级生物科学 is a spin-out from Durham University, created with support from Northern Accelerator, the four university partnership that is accelerating the commercialisation of 研究 in the North East’s universities. Prior to moving to og真人电子app, Magnitude were based within the University.
The contract 研究 organisation designs, implements 和 delivers reliable automated 研究 services for their customers as an alternative pre-clinical provider in the academic 和 pharmaceutical industry.
这个名字 级生物科学 mirrors their ambitions 和 belief that their technology will increase 研究 productivity by an order of magnitude. The technology is based on working with tiny worms called C. 线虫, a model that has been very successful in academic biology for many years. In fact, three Nobel prizes have been awarded to groups working with C. 线虫, proving it is an extremely powerful academic model.
The work of 级生物科学 increases the power of C. 线虫 研究. The company provides a quick way to test the effectiveness of compounds being 研究ed for treating degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s for example, which allows customers to make better decisions about which drugs to take forward, in addition to supporting funding applications to further their 研究.
Chief Executive Officer at 级生物科学 David Weinkove said: “It was always our intention to move to bigger premises in the future. The COVID 2020 lockdown accelerated those plans 和 we started to look for suitable premises that would allow us to continue our 研究. From first contact og真人电子app manager 珍妮特·托德 was a tremendous help, she facilitated our move making sure we found the right combination of office 和 laboratory space to suit our needs. og真人电子app地理位置优越, there are many like-minded businesses on the park – it really is an excellent base from which we hope to grow our business.”
珍妮特·托德, og真人电子app Manager added: “级生物科学 is a highly innovative company who have identified a growing area of 研究 和 development in the field of age-related conditions. We are delighted they chose to base their business within our science 和 technology community here at og真人电子app. The park is ideal for this type of University spin out company, where the group will be able to benefit from the facilities, support 和 networks as they move to the next stage of their development.”
级生物科学 also joins the growing list of young biotech companies that, thanks to the early support 和 guidance of Durham University’s Research Commercialisation Team, have gone on to successfully transition from Durham University to og真人电子app.
蒂姆·哈蒙德博士, Director of Commercialisation 和 Economic Development at Durham University, 和 Project Lead for Northern Accelerator, added: “It’s fantastic to have supported 级生物科学 from a seed of an idea in an innovative academic’s mind, through to the formation of a promising company, 和 now to see them ‘flying the nest’ 和 setting up their new base at og真人电子app.
“Through the Northern Accelerator Executives into Business programme, 组建了一支强大的管理团队, 和 now a growing team of people are employed in skilled jobs in another high potential biosciences company, 在这个地区.
“The university has a strong relationship with og真人电子app, to be strengthened further still with the launch of our University Enterprise Zone, “轨道”, next year – where we’ll see more SMEs working closely with our academic expertise. We’re confident Magnitude will continue to go from strength to strength in their new home – a journey to inspire an upcoming pipeline of academic entrepreneurs.”
Since moving to og真人电子app 级生物科学 has raised additional funding via the government’s Coronavirus Future Fund, which was matched by existing investors Saker Capital 和 North East Innovation Fund run by Northstar Ventures Capital to bring the total to £250,000.
The company plan to use this funding to take on more staff 和 scale up operations at og真人电子app.
