London, 2nd May 2018
The UCL Technology Fund (UCLTF), UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), alongside support from Innovate UK, have invested in UCL spinout company Glialign Ltd, a company that is developing a novel cell therapy for peripheral nerve repair.
Hundreds of thousands of people every year are affected by severe peripheral nerve damage, resulting in paralysis and loss of sensation, often accompanied by chronic pain. Current therapies are successful in fewer than half of cases and often require grafting of a nerve from another part of the body.
Dr James Phillips, UCL School of Pharmacy, and his team at the UCL Centre for Nerve Engineering, have developed an allogeneic (‘off-the-shelf’) cell therapy for the repair of peripheral nerve injury called Engineered Neural Tissue (‘EngNT’). EngNT will provide a living nerve-growth guide that mimics nerve structure, and has the potential to enable both neural regeneration and functional recovery.
Dr Phillips explains that: “By controlling the natural ability of cells to organise themselves within soft materials we are able to generate living artificial tissues that can be used to support and guide nerve regeneration. Glialign uses EngNT made with cells developed in collaboration with ReNeuron that are suitable as an off-the-shelf therapy for the immediate treatment of patients with nerve injuries. This overcomes the limitations of nerve grafting where healthy nerves need to be destroyed, and also reduces the delay and variability that would be associated with using a patient’s own stem cells.”
Glialign CEO, John Sinden commented:“A key translational milestone was achieved following the completion of a collaborative grant with ReNeuron and TAP Biosystems (now Sartorious Stedim Biotech), bringing together EngNT technology with clinically validated neural stem cells from ReNeuron and manufacturing technologies from TAP. Early validation of this technology combination has recently been published. The award of an Innovate UK Investment Accelerator grant will demonstrate the clinical potential of EngNT and its commercial viability.”
UCLTF’s unique Proof of Concept funding model has supported key product development steps, with the additional funding from UKI2S and from Innovate UK, as part of its ‘Investment Accelerator Pilot’, enabling crucial in vivo experiments to demonstrate the efficacy of the improved construct. Success on these studies will be a key step towards bringing this innovative cell therapy to the clinic.
UKI2S Investment Director Oliver Sexton commented: “Glialign’s technology addresses a major unmet patient need and may help patients with peripheral nerve damage recover. UKI2S’ investment and Innovate UK’s support allows GliAlign to de-risk the technology, gathering data to support product approval and hastening its availability.”
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Notes to editor
UCL Technology Fund
The UCL Technology Fund is dedicated to investing in intellectual property commercialisation opportunities arising from UCL’s world-class research base, focusing in particular on the physical and life sciences. The Fund supports UCL in achieving the full potential of innovations that have prospects for outstanding societal and market impact, right through the development journey from initial proof of concept to practical commercial application.
The Fund is managed by Albion Capital, one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK, in collaboration with UCL Business PLC. For further information please visit: www.ucltf.co.uk
UCL Business PLC
UCL Business PLC (UCLB), part of UCL Innovation and Enterprise, is a leading technology commercialisation company that supports research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK’s top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics. UCLB has a strong track record in commercialising medical technologies and provides technology transfer services to UCL’s associated hospitals; University College London Hospitals, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Free London Hospital. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from laboratory to market.
www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise/
About UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S)
Since the Fund’s inception in 2002, UKI2S has been investing in the earliest and riskiest stages to build world-leading companies from world-leading UK science. As a leading ‘patient capital’ investor with more than £330 million private investment leveraged to date, UKI2S invests in promising technology companies that stem out of the UK’s engineering and high-quality science research. UKI2S works closely with its partners — led STFC, BBSRC and NERC, which are all part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and Dstl — and is aligned with the Catapults and Innovate UK to create the best environment for innovation to flourish and in turn, boost the UK’s competitiveness and productivity by commercialising key technological advances in industrial biotech, ag tech, healthcare, medicine, clean energy, materials, artificial intelligence, software and space.
UKI2S’s portfolio showcases a number of ‘world’s firsts’ ambitions and includes two companies named by the World Economic Forum as ‘Technology Pioneers.’ For more information, please visit www.ukinnovationscienceseedfund.co.uk.UKI2S’s portfolio showcases a number of ‘world’s firsts’ ambitions and includes two companies named by the World Economic Forum as ‘Technology Pioneers.’ For more information, please visit www.ukinnovationscienceseedfund.co.uk.
Innovate UK
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. For more information visit www.ukri.org. Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas, including those from the UK’s world-class research base.
For further information and to stay updated on our latest news visit www.gov.uk/innovateuk, follow us on Twitter at @innovateuk or subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/InnovateUK.
Albion Capital
Albion Capital is a leading independent investment manager with a long-term record of partnering ambitious business. The Albion Group has funds of just over £1 billion under investment management or administration.
Albion Capital Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.