The Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises’ (ABLE)  5th edition of Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Student Team (BEST) event saw IIT Madras bag the top honours for the event.

The event held in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology was organsied in Bengaluru from October 9 to 13. 2013.   Successfully held for the past four years, this much awaited forum for young BE/B Tech postgraduate and doctoral life sciences students to realise their entrepreneurial dreams witnessed 149 teams vying for top honours with 20 of them travelling to the Biotech Capital of India, Bengaluru, according to ABLE.

Of the 20, five succeeded in bagging the three top spots. With their innovative glucose sensor the youngest team (average age of less than 22 years) from IIT Madras was declared the top team whereas the teams from IISc and Centre for Converging Technologies CCT, University of Rajasthan and Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Noida combo team were joint second. Stanford India BioDesign Center, AIIMS- New Delhi and ICT -Mumbai bagged the joint third.

The top five teams will attend ABLE's BioInvest Conference, arguably the largest and most prestigious life sciences investment forum and present their business plans to venture capitalists, private equity fund managers and other investors.

Dr P M Murali, president - ABLE said, “This was the essence of young Indian entrepreneurs’ innovative thinking. Some of us who were part of the jury felt absolutely thrilled to be associated with this programme. Ultimately, we are beginning to realise that Indian science is in the capable hands of these youngsters. We are thankful to the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology for their continued support and encouragement in conducting the BEST programme.”

After two and a half days of mentoring and interacting with company heads like Kiran Mazumdar- Shaw, CMD, Biocon Limited, Anand Anandkumar, managing director, CellWorks, Sohang Chatterjee, CEO, Theramyt Biologicals, Deepanwita Chattopadhaya, MD, IKP, over 90 students from 20 teams presented their case to a jury of six hardcore professionals on October 13. Each team had 20 minutes to prove the scientific and business merit of their idea or product.