Dr Emmeline Hill, a leading genomics researcher in the UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine and co-founder of Equinome, has been shortlisted as one of three finalists in the 2011 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards.
The winner of the award will be announced on Thursday, 20 January 2011. The Awards, whose judging panel is chaired by businessman Alfie Kane and also features Dr Chris Horn, carries a prize package of more than €100,000.
Equinome, a University College Dublin spin-out company headquartered at NovaUCD, was established in 2009 to assist the bloodstock industry to maximise the genetic potential of Thoroughbred horses. In this multi-billion euro industry, Ireland has earned a reputation as a global leader through its consistent production of world champion horses.
Traditionally Thoroughbreds have been selected using only a mix of visual assessment combined with historical bloodline data to infer their likely genetic composition. However, research led by Dr Emmeline Hill at UCD in 2009 resulted in the world’s first successful identification of a performance-related gene in Thoroughbred horses. This gene was found to predict sprinting ability and stamina potential, which can immediately identify a Thoroughbred as a potential sprinter, middle-distance or long-distance horse. Following this breakthrough, Equinome was co-founded by Dr Hill and Jim Bolger, the well known Irish horse breeder and trainer, and the Equinome Speed Gene Test was commercially launched last January.
The company has already secured major clients in Australia, France, Ireland, UK, Singapore, New Zealand, South Africa and USA and with new products scheduled for 2011 and 2012, Equinome’s vision is to become the global industry standard for the provision of genetic information to the Thoroughbred horse industry.
The other two finalists are Anne Bedos who founded Rothar, a bike shop with a social focus in 2008 and Angel Luis Gonzalez who in 2010 staged PhotoIreland, Ireland’s first international festival of photography and visual culture.
The David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards was established in 2003 and nurtures the enterprising spirit in Business, the Arts and in the Social community. The overall winner of this unique award will receive mentoring and business advice valued at €100,000 in addition to a financial grant of €10,000. The other two finalists will each receive €1,000.
The €100,000 in mentoring is provided by leading experts in finance, law, accountancy, management consultancy, payroll and accounts software, corporate and brand identity and public relations. Membership of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce is also included.
ENDS
17 January 2011
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 (0)1 716 3712.
Editor’s Notes
Equinome, the Irish biotech company, was established in 2009 as a result of groundbreaking research led by company co-founder, Dr Emmeline Hill in partnership with racehorse trainer Mr Jim Bolger. Equinome’s ongoing research and development activities continue to support collaborations between world-class science and elite racehorse breeding and training. Equinome, headquartered in NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at UCD, has also established facilities at the UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine and at Jim Bolger’s training yard in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. Through this research Equinome is continuing to drive the cutting-edge of equine performance genomics.
Dr Emmeline Hill hails from a family synonymous with horse racing and breeding in Ireland. Her grandmother, Charmian Hill, was the owner of Dawn Run, the only racehorse to have completed the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle (1984) and Gold Cup (1986) double. Dr Hill joined UCD in 2002 as a post-doctoral researcher. In 2004 she became a UCD Principal Investigator when she was awarded a Science Foundation Ireland President of Ireland Young Researcher Award. Dr Hill maintains strong industry links with horse breeding and training operations in Ireland and internationally and is a member of the International Horse Genome Mapping Group and the International Horse Genome Sequencing Consortium.
Dr Hill was the recipient of the 2010 IMAGE Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She graduated in 1995 with a BA (Genetics) from Trinity College Dublin and a PhD in Molecular Genetics in 2000.
The David Manley Awards was established in 2003 by a group of David Manley’s friends in the Dublin Chamber of Commerce to honour his contribution to, encouragement and mentoring of SMEs during his short life time. David had been President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce in 2000. The Friends of David Manley Committee features high profile Irish business people including Clive Brownlee, Frank Flannery, Alfie Kane, John McGuire, David Pierce and Peter Webster.
Previous winners of the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award to date are Fred Hanna, Founder of SwifTXT (2003), Simon Factor of Moving Media (2004), Francis McKeagney, Innerworkings (2005), Emergent Events (2006), EirGen Pharma (2007), Camara (2008) and RendezVu, a NovaUCD client company, (2009).
The Award sponsors who supply mentoring and consultancy services worth over €100,000 include Mason, Hayes and Curran, Thesaurus Software, Image Now, Islandbridge, Newmarket Consulting, Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Newmarket Partnership, Karan Thompson Consulting Ltd., Business & Finance, Pigsback.com and gbc Public Relations.
NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is the hub of knowledge transfer activities at University College Dublin. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with industry and business. NovaUCD as a purpose-built centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises such as Equinome. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.