Dani Bancroft, Author at Labiotech.eu

About

Former Editor, now flitting back and forth as a freelancer. Originally from London and studied Zoology at the University of Reading, UK. Previous work includes having written for The Spark University Newspaper and the Wellcome Trust.

Articles by Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 6 Oct 2015

Sony DADC re-purposing Blu-Ray Technology for Clinical Immunoassays

Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation (Sony DADC) BioSciences is a DVD and Blu-ray disc manufacturer headquartered in Salzburg (Austria). A new collaboration with FIONASTICS (an immunoassay specialist) means they will use their Blu-Ray tech to develop a new nanostructure platform for fluorescent immunoassays. These will be developed for use in detection of clinical biomarkers for […]

October 6, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 6 Oct 2015

An Insider’s experience at the iGEM Giant Boston Jamboree 2015

Last week, our Guest blogger Matthieu de Costa (LinkedIn here) attended the iGEM Giant Jamboree at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston (MA). As part of the IONIS iGEM Team from the Sup’Biotech Institute for Biotechnology in Paris (France), his team came back with a Gold medal for their Bio-console video game which aims to […]

October 6, 2015 - 4 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 5 Oct 2015

Medicine Nobel Prize for Parasite Drug Discoveries which saved Billions

The Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology has been jointly awarded to Youyou Tu (the first ever Chinese recipient of a Nobel Prize in this category) for discovering the malarial medicine Artemisinin, and to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura, for their pioneering work in developing a major parasitic round worm disease drug, Ivermectin. These […]

October 5, 2015 - 4 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 5 Oct 2015

iGEM 2015: Europe still dominates World’s Largest Synthetic Biology Contest

The iGEM 2015 results are out! The World’s largest synthetic biology competition (24th – 28th September) held in Boston (US) has yet again shown up a great European representation in the winning teams. Divided into 3 tiers (Post-graduate, Under-graduate and High-School) winners and their projects are listed below. Originally launched by Massachusetts Institute for Technology […]

October 5, 2015 - 4 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 5 Oct 2015

€31M goes to a 15-month old Start-up tackling the leading cause of Dwarfism

TherAchon is a 15-month old start-up from the Nice area (France) which has attracted some serious US investors as of late, drawn by their pioneering protein therapy for Achondroplasia (the leading cause of Dwarfism). OrbiMed have now joined New Enterprise Associates and Versant Ventures in a €31 million series A pot for their pre-clinical candidate. […]

October 5, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 2 Oct 2015

Algaemy Fashion: Use of microalgae by Berlin textile design Duo

Berlin-based designers have discovered the aesthetic appeal of manipulating microalgae to produce inks for textile printing. Inspired by work in the German biotech industry, the designer duo was recently subject of a Ted talk praising their creative efforts in founding Algaemy. After visiting the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology in Munich, Rasa Weber […]

October 2, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 2 Oct 2015

Merck relinquishes Rare Disease license to instead focus on Immuno-oncology

Merck has opted to return its Phenylketonuria (PKU) candidates Kuvan and Peg-Pal back to BioMarin from January 2016. Merck will instead focus on other R&D areas, and will receive €340M in compensation (5 times the annual sales of Kuvan) with €180M for future Peg-Pal milestones. This appears to support the back-peddling trend of major Biotechs […]

October 2, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 1 Oct 2015

Artificially Intelligent ‘Betsy’ will analyse 100,000 genomes for UK Government

The “Berg Interrogative Biology” program from Boston (US) is a form of artificial intelligence the UK government has employed to work its Genome project. The platform will use a combination of systems biology techniques to analyse up to 100,000 genomes sourced from England’s National Health Service (NHS) for Genomics England (owned by the UK Department […]

October 1, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 1 Oct 2015

Asceneuron’s latest stab at the Alzheimer’s challenge with Sofinnova

Paris based Sofinnova continues to invest in the Alzheimer’s fight, with a €27.5M pot given to Swiss Asceneuron (originally a spin-off from Merck-Serono). Sofinnova therefore joins other investors such as JJDC in the new and optimistic biotech wave of therapies for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). The last decade has been fairly […]

