Research & Innovation

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) graduate Vivienne Williams and co-founder of medical device manufacturer Cellix has won the Trinity Innovation Award.

Williams’ company originated from within TCD following a collaborative partnership between the Department of Physics and Clinical Medicine at the college with the company’s other co-founders Dmitry Kashanin and Igor Shvets.

Cellix Ltd has developed new technology mimicking human capillaries in plastic with microfluidic pumping solutions.

In a presentation today, the Trinity Innovation Award was presented to Williams.

Speaking after the ceremony,Trinity Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, congratulated Williams on developing the commercial potential of her research at TCD: “Vivienne is an excellent example of an entrepreneurial graduate. Her innovative career path acts as an inspiration to our students; by achieving excellence in research and exploiting its commercial potential, she now heads up a significant innovative company.”

Innovative biotechnology
Cellix Ltd counts leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Servier and Amgen, among its clients.

In the course of the collaborative project, the commercial potential of the ‘vein on a chip’ technology became apparent.

The TCD spin-out has since expanded and relocated to an industrial facility in the greater Dublin area. It has also further developed the technology, with the recent launch of the ExiGo precision microfluidic pump which has applications in microfluidics, nanofluidics, droplet generation and manipulation, thereby diversifying the product portfolio to include a new target customer base.