North West’s Build a Biotech winners expanded to four for 2025
14 Jun 2025
Build a Biotech, the competition founded by a student-created platform set up to link academics and industry in the North West, has announced an extra winner for this year’s event.
First place went to Gynomics, the female reproductive health startup led by Dora Mar?ec and Isaac Tam, who receive £15,000 in funding, mentorship and access to laboratory space.
Second placed Parsa Pirhady won £5,000 plus mentorship and lab space for her company OncoFlow, set up to develop a fast and affordable test to identify cancer patients who would benefit from immunotherapy and vaccines.
A third place award was also made to two entrants. Maribal Montufar’s Simplex Molecular DNA platform delivers lab-quality results in under 30 minutes for healthcare, agriculture and environmental monitoring.
Also winning was Adrián Pérez Barreto and Maria Andrea Castillo Bohorquez ‘s graphene-based patch for treatment of diabetic limb ulcers using electrostimulation to promote tissue regeneration, Revine.
Lead judge professor of biomolecular engineering at the University of Manchester Aline Miller said the quality of the 10 finalists had resulted in the planned three awards being increased to four.
“The quality and breadth of the entries shows the huge potential to grow a sustainable bioeconomy including the food, fuel, chemical, material and pharmaceutical sectors here in the UK,” she stated.
The awards organiser, professional networking body the North West Biotech Initiative (NWBI) was set up in 2014 by Manchester university PhD Catherine Castillo and University of Liverpool PhD Elsa Zekeng to encourage interaction between academia and businesses in the region.
Sponsorship and mentoring aid comes from sponsorship from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC), set up to nurture industrial biotechnology in the north-west of England.
