Manchester enjoyed great success at the 7th Northwest Biomedical Awards Dinner held on the 3rd December at the Mere Golf and Country Club, Cheshire. Representatives from both UMIP and UMIC were delighted as spin-outs and projects from The University of Manchester scooped a selection of prizes ranging from £1000 to management strategy sessions with Pannone LLP.

The awards were presented as follows:

1. Biomedical Project of the Year – won by Dr Neil Gibbs and Prof Chris Griffiths for CURAPEL – the development of a novel treatment for inflammatory skin diseases, funded by UMIP's Proof of Principle Fund.

2. Promising BioMedical Technologist of the Year – won by Dr Goldspink from RENOVO – a University of Manchester spin-out located in UMIC's Core Technology Facility.

3. Biomedical start up of the year – won by CONFORMETRIX with PHAGENESIS as runner up. Both University of Manchester spin-outs. CONFORMETRIX, located in UMIC's Core Technology Facility, can rapidly determine highly accurate and biologically-relevant (aqueous) 3D and 4D structures of any small soluble molecule.

4. Healthcare Project of the Year – won by Manchester Central Healthcare Trust

5. Emerging Technology Project of the Year – won by Prof Geoff Parker, ISBE and the Wolfson Molecular Imaging centre, for his Oxygen MRI project (diagnosis of lung diseases). The project was funded by UMIP's Proof of Principle Fund.

6. Biomedical Company of the Year – won by DxS Diagnostics located at UMIC's Manchester Biocience Incubator.