11 October 2005

Students represent Sheffield in national competition

A team of students from the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield will be taking part in the final of a national competition to find the UK´s biotechnologists of the future. The students will have the chance of winning a team prize of £1,000 and making a scientific visit to the USA, funded by the Department of Trade and Industry.

To reach the final the team took part in `Bioscience YES – Yorkshire and Humber´, an innovative regional competition aimed at postgraduate and postdoctoral students, and sponsored by Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward.

Over the course of two days the students had to come up with an original idea for an imaginary biotechnology company and outline the steps they would take to make it a successful business. The Sheffield team, consisting of Dave Ball (26), Lucy Lee (25), Helen Court (24), Steve Pullan (24) and Sarah Cookson (25), developed plans to isolate a novel strain of bacteria in order to greatly increase the digestible protein content of animal feed.

Lucy Lee said: "Participating in `Bioscience YES´ was an amazing opportunity. We would definitely recommend the competition to other young scientists, it has opened our eyes to the biotechnology industry and also given us a lot of confidence in our own abilities. We can only hope we're as successful in the grand final as we were in York."

The students will travel to London in December to take part in the prestigious national final and compete against teams from around the UK for the grand prize.

Notes for Editors: `Bioscience YES – Yorkshire and Humber´ aims to raise participants´ awareness of the key financial, legal and commercial issues involved in the formation and success of a biotech venture. The regional competition took place between 14 and 16 September 2005.

For further information or for a photo of the team: Please contact Lindsey Bird, Media Relations Officer on 0114 222 5338 or email l.bird@sheffield.ac.uk

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