Oil marble technology licensing

MarbleMat s.r.o., founded by Ing. Ondřej Rychecký from the Chobotix group at UCT Prague’s Department of Chemical Engineering, signed a license agreement and patent transfer agreement with the University in October 2022. “With this step, our University fulfils its goals in supporting the transfer of knowledge created at UCT Prague into real-world application, and we will also gain experience for other cases of technology commercialization in the form of the establishment of spin-off companies,” says UCT Prague Rector Pavel Matějka.

The technology underpinning MarbleMat’s commercial activity consists in the encapsulation of liquid oil droplets (“oil marbles”) for use in the pharmaceutical and food industries. The device for preparing oil marbles was developed as part of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic’s Zéta project in cooperation with VUTS in Liberec. “A large part of the active substances on the market approved for pharmaceutical use are poorly soluble in water, which leads to low bioavailability. Our technology focuses on these compounds and improves their properties,” explains the creator of the technology, Ondřej Rychecký, a member of Professor František Štěpánek’s research group at UCT Prague who completed his doctoral studies at the Pharmaceutical Applied Research Centre (PARC). “Among the greatest advantages are a more than two-fold increase in the bioavailability of active substances and the possible use of liquid oil marbles as a suitable form for personalized medicine delivery. An example can be filling hard gelatine capsules with oil marbles, with each marble containing a different active compound,” he adds.

During the short period of its existence, MarbleMat has secured funding from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic for the Gama2 project, and it was ranked among the top 20 start-ups in the EIT Health InnoStars Award 2022 competition.