Breakthrough Pitches
Winners and Science Breakthroughs of the Year in the Emerging Talents Category
Searching for breakthrough inspiration? Browse through the people below to see the pitches that led past Falling Walls Lab finale participants to their win. From Christian Scharun's 2021 pitch on ‘Breaking the Wall of Greenhouse Gas Emissions‘ to Joseph Bedard’s 2023 pitch on ‘Breaking the Wall of Alternative Plastics‘, past Winners and Science Breakthroughs of the Year have spanned the disciplines and the globe!
Constadina Rogers: Breaking the Wall of Plastic Accumulation
Constadina Rogers is tackling the environmental issue of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste from food and beverage packaging. By fusing a bacterial PET-degrading protein with a fungal-derived protein through protein engineering, the project enhances plastic degradation capabilities. This cost-effective and environmentally friendly biological recycling process aims to optimize the efficiency of PET degradation, addressing plastic pollution effectively.
Pewee Kolubah: Breaking the Wall of Accessible Electricity
Pewee Kolubah is addressing global energy and water scarcity issues exacerbated by fossil fuel reliance and population growth. The solution involves bioelectrochemical technology integrated with 2D MXene. This technology harnesses microorganisms' metabolic pathways in wastewater to produce sustainable energy and treat wastewater. Pewee is focusing on designing 2D-MXene-based anodes and cathodes, integrating them into a bioelectrochemical for renewable energy production and simultaneous wastewater treatment
Netanel Loyfer: Breaking the Wall of Cell-free DNA
Netanel Loyfer aims to detect cell death in distant tissues non-invasively by analyzing DNA methylation patterns in circulating cell-free DNA. Using a reference atlas, the tissue origin and quantity of these fragments are identified. This approach helps build an epigenetics platform for precision medicine, enhancing diagnostics through a detailed map of methylation signatures and a deconvolution algorithm for blood sample analysis.
Joseph Bedard: Breaking the Wall of Alternative Plastics
Joseph Bedard is tackling the issue of plastic production's dependence on petrochemicals by developing polymers using nitrogen and phosphorus, abundant elements separate from fossil fuels. This innovative approach creates greener, functional materials, paving the way for a fossil fuel-free future in plastics manufacturing.
Yizhou Yu: Breaking the Wall of Dementia
Yizhou Yu addresses the lack of personalised treatments for Alzheimer’s disease by investigating genetic, cellular, and population-level aspects. He combined laboratory techniques and machine learning to identify a novel pathway, leading to the development of probiotic bacteria that delay neuron death in animal models, offering a potential solution for Alzheimer’s disease.
Emma Anne Karlsen: Breaking the Wall of Cancer Therapy Resistance
Emma-Anne Karlsen is researching ways to enhance the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) in cancer treatment, addressing the issue of low response rates (below 35%) in certain cancers, costing Australia an estimated $355 million annually for non-responders. Her solution involves repurposing prochlorperazine (PCZ), a low-cost hospital medication, to transform non-responders into responders.
Tamlyn Sasha Naidu: Breaking the Wall of Acid Mine Drainage
Tamlyn Sasha Naidu suggests using waste products from the refining and agricultural sectors to treat mining wastewater, resulting in a nutrient-rich sludge which can be used for hydroponic farming.
Emma Horn: Breaking the Wall of Tile Manufacturing
The conventional manufacture of ceramic tiles involves temperatures of around 1200°C for 1-5 hours. This equates to a large amount of CO2 emissions which is compounded for coal-powered countries. Emma Horn’s solution is bio-tiles using microbially induced CaCO3 precipitation. It involves a negligible energy input and is highly scalable by 3D printer. The waste aggregate and formation of nacre provide sustainable and aesthetic bio-tiles.
Ayushi Chauhan: Breaking the Wall of Tuberculosis
Ayushi Chauhan aims to create a new generation of portable devices for the rapid detection of point mutations responsible for DR-TB. The assay is accessible, scalable, and suitable for high burden TB countries.
Ana Montalban-Arques: Breaking the Wall of Ineffective Cancer Therapies
Ana Montalban-Arques’ novel therapeutic approach applies bacteria as a stand-alone therapy for colon cancer, a therapeutic approach that shows striking efficacy of bacteria as monotherapy.
Emmie Chiyindiko: Breaking the Wall of Darkness
Novel Catalytic Reactions: The world is not making adequate progress to meet SDG 7 to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” which is intertwined with economic and social development. Emmie Chiyindiko is working to provide affordable, abundant, and reliable clean power to build livelihoods, improve health outcomes, grow income and opportunity, and empower communities while tackling climate change.
Christian Scharun: Breaking the Wall of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Environmental Change: Christian Scharun investigates missing greenhouse gas emissions in datasets that contain reported data from the countries and is developing a method to adjust them with the aim of better understanding climate change.