NEW DCU TECH COMPANY PROTECTS TATE BRITAIN'S MASTERPIECES – AND PROCESSED FOOD
Friday 8 July 2005

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, TD pictured here with Padraig Quinlan of Gas Sensor Solutions.

A new DCU company technology developed to test packaged food and other sealed goods is now also being used to help protect priceless paintings. This technology led to the development of a company as part of an investment agreement between DCU, Invent and Growcorp Group Limited (a Life and Bioscience investment company). The agreement with Growcorp is to help the University to commercialise technologies arising from the National Centre for Sensors.

It was revealed at the launch of DCU's €9m business “gateway” InVent today that the company, Gas Sensor Solutions, has signed up the Tate Britain Gallery in London – home of the UK's priceless Turner collection – as a customer for its unique product.

GSS is commercialising technology developed at DCU's National Centre for Sensor Research to test oxygen levels in sealed packs. The oxygen measurement product that Gas Sensor Solutions has developed is non-invasive which means that the oxygen concentration inside a sealed pack can be measured without breaking into the pack. Furthermore, the sensor is printable and a measurement can be made in less than a second, which means that the product can be integrated into a packaging production line and for the first time offer 100% QC of the packaging process, without slowing down that process.

The technology, protected by international protocols, has significant commercial potential in the processed food market, art conservation, insulated glass, limited play DVDs, water quality and medical devices, with projected sales targets of €20m over four years.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, TD, today launched DCU's InVent business centre as the ‘commercialisation gateway' for the university.

The Taoiseach also opened three Biotechnology Labs within InVent that will facilitate the development and commercialisation of research requiring “wet laboratory space”. carried out at DCU. The access to affordable and well-equipped laboratory facilities is vital for start-up biotech companies. Enterprise Ireland's Bio-incubation Programme which has funded the InVent Bio-labs is an important part of Enterprise Ireland's National Strategy to encourage the growth of indigenous biotech companies.

The establishment of InVent as DCU's “Commercialisation Gateway”, whose mission statement is “to transform knowledge into commercial success”, is a natural extension for a University committed to research, entrepreneurship and commercialisation of its research activities. InVent now has the responsibility for introducing new technologies to the marketplace and be industry's gateway to early stage technologies arising in the University Research Laboratories. InVent will accomplish this by:

1. Specialising in adding value to the outcomes of research at an early stage, fostering links between emerging technologies developed by university researchers and the financial and entrepreneurial resources of industry and business.
2. Licensing university innovation to established companies as well as initiating start-up companies as the commercialisation pathway for some technologies. InVent is also interested in working with commercial partners on spin-in activities, corporate venturing and intra-preneurship.
3. Sourcing emerging technologies from a diverse spectrum of disciplines, including Bio-Biomedical technology, Sensor technology, Informatics, Commercialisations technologies, Plasma technology.

This allows entrepreneurs, researchers and academics to transform academic research into successful commercial ventures.

There are currently 25 client companies employing 80 people at the facility on the DCU campus.

Gas Sensor Solutions (GSS) is the newest ‘tenant' and has just received substantial individual and venture capital funding.

Padraig Quinlan, Director of GSS, that this new company had no competitors. “Our company owns the Intellectual Property rights for this sensor know-how. Using a fluorescent scanner, we are now able to analyse and measure the oxygen concentration which causes decay and decomposition, whether it is behind the glass of an artistic masterpiece or within plastic food wrapping”.

“GSS has negotiated a deal with the Tate Britain Gallery in London. The gallery intends using sensor expertise to prevent the fading of its priceless collection”, he said.

Another possible spin-off of this technology is currently under trial in the US at the moment in the form of self-destruct DVDs. The concept is that once the DVD has been opened, oxygen in the air will cause the DVD to disintegrate. No more ‘overdue' fines – there will be no DVD to return.

In the case of the processed food, oxygen in the packaging accelerates degradation. The lower the oxygen concentration, the longer the shelf-life of the food. Food safety is a key international issue, and this technology will be used to meet compliance standards.

Speech by the Taoiseach at the formal launch of Invent as DCU's 'Commercialisation Gateway'.

For more information please go to: http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/0708/dcu.html

DCU Invent Centre has signed a deal with a British company, GSS, and Tate – Intv: Padraig McQuillan, GSS Director
08.07.2005 – RTE RADIO 1 – BUSINESS NEWS – 6.50PM. Click here to listen to interview