Episode 107 -- Professor Mark Kendall from WearOptimo

@AuManufacturing Conversations

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Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

• Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here. It’s completely free to enter, and we’ll be celebrating the announcement of the 50 Most Innovative list and the award winners at a special breakfast event on May 7 at Crown Melbourne, during Australian Manufacturing Week.

In this episode we speak to Professor Mark Kendall, CEO and founder at WearOptimo, who became “an accidental biomedical engineer” 27 years ago and is now onto what he calls the third chapter of his career as a researcher/inventor/entrepreneur. He tells us about his company, which aims to reshape the healthcare industry by interpreting biosignals from the skin using microelectrodes.
Episode guide

1:13 – A 27-year career, from rockets to vaccine delivery to micro-wearables for personalised medicine. “My guiding purpose in all of this is using my skillsets… for making a difference in global healthcare.”

2:33 – Introducing WearOptimo and what it does.

3:40 – Leaving needle-free vaccine delivery company Vaxxas and heading to Harvard for a sabbatical, working alongside Moderna co-founder Bob Langer and others. Saw the opportunities in wearables “gaining access to signals” and providing better info than light-based approaches in smartwatches.

4:50 – A few differences between founding Vaxxas versus founding WearOptimo.

6:30 – “Instead of thousands of projections coated in vaccines it’s just a handful of much smaller micro-electrodes going even shallower into the skin that are just gently applied to the skin instead of at high speed.”

7:03 – Not being “a one-trick pony” as an inventor.

8:13 – Healthtech is “a much higher-tempo game” than biotech. Why starting WearOptimo as a university spinout would be too slow.

10:10 – How skin works, how the micro-wearables work, and why hydration monitoring was the right first application.

11:55 “The only wearable on the planet that genuinely monitors hydration… The unmet need is massive.” Plus some examples of where this is expected to come from.

13:49 – Nano-imprint lithography is the centrepiece production technology - a technique used in TV screens and optics at the company – as well as an example of the company’s “field-hopping”. Kendall considers this a leap forward in the field of microneedles.

16:50 – Why Brisbane is the right place to produce micro-wearables, and why the company changed their mind about offshore contractors.

19:30 – How they selected their first market – “we need to walk before we can run” – and why it’s elite sport.

21:45 – No need for regulatory approval for initial markets. Regulated markets will follow later.

23:30 – Some characteristics that define a truly innovative company, according to Kendall. These include novelty and non-incremental impact.

24:45 – Developing high-tech businesses: “It’s not a game for the faint-hearted.”

26:08 – An issue that isn’t getting enough attention: genuine advanced manufacturing positioned on the world stage. Plus why “me-too” manufacturing is to be avoided.

28:38 – WearOptimo’s approach to finding talent.