We had a meeting with Dr.Doherty, the Network Manager of IBCarb. We pitched our project idea in order to get funding from IB Carb. She was very impressed with our project proposal and agreed to fund our project, enabling us to attend the Giant Jamboree. We also received many useful feedbacks from her, which were later used to improve certain aspects of our project. She also suggested that bouncers and bartenders would have great use of the AlcoPatch to measure the level of intoxication of consumers. This would help avoid the bartenders from selling alcohol to individuals who are very intoxicated.

We had a discussion with the networking manager of NPRONET (funded network in biotechnology and bioenergy), Ms Sarah Shephard. She was very forth coming of our project but advised us on getting our lab work done sooner due to the proof of concept element to our project. She also highlighted the issue of the AlcoPatch becoming a game amongst young adults, an issue which has been brought up by other individuals we have spoken to - Alcohol Academy and ESOF

We had a meeting with Lynn Shepherd, the director of Manchester Enterprise Centre and Martin Henry, an Enterprise Academic Lecturer about our project. They intrigued us with their question on 'how our AlcoPatch (if the prototype is made) is going to be cheaper current breathalysers'. However, we could not give them an accurate estimate on the cost of our AlcoPatch as we are currently at the early stages of our proof of concept.

They suggested we investigate whether our AlcoPatch is just a novel idea or a recalibration of existing designs. They also mentioned that we should be cautious about making too much of our product’s science available to the public as it could have patenting issues, leading to our (meeting with Andrea Vero), an Intellectual Property Solicitor.

After this meeting , the question on cost led us to rethink our project idea. We had some interesting ideas, including using the mechanism behind AlcoPatch to detect other chemicals, such as glucose. This led us to conduct a pilot experiment on glucose. The new patch could be designed to be easily interchangeable during manufacture to measure different chemicals in the sweat. This would allow an array of patches, which measures different chemicals, to be created. This would reduce production costs and would be of interest to many companies and corporations.

We had a meeting with Prof. Alan Dickinson (Co-director of BioProNET) and Dr. Jo Flannelly (network manager of BioProNET). They were very pleased with our project but also gave us an array of feedback for us to think about. Importantly they mentioned that ABTS is a carcinogenic substance. Therefore, the cell free mechanism could have marketing issues. As such, if we were to make the actual prototype, we would look for suitable alternatives for ABTS that does not pose a risk to the consumers ( Our Safety Page).

We also discussed about the financial aspect of the patch; Will it be more cost effective than the breathalyser? This question was also brought up during the meeting with Lynn Shepherd, the director of Manchester Enterprise Centre . Additionally, they suggested seeing an Intellectual Property (IP) attorney in order to protect and patent our project. This was a new unexplored area of project that we had not thought about before the meeting. Therefore, we decided to contact an IP Attorney and get some more information about the legal process that could be involved with the production of our AlcoPatch. (Ward Hadaway and Venner Shipley)