JUNE
2004 BROADSHEET - Emerging Technologies
Another sizeable audience came to the Conference Centre at TWI (one of
the Club’s sponsors) in May to hear the latest of our annual meetings on EMERGING
TECHNOLOGIES, in an event
organised by CETC committee member, Dr
John Read. They were not disappointed as they heard the story of two
complementary but quite different companies and the development of their
products, as told by their founders, each a respected academic and serial
entrepreneur.
Professor
Ian Charles, Head of Molecular Biology at the
Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and founder and former Chief
Scientific Officer of Arrow Therapeutics talked about his new company, Immunoprime
Limited, a spin-out from Arrow.
Immunoprime takes
genome sequencing (about which we will be hearing more during our June visit
to the Sanger Institute) a step further. The “genomics revolution” is
leading to the sequencing of pathogens to discover how they impact on
infections and to learn why current drugs are becoming less efficacious
against the latest “super bugs”. The development of DNA arrays using
“inkjet technology” results in the generation of greater information about
the disease process, and when combined with the patented technique of
Transposon Mediated Differential Hybridisation identifies attenuating genes
(and the proteins they encode) for potential vaccine candidates.
Arrow has recently been awarded a DTI LINK award of around £2.5m to
develop its novel approaches. Professor Charles raised questions over the
classical funding model for new companies which were debated by several
interested-parties amongst the attendees. At the heart of this is the question
whether there is an incentive for pharmaceutical companies to make drugs to
eradicate problems which would then reduce the demand for those drugs.
This
linked into the talk by Dr Bruce Roser
who has spent 30 years in medical research and has founded several healthcare
companies including Quadrant. His latest company is Cambridge
Biostability whose technology was developed in response to an approach
from the World Health Organisation with the challenge to develop a long-life,
fridge-free vaccine capable of being administered easily by untrained
personnel and which is cheaper than alternatives! The team rose to the
challenge and over time developed – using only already approved components -
a series of cheap disposable plastic injectors loaded with completely stable
liquid formulations. These liquids consist of a dispersion of solid
microspheres of glass-stabilised vaccines in anhydrous perfluorocarbon
liquids. The latter are totally
inert and biocompatible and, by precise density matching, the particles have
neutral buoyancy and never settle or float, so that the suspension remains
stable.
This
novel technique holds out the prospect of being able to administer a single
dose vaccine against every known ailment for every child in their first year.
It has been endorsed by the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation and
by the Program of Appropriate Technology in Health PATH funded by the Gates
foundation.
The Club is very fortunate in benefiting from the sponsorship
of the following organisations:-
