Project Update — Neo-Bionica, St Vincent’s Hospital

We are honoured to have built Australia’s first medical device development and manufacturing lab, Neo-Bionica.

A joint venture between the Bionics Institute and the University of Melbourne, the lab is situated within St Vincent’s Hospital and is set to fast track treatments for people with diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s, hearing loss and stroke.

Alchemy Engineer, Shabab Salahuddin said – “It has been an incredible project to work on. It has involved the construction of a Class 7 Cleanroom facility, with cutting edge technology, robotic equipment, enhanced 3D printing facilities and precision engineering tools critical to develop prototypes.”

Alchemy Director, Jamie Nicolson added – “ It has been an honour to build this lab knowing that it will bring together Australia’s leading minds to build medical devices right here in Australia.”

Bionics Institute CEO, Robert Klupacs said – “Our Institute is renowned worldwide for developing life-changing devices such as the chochlear implant, Mindear™.

The opening of Neo-Bionica in July 2021 will completely change how we translate Australian innovation, enabling home-grown inventions to be manufactured rapidly. We estimate Neo-Bionica will enable the translation from research to clinic of at least 20-30 new medical devices over the next 10 years.