£400k awarded to accelerate commercialisation of 3Rs technology

We have awarded eight teams funding of up to £35k each to take part in a 12-week programme to explore the market for their 3Rs tools and technologies. The successful teams kick-started their commercialisation journey at the ICURe Explore bootcamp last month with sessions on identifying potential markets and understanding customer needs. Over the next three months the teams will engage with potential customers, regulators and supply chains and build networks among budding 3Rs entrepreneurs. 

"Commercialising my NC3Rs-funded research always seemed like the best route to achieve 3Rs impacts but this is an extremely daunting task for an academic. After the ICURe bootcamp, much of the angst has turned to excitement and I look forward to watching myself grow as an entrepreneur over the coming weeks to hopefully drive the MimicWell system towards measurable 3Rs outcomes through commercialisation."

Liam Carr, University of Edinburgh.

“I am beyond grateful to participate in ICURe Explore. I feel this programme has guided me through all of the steps needed to take my scientific idea to commercialisation from the very beginning, and has given me the confidence to make my idea a reality.”

Laura Nicastro, University of Cambridge.

BBSRC-NC3Rs ICURe Explore awards

Details of the eight projects:

SPARKS – Adding a new dimension to the monitoring of vital signs
Entrepreneurial lead: Miquel Serna Pascual, King’s College London 

SPARKS enhances vital sign assessment with visualisation and metrics to provide new insights into drug effects, validate baseline data and support preclinical study designs that use fewer animals.

BrainMix – For simple culture of advanced brain cell models 
Entrepreneurial lead: Chris Adams, Keele University 

BrainMix is an off-the-shelf frozen cell kit to generate in vitro models that reflect the multicellular nature of the brain, without the need for specialist resources, to replace some animal use in neurobiology.

Metazoa – Soft, skin-compliant bioelectronics for monitoring ECG in free-moving small rodents
Entrepreneurial lead: Liam Johnson, University of Manchester 

Metazoa aims to refine in vivo studies that involve collection of ECG, breathing and locomotion data by supporting non-invasive data collection without the need for surgical implantation.

In-species platform designed to replace experimental animals for developing immunotherapies (FAIM)
Entrepreneurial lead: Sky Tien Haeng Ng, University of Birmingham 

The FAIM platform aims to replace mice used in the identification and characterisation of antigen specific T-cell receptors in research to develop new immunotherapies and diagnostics for human and veterinary medicine. 

Living Heart Slice Platform
Entrepreneurial lead: Laura Nicastro, Imperial College London and University of Cambridge

The Living Heart Slice Platform supports the implementation and long-term culture of human cardiac tissue that can be used in the drug discovery pipeline to replace some animal models for functional drug testing, and cardiac disease modelling and toxicology studies.

HeteroGenesys – An R&D platform to accelerate the success of interventions for heterogenous cancers
Entrepreneurial lead: Kelsey Wosnitzka, University of Sheffield 

HetereoGenesys is a cell and tissue-based platform that aims to replace animal models of cancers and more effectively predict patient outcomes by capturing the spatial differences observed in difficult to treat tumours. 

Drug Distribution chip (DDChip) for democratising DMPK (drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics)
Entrepreneurial lead: Liam Carr, University of Edinburgh 

The DDChip, MimicWell, is a human cell-based microphysiological system that can be used to replace some early in vivo studies in the drug discovery pipeline and eliminate drug candidates that would not be safe or efficacious in humans.

MyoLoop – Realistic cardiac remodelling for drug discovery and disease modelling
Entrepreneurial lead: Barrett Downing, Imperial College London 

MyoLoop is a benchtop bioreactor that supports long-term experimentation on heart tissue samples to maximise the data obtained from animal tissue and facilitate the wider uptake of human tissue slice models in preclinical cardiac research.