Four University of Edinburgh staff and student companies have been announced as finalists in Scotland’s Life Sciences Awards 2026.
The awards celebrate the leading players in Scotland’s buoyant life sciences industry and recognise those who have contributed most to the sector in the last year.
Food technology spinout Roslin Technologies is a finalist in three categories: Business Leadership, Sustainability and the Innovation - Animal Health, Agritech, Aquaculture Award.
Spun out of the Roslin Institute in 2016, Roslin Technologies, headquartered at the Roslin Innovation Centre under CEO Ernst van Orsouw, provides animal cell lines to the global cultivated meat industry, without the need to raise animals.
In the Extraordinary Talent category is another Roslin Institute spinout Wobble Genomics, also based at the Roslin Innovation Centre, with its novel approach that overcomes challenges in RNA sequencing, enabling applications from drug development and research to agriculture and ecology.
Another finalist in the Innovation - Animal Health, Agritech, Aquaculture Award is recent spinout Cancan Diagnostics (main picture), led by Dr Maciej Parys of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, which has developed a new blood test that can monitor the progression of cancer in dogs.
And finally, in the Global Export Impact Award category, is student startup Touchlab, co-founded in 2018 by Zakareya Elmo Hussein from the School of Informatics and Laura Garcia Caberol from Edinburgh College of Art. Touchlab now has 15 employees and three patents in the field of tactile robotics.
Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service, helps protect and shape new ideas out of the University and supports students and staff to form companies.
And Old College Capital, the University’s in-house venture investment fund, invests in the most exciting ideas and technologies emerging from the University.
Lizzie Withington, Director of Venture Creation at Edinburgh Innovations, said:
There’s nothing we like more than to see companies we’ve supported being successful in the world, here in the field of life sciences; helping to shape the future of health and care, tackle the climate and environment crisis and harness data and AI for good.
Congratulations to Wobble, Roslin Technologies, CanCan and Touchlab and very best of luck for the awards night on March 12.”
Kate Fox, Head of Investment at Old College Capital, said:
Huge congratulations to the teams at our portfolio companies Roslin Technologies, Wobble Genomics and CanCan on being shortlisted for the 2026 Scotland’s Life Sciences Awards. It’s a privilege to back founders turning world-class science into real-world impact. ”
