Kingston University innovation to tackle diabetes and global food waste receives backing to be commercialised

Kingston University is celebrating a major milestone towards commercialisation of its innovative diabetes and food management platform after a research team in the Department of Pharmacy was recommended by Innovate UK to work towards setting up a spin-out company. 

The recommendation follows a successful pitch led by Research Associate and entrepreneur lead at Kingston University Dr Maria Saeed, with support from Associate Professor and principal scientific advisor Dr Amr Elshaer and the Partnership and Business Engagement (PBE) Department, to a panel of industry and higher education experts as part of Innovate UK’s ICURe Explore Programme.

The team will now move onto the next stage of the highly competitive programme, ICURe Exploit, which is an intensive scheme that will see them receive 12-weeks of bespoke support to prepare for company formation and business growth for their technology. 

Kingston University’s innovative technology centres on a patent pending novel glucose-responsive platform capable of sensing glucoses levels and triggering a controlled, real-time response. Originally developed for next-generation diabetes management through injectable nanoparticles and microneedle-based systems, the technology offers a self-regulating, device-free approach to treatment.

While diabetes remains the long-term target market, participation in the ICURe Explore programme enabled the team to identify a faster and more accessible route to market through food packaging.

Through intensive customer discovery and stakeholder engagement, the team identified a significant unmet need across the food supply chain, with billions of pounds lost annually due to food waste – despite still being safe for consumption. This results in financial losses and contributes to global emissions and inefficiencies across the supply chain.

This new technology has the potential to enable real-time freshness indication alongside shelf-life enhancement, allowing stakeholders to make more informed decisions. Engagement with multiple UK and international food packaging companies has confirmed strong interest and commitment in the form of paid pilot trials recognising the potential of the technology to solve a real and pressing problem.

Dr Saeed said it was great to showcase Kingston University’s research at a national level. “The ICURe Explore programme was both exciting and demanding, providing valuable real-world insight into commercialisation and what it takes to develop as an entrepreneur. The journey was highly dynamic, while the market opportunity for our novel platform technology in diabetes management was validated as a strong long-term opportunity, engagement through the programme also revealed a faster-to-market opportunity in food packaging that had not been evident during earlier research stages. 

“I am now looking forward to progressing to ICURe Exploit to further refine the business model and advance towards commercialisation.”

Dr Elshaer said the ICURe programme had helped validate the team’s innovation. “The ICURe Explore programme helped us validate our innovation in real-world contexts and pivot our beachhead market towards more commercially viable opportunities. Being shortlisted for the ICURe Exploit programme reflects the strength of our commercial proposition and the progress made in translating our research towards market readiness.”

With progression to ICURe Exploit, the team is looking for further support from policymakers within UK supermarkets, the food retail and packaging sector to advance commercialisation through investor engagement and business model development.

This achievement highlights Kingston University’s growing strength in translating research into real-world impact, addressing global challenges such as food waste while continuing to advance innovative solutions for diabetes care.

• For further information please contact: Dr Maria Saeed, [email protected] or Dr Amr Elshaer, [email protected].
• The team involved included Dr Saeed, Dr Elshaer, Technology Transfer Officer Neeta Barot and Independent Business Advisor Nick Jones, along with support from Caroline Soliman in the Department of Pharmacy and Steph Adam in the PBE Department.