Thursday, August 18, 2011

UKTI picks three firms to send on UK business trips

By Rodney H. Brown

UK Trade & Investment, the Cambridge-based organization tasked with helping tech companies work with and in Britain, announced the winner of its new business competition “Go for Gold UK,” which is sending three companies to the UK to meet with a raft of people and businesses in their respective industries.

The winners are: Seven Bridges Genomics LLC in the Design category; PatientsLikeMe in the Service Provision category; and EverTrue in the Technology category. According to the head of UK Trade & Investment (New England), Kirsten Chambers, the contest was set up to not select individual companies from specific market sectors, such as biotech or nanotech, but to allow companies from all sectors to compete in a category that most closely described the work they do.

Seven Bridges Genomics has developed a platform designed to enable cost-effective DNA analysis for academic laboratories, health care, and industry groups who are unable to purchase and operate their own high-performance computing solutions. SBG, founded in 2009 by Deniz Kural, Douglas Colton, John Sheffield and Igor Bogićević, is funded by a group of angel investors.

PatientsLikeMe is the elder of the group, having been founded in 2004 by Benjamin Heywood. The company runs a series of social networks that connects patients with various chronic conditions, and in April published a study in the journal Nature Biotechnology arguing that lithium carbonate does not slow the progression of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

EverTrue LLC, founded in 2010, supports the development offices at fundraising organizations including colleges, foundations, hospitals and other non-profit organizations. The company – which already counts among its clients Brown University, Cornell University, Phillips Andover Academy and Middlesex School – was listed as a “Five you Should Follow” company in June of 2010.

Chambers cited Governor Deval Patrick’s recent trip to the UK as one of the inspirations for the competition, and for driving a record five UKTI trade delegations coming to Greater Boston since Patrick’s March trip — Ocean Technologies in June, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce coming in September, BioPharma also in September, Health in Aging in October and Homeland Security in November.

In total, 17 organizations made the shortlist, and all were invited to British Consul General Dr. Phil Budden Wednesday night where the three winner were announced. The 17 shortlisters were:

• Actualiti
• Arts for Alzheimers
• Beacon Health Strategies
• Computer Associates
• Current Choice
• Ever True
• Fenugreen
• Grasshopper
• Hagan & Co.
• Hearthstone Alzheimers Care
• Massachusetts Digital Games Institute
• Patients Like Me
• Peregrine Energy Group
• Seven Bridges Genomics
• Trustfort
• Wallwork Curry McKenna
• Zenesys