Guru sat down with Harland Brandon, Co-Founder & CEO at Allos Bioscience to talk about his motivations to start his own company, creating protein biosensors, the biotech landscape in Alberta and much more.

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Allos Biosciences creates protein based biosensors

Allos Biosciences creates custom biosensors for a range of small molecules and detects them in solution in real-time with high specificity and sensitivity. These biosensors are made of biodegradable proteins,so it makes them easy to produce and dispose of.

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What kind of companies use biosensors?

“The initial focus for our company is to sell a product of these biosensors as kits to either researchers in the field of carbohydrate research or to companies that have quality testing labs that are looking to measure different carbohydrates and solutions through their processing of their products.” -  Harland Brandon, CEO at Allos Bioscience.

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iGEM and it’s contribution to synthetic biology

iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation) is dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology. Harland gives us an insight into what happens at iGEM and how it is taking biotechnology to the next level.

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Biotech is booming in Alberta

The province of Alberta has historically been associated with oil and gas companies, but times are changing. Harland informs us that the incubators here have begun to let in more biotech companies and are noticing what they can offer even to the oil and gas industries.

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BioAlberta’s role in supporting the life-science community

BioAlberta plays a very important role by bringing people together from different sectors and helping to make connections between companies and people much easier. They also offer other valuable benefits such as organizing webinars, conferences and providing a little bit of funding which can be very useful for small startups.

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Advice to aspiring bioentrepreneurs

Harland tells aspiring bioentrepreneurs to educate themselves in the business and management fields while they are finishing up their graduate studies. This helps to familiarize them with the business terminology being used, market and fiscal analysis that can help them start their company faster and give them a competitive edge.