A consortium of three Ayrshire companies has secured financing to start work on a project aimed at providing an alternative to animal-testing.
A consortium of three Ayrshire companies has secured financing to start work on a project aimed at providing an alternative to animal-testing.
Avanticell Science, an established biotech company located in Auchincruive and a specialist in cell biology and cell culture, will lead the consortium.
Avanticell will work with Ayr-based Giltech, a firm that specialises in biomaterials, biodegradables and controlled delivery, and Culzean Medical Devices. Culzean designs and manufactures implantable medical products at its Prestwick clean room site.
The £1m project is financed by the Technology Strategy Board, a public body set up by the UK government to promote technological innovation, and Scottish Enterprise, the main economic development agency for Scotland.
Avanticell and its partners will join forces to create a new generation of three-dimensional cell-based tests, known as assays, to open the door to a new era in drug discovery.
Successful cell-based assays can identify new pharmaceuticals and evaluate their safety before testing in clinical trials. They play a big role in reducing the need for animal testing in the discovery of new drugs.
Current cell-based drug tests use conventional flat layers of cell cultures, which can have limitations. Success in this area relies on the behaviour of the living cells resembling their behaviour in the human body, and three-dimensional cell cultures are much more likely to achieve this.
Avanticell will combine its cell culture technology with Giltech's and Culzean's bio-engineering skills to put living cells into a three-dimensional format. The development of 3D cell-based assays will be a first for the British biotechnology sector.
Jo Oliver, Avanticell's chief executive, said: "The project will result in the next generation of cell-based assays, accelerating and reducing the cost of new drug development to treat life-threatening diseases such as cancer."
