MIME Funded Scholarship SPARK Program

This year MIME was approached to send two students, Chris Daly and Sepideh Motamed to attend the highly prestigious international SPARK Bioinnovation and Entrepreneurship Course hosted by Stanford University, which attracts students globally from many different universities. 

The SPARK program was started at Stanford as a partnership between university and industry with the purpose of providing education and mentorship to facilitate the advancement of research discoveries from the bench to the bedside. The program was initiated based on the experiences of two Stanford Professors, Daria Mochly-Rosen and Kevin Grimes, and a recent PhD student, Dr Leon Chen, regarding taking a novel therapy from the laboratory through the translational process. Since the inception of the SPARK program in 2007 the program has spread to more than 12 countries as a model of translational research. 

Dr Chris Daly has provided us with a brief synopsis relating to his experience. 

"The SPARK Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Course was an incredible experience that opened my eyes to the endless opportunities available to impact the lives of others through healthcare and translational research. I look forward to applying this knowledge during my PhD, throughout my career and also look forward to future collaborations with the international SPARK network. I highly recommend the SPARK program to all those interested in learning more about the process of translating research from the bench to the bedside and look forward to the realization of the potential of the MIME, Monash and Australia in research translation in the future".


MIME hopes to be able to send a further two students to attend the course in 2017.