A Newcastle company which has developed an advanced system to protect embryos during IVF treatment has won a prestigious award for its innovation.
Vitro Safe Systems, based at Newcastle University, won the CELS Business for Life Innovation category for its interlinked incubator system designed to protect embryos from external conditions during IVF treatment. It picked up the award at a ceremony held at the Gateshead Hilton in November.
The Business for Life innovation award was sponsored by Newcastle Science City to highlight medical breakthroughs made in the North East over the past year.
In the category, four entrants from the original 17 were short-listed. They were ANTnano, Avecia Biologics, Vitro Safe Systems and FScan. FScan was highly commended by the judges for their pioneering technology platform which could be used to aid the early diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Dr Mary Herbert of Newcastle University has been leading the team that developed the Vitro Safe technology. She said: “The system is a series of interlinked incubator units which means embryos can be protected from all the external conditions which could harm their viability.”
As well as being used in IVF treatment, the Vitro Safe unit is suitable for producing stem cells for therapeutic purposes under controlled Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliant conditions.
Dr Herbert added: “Almost all cell-based therapies need to be carried out in clean-room conditions. Maintaining rooms at such high levels is very expensive, so the beauty of Vitro Safe is that it provides a self-contained clean-room environment with totally controlled conditions.
She said the new system offered a significant cost saving because the background laboratory does not have to meet the very stringent air quality standards of a conventional clean-room.
“It is also far more energy efficient than conventional clean-rooms and we hope the system will promote the development of affordable and environmentally friendly cell-based therapies,” she said.
Estelle Chatard, programme director at Newcastle Science City said she was impressed with the calibre of entrants working on diverse projects. She said: “Vitro Safe System’s entry was incredibly strong, but we were blown away by the quality of all the entries we received.
“As a whole, the North East’s biotechnology community is coming up with all sorts of new solutions to long standing problems and that is great news – not just for people whose health will benefit, but for the future economic prosperity of the region too.”
Newcastle Science City was set up by Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council and One North East to help the region realise the full economic potential of science-based industries.
Key to its remit is creating innovative high-growth businesses. It has developed the Newcastle Innovation Machine, a systematic method of identifying unmet needs, finding solutions to those needs and creating new firms to carry them forward.
The Business for Life Awards, which are now in their third year, is hosted by Cels, the organisation driving the growth of the healthcare and life sciences sector in North East England.
The short-listed candidates:
ANTnano
Sales and operations director at ANTnano, Eamonn Cooney, said the team was thrilled to be short-listed for its system that monitors the presence of airborne enzymes in manufacturing environments.
The air analyser ANTnano has developed is the first in the world to monitor airborne enzymes in near real time and to warn staff when levels reach a point that could trigger enzyme-induced occupational asthma and other health problems.
Mr Cooney said: “Occupational asthma caused by airborne dust and enzymes is a recognised risk, especially in the detergent and bakery industries.”
It is intended for use in factories where workers could be exposed to enzymes used in processes like detergent manufacture, bakeries, brewing, paper and pulp operations, tanneries and pharmaceutical companies.
For the first time this new technology will allow manufacturers to monitor enzymes in real time throughout the factory to safeguard the work force. Until now it has only been possible to measure enzyme presence using a technique requiring laboratory analysis which can take a long time and even then only gives a time averaged, historical result over several hours.
“It’s rewarding work in itself, but to be short-listed for a Business for Life award was very gratifying. It’s great to be part of a much wider biotech fraternity within the highly creative north east,” added Mr Cooney.
FScan
The small team at FScan are specialists in lanthanide chemistry and have developed a technology platform based on their expert understanding of the chemistry and detection methodologies. The technology platform holds a lot of potential, and the first application being developed and tested is for the rapid detection of prostate cancer.
Chief Executive Officer Kishor Mistry said FScan, a spin-out of Durham University, has developed a series of applications from the technology that can measure the concentration of the biological indicators such as citrate, lactate and urate in complex biological fluids.
He said: “There is a real unmet need for a more effective and accurate tool to diagnose prostate cancer, and we believe the first application we’ve developed could significantly benefit patients and clinicians with more precise diagnosis."
Kishor added that the prostate cancer application is about to start clinical trialling. Investment support from North East Finance and One North East has enabled FScan to get to this stage quickly.
“We’ve got all the ethical clearance and procedures in place to begin the initial clinical work starting now. FScan is actively looking for partners to accelerate the routes to market. It’s a very exciting time for us and hopefully the team’s hard work will be repaid with a proven technology that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people around the world. ”
Avecia Biologics
At their Billingham facilities on Teesside, Avecia’s breakthrough could drastically reduce the cost of artificially growing dermal stem cells used to treat patients requiring skin grafts. The 5-strong team developed a platform on which dermal stem cells can be grown in larger quantities.
Bo Kara, Head of Science & Technology at Avecia said: “Traditionally stem cells used for therapeutic treatments like skin grafts are incredibly difficult to produce and very costly to boot.
“We’ve been looking for a way to drastically reduce this cost which in time we hope will mean more people can be treated with the therapy.”
He added: “The platform we have developed is scalable so clinicians will be able to grow exactly the right amount of tissue they require. Furthermore the cells retain their characteristics, meaning their effectiveness during treatment is also expected to be very high.
“We were thrilled to be nominated for the Business for Life Innovation Award. There are lots of companies doing tremendous work in the biotech field and it’s an honour to be working alongside them,” he added.
