With a growing number of MedTech companies being established in the field of innovative and revolutionary medical devices, Brisbane is quickly becoming a hub for medical engineers. WearOptimo was proud to celebrate the high calibre of Brisbane’s biomedical engineering community by hosting an Engineers Australia event at its headquarters on Tuesday 21st May.

Titled ‘Brisbane – A Biomedical Engineering Hub,’ this highly successful networking event showcased two of Brisbane’s talented and pioneering engineers who are changing medicine for the better through innovation. Speeches were given by Samuel Baker, Business Development Manager and Educator for Ottobock and Professor Mark Kendall, founder and CEO of WearOptimo.

Samuel Baker spoke of his experiences in Ottobock, a global MedTech company in the field of prosthetics, orthotics and mobility and his career transition from academia to industry. The audience heard about the variety of unique settings in which Samuel has worked including hospitals, laboratories and even the Commonwealth and Invictus Games.

Prof Kendall summarised his 20-year experience in the field of medical device research and commercialisation, referencing the many successful companies he has been involved with in his career. These have included PowderJect and PowderMed – companies founded to develop biolistics technology for vaccine delivery. With acquisitions by Chiron (PowderJect in 2003) and Pfizer (PowderMed in 2006), these companies remain Oxford University’s most successful spinouts. On moving back to Brisbane to take up a position as Professor of Biomedical Engineering at UQ, Mark invented the Nanopatch for vaccine delivery and founded the company Vaxxas in 2011 to drive forward its commercialisation.

In 2018, Mark joined the Australian National University as the Vice-Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Fellow and founded WearOptimo, where he now serves as CEO.