Member Article

Lancashire biomedical firm receive £75,000 investment

Lancashire-based medical firm, CellCap Technologies Ltd has received a £75,000 Pathfinder investment from The North West Fund for Biomedical.

CellCap, which will soon relocate to Merseyside, have developed a product to harvest stem cells from blood or fat tissue.

The product will contribute to stem cell research, allowing scientists to use high yields of stem cells in their active biological forms.

The ultimate aim is to translate them into stem cell therapies, where a patient can be treated with stem cells collected pre-surgery from their own body, ensuring minimal risk of rejection.

It is also possible the technology could contribute to advancements in detection of circulating tumour cells, microbes in biothreat, hospital, food or environmental areas, and the diagnosis of diseases such as Alzheimer’s; all of which start with complex and difficult sample types that have to be processed.

This raft of investment through SPARK Impact, will be used by CellCap to evaluate the technology in two new laboratories at the cutting edge of stem cell research.

Damian Bond, CEO and co-founder of CellCap, said: “The investment from the Fund via SPARK Impact allows us to push the product development closer to launch.

“Having worked for 10 years developing bioscience businesses in the North West and Merseyside in particular, CellCap is the most exciting opportunity so far and is supported by an excellent team in the University of Liverpool.”

Dr Penny Attridge, senior investment director at SPARK Impact and manager of The North West Fund for Biomedical, added: “Cellcap’s technology to harvest stem cells paves the way to a greater understanding of diseases and tissue regeneration which will hopefully lead to the successful development of effective therapeutics.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .