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8 February 2005
£3.7 million to develop 3-dimensional cell-based assays with
fluorescence lifetime detection technology
ITI Life Sciences, which has a minimum of £150 million from the Scottish government to invest in life sciences over ten years, today announces the launch of a new £3.7 million R&D programme focused on the development of cell-based, pharmaceutical screening technologies to address a significant bottleneck in the drug discovery and development process. The programme is driven by ITI Life Sciences Market and Technology analysis of the pharmaceutical market and its existing and future needs and aims to identify opportunities for commercialisation that can capitalise on Scotlands world-leading R&D expertise in this area, with the aim of stimulating the growth of its life sciences sector.
The three-year programme will take place in Scotland as a collaboration between Edinburgh Instruments Ltd, Hannah InterActions Ltd and CSS-Albachem Ltd. Initially, the programme is focused on developing instrumentation and novel cell-based screens for breast cancer, with plans to expand to other disease areas as the technology develops.
Edinburgh Instruments is globally recognised for the development and manufacture of high-tech fluorescence optoelectronics instrumentation including the advancement of fluorescence lifetime as an analytical tool. Hannah InterActions brings expertise in leading edge cell-based technologies specialising in cell function and its relevance to cancer and other disease states. CSS-Albachem has acknowledged expertise in the provision of complex and challenging peptides and proteins, using state of the art chemical and biological technologies.
In the ITI Life Sciences programme, the three participating companies will provide complementary expertise in order to develop and commercialise fluorescence lifetime cell-based assay products, including frozen 3-D cell systems ready for screening, unique fluorescence-linked reagents and state-of-the-art optics and detection instruments. This approach brings advances in sensitivity and discrimination by using fluorescence lifetime techniques pioneered in Scotland.
Cell-based screening is a key step in the drug discovery and development process where it is used to rapidly evaluate cellular mechanisms of disease as well as the effects of new drug candidates. This information is vital to pharmaceutical companies as it allows the selection of the most appropriate compounds to develop further.
Three-dimensional cell culture represents an ideal model providing a much closer representation of the physiological environment than existing biochemical and cell models.
Approximately half of all assays used in drug discovery screens are cell based; this represented a global market opportunity of US$750 million in 2004. ITI Life Sciences estimates this market will grow by 20% over the coming years and the use of fluorescence-detection methods is set to account for two thirds of the read-out systems for cell-based screening.
Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace said, 'Today's project announcement is highly significant, not only does it showcase an excellent collaborative project between three Scottish corporate partners, but it demonstrates real progress by ITI Life Sciences. Scotland is well placed to be globally significant in the development of the Life Sciences sector;, today's programme gives a clear indication of the impact we hope to make in a globally competitive market. Our ambition to deliver a Smart Successful Scotland will be realised through excellence in scientific innovation,; today sees this happening in a meaningful way.'
Dr John Chiplin, CEO of ITI Life Sciences, commented, I am delighted to make this announcement today, the first of a number of programmes we intend to initiate during the next few months. Over the past year, our team has been extremely thorough in identifying and evaluating emerging market opportunities in life sciences and the potential for Scotland to play a leading role in their development and commercialisation. This first ITI Life Sciences programme will combine the expertise of three Scottish life sciences companies in developing unique and integrated cell-based tools for accelerating the drug discovery and development process.
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