Press Release: 1.1M to develop robotic stem cell research

1.1m to develop robotic stem cell research

British Scientists will develop robotics to automate important stem cell research, meaning thousands of experiments will be able to be conducted at once, rather than just a handful being possible by a single scientist at work.

The Department of Trade and Industry is providing ?1.1 million for development of this technology to a consortium led by Plasticell Ltd, a London-based biotechnology company which is developing drugs to regenerate tissues of the body, to automate its Combicult research experiments.

Today's announcement coincides with first meeting of the UK/Medicon Valley ( a Danish/Swedish biotechnology cluster ) collaboration, which will focus on stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Academics and biotech companies will hold workshops and visit London, Edinburgh and Cambridge.

Minister for Science and Innovation, Malcolm Wicks, said:

"The UK is an acknowledged leader in this field and we want to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of stem cell research. That's why we're supporting the Plasticell consortium on this project, which provides a great opportunity to harness the UK's world-class expertise and use it to boost our economy and, potentially, our health.

"Stem cell research has tremendous potential to tackle some of the most devastating diseases. It could benefit patients with conditions such as Parkinson's disease, juvenile diabetes and heart disease."

The Plasticell consortium includes University College London ( UCL ) and the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control ( NIBSC ). The robotic equipment to be developed in the project will enable researchers to test the effects of thousands of different factors and combinations of factors ( such as growth, nutrients, hormones, or physical conditions ) on how stem cells differentiate, or how they give rise to tissue cells like lung, heart, brain cells which can be used clinically. Plasticell calls this technology Combinatorial Cell Culture( tm )

Dr Yen Choo, Plasticell's Chief Executive, said:

"At the moment, experiments are done on a trial and error basis and since cell culture work is cumbersome, a scientist can only handle a few experiments at any one time. However, with our technology a scientist could carry out 250,000 experiments in parallel in a couple of weeks. To do this many stem cell differentiation experiments in the conventional way would take that scientist a few lifetimes!"

"I am very pleased our consortium has secured this highly competitive funding from the DTI, which allows Plasticell to progress Combinatorial Cell Culture( tm ) in collaboration with world class partners at UCL and NIBSC."

Plasticell will automate its research product, CombiCult( tm ) using industry-standard robotic equipment housed in sterile enclosures where tissue culture can take place. This will increase productivity by enabling experiments to run 24/7 in a contaminant-free environment. In addition, Plasticell will licence the technique and allow the wider research community to benefit from this important technology.

Sir Aaron Klug, the Nobel laureate and a senior advisor to the company who is researching gene regulation, added: "This technology offers a powerful key to the goal of developing pathways for the controlled differentiation of stem cells. This is absolutely required in order to realise the potential of regenerative medicine. The DTI grant is not only a milestone for Plasticell, but also for the UK's effort in the field."

Notes to Editors

1. The purpose of the project is to automate Plasticell's Combinatorial Cell Culture( tm ) technology using process automation from UCL's stem cell bioprocessing unit and advanced imaging methods from NIBSC, the site of the UK Stem Cell Bank.

About Plasticell

Plasticell is a privately held, London-based biotechnology company using innovative, high throughput stem cell technologies and novel drug discovery platforms to dissect the mechanisms leading to differentiation of stem cells, the master cells responsible for tissue development and repair. Plasticell's research focus is to discover regenerative small molecule drugs. The company also forms industry alliances by partnering its Combinatorial Cell Culture( tm ) technology for high throughput stem cell differentiation, to derive cell lines and reagents for research and therapy applications. For more information please visit the company's website: http://www.plasticell.co.uk

About the Technology Programme

The Technology Programme provides funding using two of the DTI's business support products: Collaborative Research & Development and Knowledge Transfer Networks.

2. Over the period 2005-2008, ?370 million in grants is available to businesses to support research and development in technology areas identified by the Technology Strategy Board.

1. The programme is investing directly in new and emerging technologies and has been designed to help businesses work collaboratively with each other or with academic partners to develop technologies that will underpin products and services of the future.

2. The Technology Programme has allocated over ?430m to Collaborative R&D competitions, awarding grants ranging from ?30,000 to ?11 million. Around 600 projects have been funded across 40 technology areas worth about ?900m. 22 Knowledge Transfer Networks have also been established with funding of around ?40m over 3 years. For further information: http://www.dti.gov.uk/innovation/technologystrategy