University of Dundee : External Relations : Press Office

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23 November 2011

Dundee Cell Products attracts new grants, appoints new Chairman

Dundee Cell Products Ltd (DCP), a spin-out company from the University of Dundee, has attracted two new grants to support its product development and commercialisation activities.

DCP is a supplier of high quality products and innovative tools for biochemistry and molecular and cell biology research. DCP company also offers advanced research services, to facilitate the discovery and development of new and safer medicines against human diseases.

The company was created to exploit technology and expertise in proteomics and RNA biology developed in the University.

DCP has been awarded a SMART: Scotland award from Scottish Enterprise and a BioKT R&D grant by the Innovation Portal Dundee, worth £70,000 and £20,000 respectively. The SMART: Scotland award is a significant part of the overall project investment of £106,378, with DCP contributing £36,378 to the project.

The SMART: Scotland project will support the company's research activities focused on predicting potential toxic liabilities of drugs under development and will take 15 months to complete. The six month BioKT project will allow the company, in collaboration with the University of Dundee, to initiate the development of new human growth factor products and related services targeting both the academic research and biotech/pharma markets.

'Both of these grant awards will enable the company to invest in developing new high technology products and services that are of great commercial value in a market sector worth billions of dollars,' said Dr Paul Ajuh, the Managing Director of Dundee Cell Products.

'The services we can offer are at the cutting edge of technology and present exciting new opportunities to improve the pipeline for developing safe new drugs more cost effectively. This R&D support will enable Dundee Cell Products Ltd to continue to provide new jobs in Dundee for life scientists and will help to build the profile of Dundee as a major UK centre for translating outstanding basic research into the commercial sphere.'

Michael Cannon, director of SMART: Scotland and R&D grants for Scottish Enterprise, said: 'Innovation is at the heart of DCP’s growth plans. By encouraging and supporting Scottish companies, like DCP, to embrace a culture of innovation we can help our companies remain globally competitive and aid our economic recovery.'

DCP also announced that Brenda Reynolds has been appointed as Chairman of the company. She has extensive broad experience in the Life Science sector and was a founder of Convergence Pharmaceuticals Ltd in October 2010 with the raising of £22.4million funding from three international VCs.

She was previously a founder of PowderMed Ltd in 2003 with a £20 million fundraising, this company subsequently being sold to Pfizer in 2006.

'I am very excited to be working with such an innovative company,' said Brenda. 'These grants will enable Dundee Cell Products Ltd to continue to provide new jobs in Dundee for life scientists and will help to build the profile of Dundee as a major UK centre for translating outstanding basic research into the commercial sphere.'

Diane Taylor, Director of Research and Innovation Services at the University of Dundee, and Chair of the Innovation Portal Steering Group, said the BioKT grant was an excellent example of a Scottish SME (small-to-medium sized company) working with the academic sector.

'We are delighted that Dundee Cell Products Ltd will be the first recipient of a grant from the BioPortal's BIOKT fund,' said Diane. 'This enables DCP to collaborate with leading academics within the University to develop new human growth factor products. It also creates a new job within the company for one of the University's former postdoctoral assistants. This is a great example of where easy and speedy access to University IP by a Scottish SME can foster innovation whilst also creating jobs and further demonstrates our commitment and ability to positively and quickly engage with the Scottish SME sector.'

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Dundee Cell Products
The company was founded in 2006 by University of Dundee researchers, Prof Angus Lamond and Dr Paul Ajuh. Since spinout DCP has gained customers located in many major research institutions worldwide and it now has an extensive catalogue of research products and services.

Key technologies developed by DCP dedicated to assisting the development of safer drugs quicker as well as novel diagnostics include ToxProfileTM, BioMarkIdTM, PhosProfileTM, SILAQTM and TargetIdTM delivered through Dundee Cell Proteomics a division of the company. Other research services offered to academic and industrial clients include DNA cloning, gene synthesis, custom antibody production, recombinant protein expression and purification and stable cell line development.

About SMART:Scotland
The SMART: SCOTLAND grant supports technical and commercial feasibility studies and R&D for innovative projects that represent significant technological advance with an industry. For more information, visit www.scottish-enterprise.com/innovation.

Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's main economic development agency and aims to deliver a significant, lasting effect on the Scottish economy. Our role is to help identify and exploit the best opportunities for economic growth. We support ambitious Scottish companies to compete within the global marketplace and help build Scotland’s globally competitive sectors. We also work with a range of partners in the public and private sectors to attract new investment to Scotland and to help create a world-class business environment.

www.scottish-enterprise.com.

About BioKT:
The BioKT scheme forms part of the BioPortal programme, an innovative new project designed to further enable Tayside research institutes to form stronger links with the Scottish life sciences industry by providing a match-making service of intellectual property and skilled postdoctoral researchers with needs of small-to-medium sized businesses, or SMEs.

The BioPortal project has been designed and developed by Research and Innovation Services at the University of Dundee to address specific barriers that prevent effective transfer of innovation from research institutes to SMEs. Barriers include the element of risk associated with technology development, the financial, human and skills shortages often experienced by SMEs, and the ability to identify and access novel technologies, which is a particular resource constraint for many small companies within the sector.

A key facet of the project will be to increase the ease of access by Scottish SMEs to the intellectual property of the Portal partners University of Dundee, University of Abertay Dundee and JHI by introducing risk sharing and no or low entry costs to reduce the barriers to innovation for the companies.

The University of Dundee, the University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee City Council (through the BioDundee project) and the James Hutton Institute (formerly the Scottish Crop Research and Macaulay Land Research Institutes), were awarded £1,015,000 grant funding through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Scottish Government's SEEKIT programme.

This award will fund the ongoing work of the Innovation Portal, based at the University of Dundee, and BioDundee and is also backing a new project, the BioPortal, which is being delivered by the Innovation Portal. The funding covers three years and includes the BIOKT Fund as part of its Small Grants Scheme. www.innovationportal.co.uk.

For further information, please contact Paul Ajuh: email: info@dundeecellproteomics.com; Tel: +44 1382 220749

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