‘The mentoring available was a tremendous accelerator for my career’

Julien Reboud’s ambitious academic career combines multidisciplinary research, clinical translation and collaboration and strong commercial links. During his PhD in France, and post-doctoral research in Singapore, Julien has established a track-record in developing and integrating microfluidic systems for cell-based assays.

Julien secured a lectureship in the School of Engineering after his Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellowship. He used the fellowship to establish an independent research group and focus the translation of his research into clinical pathways to develop point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases.

During the fellowship, Julien also co-invented the acoustic technology which is being used to integrate diagnostic functions on low- cost, low-power devices. This led to the formation of the spin-out company, SAW Dx Ltd, which he co-founded, and for which he received the RAEng ERA Entrepreneurship Prize (2013). The company has since carried out a SMART Scotland feasibility award and received a £1M Biocatalyst award (2017) from Innovate UK that Julien took a lead in developing, along with new venture funding, to progress product development.

The fellowship opened doors for significant cross-disciplinary work within the University and Julien was able to access competitive funding for PhD students, leading to fruitful collaborations with colleagues from the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences.

Julien recognises the importance of the Fellowship programme which helped advance his academic career. ‘Mentoring, beyond the financial and practical resources made available in the Fellowship, was a tremendous accelerator for my career. This is a key relationship that enabled me to get advice on specific career decisions from someone with substantial experience, but also challenged me to go into areas that I wouldn’t have considered available or within reach. This is definitely a relationship that I will nurture moving forward.’

Find out more about Julien at http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/engineering/staff/julienreboud/

Research Area: Julien’s research interests are focused on integrating engineering and biology for the benefits of healthcare and industry. He is particularly interested in the acoustofluidics for the manipulation of samples, with an emphasis on diagnostic applications, at the point-of-care.

First published: 22 February 2017

<< Fellowship Case Studies