Tapping into the needs of a modern society is helping these companies get ahead and find their place.

KEENAN

In 2003, Carlow-based Keenan System, which specialises in nutrition systems and machinery for the livestock industry, set up a science advisory board made up of internationally respected scientists in agriculture.

The objective was to identify the kind of knowledge needed to compete in a massively changing business environment for farming, food production and agri-business generally.

The board identified the emergence of a multi-function agriculture, requiring the industry to simultaneously meet multiple challenges, such as environment, animal welfare, consistent quality food production and increased global competition while also achieving profitability.

The result was the recently launched Keenan Animal Nutrition System - the product of a three-year, €8 million investment in technology, engineering and animal nutrition.

As well as claiming a 20 per cent improvement in feed conversion efficiency for farmers and annual improvement in farming margins of more than €20,000 for a herd of 100 animals, the company says it can have a positive impact on the environment in Ireland.

Agriculture is the second highest contributor to Ireland's CO2 emissions, with ruminant livestock producing methane emissions of nine million tonnes of CO2 equivalents on a yearly basis.

The new Keenan system can help reduce Ireland's carbon footprint by lowering the country's methane emissions by 20 per cent - or the equivalent of taking 425,000 cars, around 25 per cent of Ireland's cars off the road for a year.

Keenan System was established in 1979 and is a European market leader in nutrition systems and machinery for the livestock industry.

The company currently employs 170 people at its facility in Borris, Co Carlow, and a further 80 in export markets. The company has an annual turnover of €50 million.

"The investment programme has allowed us to transform the company and our role in the food chain," says Gerard Keenan, chairman of Keenan System.

"It has also allowed us to build on our intellectual capital by establishing our Science Advisory Board to develop the nutrition system which, it must be emphasised, can play a part in seeing Ireland's CO2 emissions lowered by the equivalent of 425,000 cars off Irish roads.

"We want to help the farming community to increase their bottom line and this system will do just that, with a 20 per cent better conversion of feeds into milk and meat."

CELLIX

Cellix, which was formed as a spin-out from research completed in Trinity College, has developed and produced disposable biochips capable of mimicking human capillaries.

Its products combine advanced research in the areas of microfluidics and nanotechnology and are used in the areas of drug discovery, diagnostics and medical research.

"The key thing about our platform is that everything is done under flow which would try to mimic what is happening in the human body, in the sense that blood is being constantly pumped around the body, but most of the drug discovery that is done in research at the moment is static," explains chief executive Vivienne Williams.

By mimicking what is happening in the body, Cellix's product is much more representative of what is happening in vivo - which refers to experimentation done in or on the living tissue of a whole, living organism.

"Really you're looking at efficacy of these different drugs and whether they are actually going to work in vivo under conditions of flow," says Williams.

Cellix Limited recently announced the completion of an €800,000 investment round.

NCB Ventures, the venture capital arm of NCB Group, led the investment. Co-investors were OTC, a French Venture Capital fund, and Enterprise Ireland.

The seed capital raised will be used to finance the company's continued R&D and expansion into international markets.

Customers already include the likes of Astrazeneca, Amgen and the National Institute of Health in the US, while the company is also speaking with a number of the other top 10 global pharma companies.

"When large multinationals and the top 10 pharma companies are on your data base that is a good start," says Williams.

CROSPON

Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or Gerd as it is commonly known in the medical world, is a disorder reaching epidemic proportions worldwide, affecting 5-7 per cent of the population daily.

A new Irish medical devices company is in the final stages of commercialisation of an innovative device which can aid diagnosis of the chronic condition in which food or liquid travels backwards from the stomach to the oesophagus, causing irritation to the oesophagus, heartburn and other symptoms.

Galway-based Crospon recently secured €2.3 million in seed funding to enable it to further develop its flagship product EndoFlip, which employs a Functional Lumen Imaging Probe (Flip) technique that offers a novel approach for directly assessing the competence or strength of the lower gastro-oesophageal spinchter, a muscle between the stomach and oesophagus, which, if it starts to malfunction, leads to reflux.

Up until now a lot of treatments tend to diagnose the symptoms rather than the cause. "We really feel it will help change the way that Gerd surgery is managed and Gerd is diagnosed," says John O'Dea, chief executive of Crospon.

Essentially, the company uses multi-electrode sensing technology in a standard endoscope which can measure the performance of the lower gastro-oesophageal spinchter.

"For the first time you're going to have a technique to allow you to measure that sphincter accurately and that has never been possible before," says O'Dea.

"It is quite unique and the clinical feedback we've got has been extremely positive."

O'Dea says the product will be launched at the end of next year.

The EndoFlip system is the first of a range of products the company plans to bring to market. In its research pipeline, the company has an active research programme in applying its multi-electrode sensing technology to non-invasively and continuously monitor blood glucose levels in patients with Type 1 diabetes.

AQUANU

The outbreak of cryptosporidium in the Galway region that forced thousands of people to boil water in their homes has put the spotlight on the necessity of clean drinking water.

A new, groundbreaking development in water filtration, developed by Irish-based Aqua-Nu Filtration Systems Ltd, could dramatically increase the availability of safe, clean drinking water in both the developed and developing world.

Its patented Puritycap filtration device attaches to the top of most plastic drink bottles and allows high-quality, filtered water to be consumed repeatedly from a bottle.

And there's an environmental benefit, says Cormac Kelly of CMKC Group Ventures and the commercial director of Aqua-Nu Filtration Systems. The device could also remove tens of millions of plastic bottles from Ireland and the UK alone, as it can be used by consumers in their everyday lives as an alternative to buying individual plastic bottles of water.

The technology can also be applied to household taps and other drinking water systems. The development is a collaboration between Irish and UK scientists, and it has the ability to remove and kill 100 per cent of cryptosporidium, giardia, E.coli bacteria as well as removing other potential contaminants such as synthetic oestrogens, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and chlorine found in tap water.

The company is currently in discussions with Enterprise Ireland in relation to future collaboration and technology transfer advice along with possible funding. It is also in discussions with various international corporations who are potentially interested in bringing the technology to market.