Inventia Lifescience are committed to continually placing APR.Intern’s into various multi-disciplinary projects to achieve revolutionary outcomes.
Former APR Intern, Juliette Harley
Inventia Life Science – specialists in 3D bioprinting technology for drug discovery and biomed research – has engaged eight PhD student interns through the APR.Intern program and found the student placements a key to innovation.
The short-term, results-driven nature of APR.Intern projects has allowed Inventia Life Science to collaborate with universities, nationally, and tap into high-end academic resources. The access to Australia’s brightest emerging research talent has also been a pathway for Inventia Life Science to identify, attract and retain high-level research talent, with seven full-time hires made following successful projects.
One former intern is Juliette Harley from The University of Sydney, who had the opportunity to assist with the development of 6 new biomaterial formulations, four of which had been successfully completed by the time her six-month internship finished. This included testing stability and compatibility and droplet ejection among other tests. By successfully finishing these formulations, customers now have access to hydrogels with a greater range of additives to better support different avenues of biological research.
Juliette was a recipient of the MTP Connect voucher and WiSE subsidy.
Juliette spent six months at Inventia in the biomaterial research and development team. Her project involved helping develop a variety of new advanced cell models that can be printed with our 3D bioprinting platform ‘RASTRUM’. These new biomaterials have unique physiological relevance and have expanded the application scenarios supported by the RASTRUM platform even further.
The development process ranged from product conception, initial testing and proof of concept, all the way through to productionisation and ensuring compatibility with all aspects of the platform. Juliette was a very active member of this team, bringing significant research skills from her experience in academia, as well as knowledge from her background in chemistry and biology. She contributed to and helped advise every stage of this development process.
Eleanor Parker, Senior Research Scientist, Biomaterials at Inventia Lifescience
Juliette found it extremely useful to be part of a research project which was achieving its goals and getting out to customers to be used in their own research. It was a great reminder that though projects inevitably face some challenges, the end result is worth it.
“I am very lucky to have an interdisciplinary background which was helpful for working in the biomaterials team. Biomaterials development at Inventia sits right in the middle of the venn diagram between chemistry, physics and biology which is not an easy task, but having an interdisciplinary background certainly helps.
I would highly recommend the APR intern program to others as I believe it is very valuable to test your skills in a different environment, being in a different research group/lab/team for a little while provides opportunities to learn from different people, gain different perspectives and approach situations from a different angle.”
Juliette Harley, Former Intern at Inventia Life Science
Juliette found it extremely useful to be part of a research project which was achieving its goals and getting out to customers to be used in their own research. It was a great reminder that though projects inevitably face some challenges, the end result is worth it.