October 1, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 1 Oct 2015

Neil Woodford’s Latest €25M UK Biotech pay-out is to AMO Pharma

As we already well know, Neil Woodford is an Economist investor listed as one of the most influential figures in the European biotech industry. From London (UK), his private equity firm Woodford Patient Capital Trust is now planning to dish out €25M to AMO Pharma, to further their phase II pipeline therapies for CNS disorders such […]

October 1, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 30 Sep 2015

Apitope relocates to Wales after €12M series B financing round

Now, as we’ve recently discussed here at Labiotech, there doesn’t appear to be many Welsh biotechs…however, this is all about to change, with major Autoimmune disease focused Apitope relocating it’s HQ to Wales. This is following a €12M series B fundraiser led by the Wales Lifesciences Fund for its monoclonal antibody pipeline. Aptiope are currently […]

September 30, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 30 Sep 2015

Gecko’s Heart surgery glue the new Cover of Science’s Translational Medicine

Gecko Biomedical is a young Parisian biotech which is now featured on the front cover of the Science Journal for Translational Medicine. We explore their surgery adhesive tech inspired by natural stickiness of molluscan slugs, and their latest proof of its application in heart surgery. Gecko Biomedical was only founded in 2013 by a rockstar […]

September 30, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

Knowledge hub

Categories

Catalonia: A biotech hub going from strength to strength, with Barcelona at its core

Top biotech deals of February 2025

Approaches

Therapeutic areas

Grab your free report on 3D organoids and explore their future potential

These 7 biotechs are shaping the next generation of endometriosis care

R&D

BD

World biotech leaders

Connect with decision-makers and researchers worldwide for collaborative opportunities

Company

Join Us

Subscribe to our newsletter

Advertise with us

Catalonia: A biotech hub going from strength to strength, with Barcelona at its core

Top biotech deals of February 2025

Grab your free report on 3D organoids and explore their future potential

These 7 biotechs are shaping the next generation of endometriosis care

Connect with decision-makers and researchers worldwide for collaborative opportunities

Subscribe to our newsletter

Advertise with us

Dani Bancroft

About

Articles by Dani Bancroft

Sony DADC re-purposing Blu-Ray Technology for Clinical Immunoassays

An Insider’s experience at the iGEM Giant Boston Jamboree 2015

Medicine Nobel Prize for Parasite Drug Discoveries which saved Billions

iGEM 2015: Europe still dominates World’s Largest Synthetic Biology Contest

€31M goes to a 15-month old Start-up tackling the leading cause of Dwarfism

Algaemy Fashion: Use of microalgae by Berlin textile design Duo

Merck relinquishes Rare Disease license to instead focus on Immuno-oncology

Artificially Intelligent ‘Betsy’ will analyse 100,000 genomes for UK Government

Asceneuron’s latest stab at the Alzheimer’s challenge with Sofinnova

Neil Woodford’s Latest €25M UK Biotech pay-out is to AMO Pharma

Apitope relocates to Wales after €12M series B financing round

Gecko’s Heart surgery glue the new Cover of Science’s Translational Medicine

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest biotech news!

Catalonia: A biotech hub going from strength to strength, with Barcelona at its core

Top biotech deals of February 2025

Grab your free report on 3D organoids and explore their future potential

These 7 biotechs are shaping the next generation of endometriosis care

Connect with decision-makers and researchers worldwide for collaborative opportunities

Subscribe to our newsletter

Advertise with us

Catalonia: A biotech hub going from strength to strength, with Barcelona at its core

Top biotech deals of February 2025

Grab your free report on 3D organoids and explore their future potential

These 7 biotechs are shaping the next generation of endometriosis care

Connect with decision-makers and researchers worldwide for collaborative opportunities

Subscribe to our newsletter

Advertise with us

About

Articles by Dani Bancroft

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get the latest biotech news directly to your inbox!

Newsletter Signup - Footer

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest biotech news!