pvt. Ltd.
32 Vins Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd.
33 Therazymes India Pvt. Ltd
34 K J B Diagnostics
ASPIRE BioNEST equipped with the best in the class equipment where most of the Lifesciences research can be performed. The facility has culture rooms to handle Microbiology and Animal cell culture experiments, a BSL-2 lab to conduct research on pathogenic organisms. The common instrumentation facility is capable of handling complete upstream and downstream processing of biotechnological products. ASPIRE BioNEST also established a bioreactor facility in association with Scigenics Biotech Pvt. Ltd. ASPIRE BioNEST arranges interactive meetings with invited notable speakers and different subject matter experts to improve the domain specific knowledge, under the fond memory of Dr. Yellapragada Subbarao (Dr. YSR), great Indian Innovative Scientist. On this occasion ASPIRE felicitates the best publications that has innovative research component with Dr. YSR gold medal and a cash prize.
ASPIRE BioNEST has so far guided its incubatees successfully for at least 10 competitive grants like BIRAC BIG. Within one year of establishment, it stood in 6th place nationwide for any incubator (2018-19), surveyed by Biospectrum magazine. At least 10 patents have been filed by incubating start-ups, ASPIRE BioNEST has become BIRAC BIG Associate partner, has also received enhanced grant from BIRAC.
The award is the result of excellent scientific infrastructure, nurturing ecosystem, mentoring, support in grant proposals & business plan preparation etc. provided for the start-ups. The infrastructure attracts diverse range of deep-tech start-ups from different domains of life sciences and scientific net worth of the start-ups also helped in attaining the best position. On his remarks, the Vice Chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile, expressed his happiness and mentioned that this recognition is the result of collective efforts made by the team members of BioNEST, Dr. Sreedhara R. Voleti, (CEO), Dr. Anil Kondreddy (COO) and the mentors Prof. P. Reddanna, Dr. D. Yogeswara Rao, Prof. GS Prasad.
Prof. Podile, also added that this would have not been possible without the contribution from the incubating start- ups and generous funding support from the BIRAC. The incubator is currently headed by Prof. S. Rajagopal, who is also a full time Professor at School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad.
ASPIRE-BioNEST Management cum Advisory Committee
Prof. P. Reddanna, University of Hyderabad (Chairperson)
Dr. K.K. Narayanan, Kottaram Agrofoods
Dr. B. V. Ravikumar, XCyton Diagnostics
Dr. P. Ratnakar, Tech Mahindra
Prof. S. Rajagopal, University of Hyderabad
Dr. Murali Tummuru, Virchow Biotech
Prof. D. Yogeswara Rao, University of Hyderabad
Prof. G.S. Prasad, University of Hyderabad
