Sample 2-Page Questions
Please note: The questions used below for previous years' competitions have been revised and changed. The questions used in the sample below are the actual questions asked for the 2008 competition entry submission.
2008
Glycura: A Catalyst for a Cure
Advisor: Venky Venkatachalam
Team: Anna Boisvert, Lancen LaChance, Gregory Richardson, Sebastian Titz
1. What is your product? - Glycura is an analytical instrument supported with software that will bring greater understanding and personalized medicine for cancer patients specifically, but infectious diseases in general. The application helps to identify and categorize variations in malignancy by a determination of the carbohydrate sequences found on glycoproteins. These sequences are fingerprints of disease state. Furthermore, the technology can be used in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry to evaluate the consistency of drugs during production.
2. What is the underlying technology? - The software within Glycura automates the analysis of glycoproteins. The technology is based on the recognition of ion patterns in the mass spectrum of carbohydrates that are linked to proteins, that is, glycoproteins. The carbohydrate sequence is obtained using a sequential mass spectrometer enhanced with this custom software, which strengthens the analysis of glycoproteins leading to more sophisticated and effective research. Ultimately, the recognized data are analyzed to determine the structure of these glycoproteins.
3. Is your product unique? - The glycoprotein analytical process is generally slow, requires vast human interaction, and is not well-understood. As a result, there are no products, currently, that have the capability to fully address the structural complexity of glycoproteins. Glycura automates glycoprotein analysis by applying the software’s custom algorithm. This combined product is a result of over 30 years of glycoprotein research, and it allows for efficient and precise analysis of the molecular glycoprotein structure.
4. Is your product innovative? - The field of glycomics is innovative in itself. A comprehensive analysis of proteins can be more complex than that of DNA, and the research in this field is in the incipient stage. However, Glycura’s automated glycoprotein structure determination greatly increases the speed and accuracy with which glycoproteins are analyzed, resulting in more rapid developments in cancer treatment, infectious diseases, and more.
5. Who is the initial market or customer group? - The initial market is cancer diagnosis and treatment. The initial customer is pharmaceutical companies including their cooperative researchers and strategic partners.
6. What needs of your customers does your product address? - Cancer, one of the deadly diseases of the modern age, presents significant challenges to the medical community. Glycoprotein analysis will be used for biomarker identification associated with cancer. This will lead to more accurate diagnosis, effective and personalized treatment, and perhaps, a repertoire of cancer vaccines.
7. Provide some indication of the general size of the market? - The world market for cancer therapeutics alone is estimated to be $40 billion per year and rapidly growing. By 2010, the global cancer market is expected to generate more than $60 billion in sales with 30% coming from new drugs.
8. How do you anticipate developing IP protection for your technology? - The University of New Hampshire has filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent addresses a system and methodology for the sequencing of glycoproteins, including the software tools that form the core of our product.