Major research boost for Ayrshire’s AvantiCell
An Ayrshire- based life sciences company has secured major European funding to support its ground- breaking work in cell- based analysis.
AvantiCell Science, based in Auchincruive, beat off competition from around the continent to be chosen for Phase 1 of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument project.
The company, which operates internationally, was one of only four UK companies chosen out of 310 EU applicants for the funding, which for the first time allocates money to individual businesses.
AvantiCell Science uses ethicallysourced human cells to test the benefits and safety of materials which make contact with the human body.
The 50,000 euro grant will, the firm says, allow it to progress to the next phase of its development.
Dr Jo Oliver, chief executive of AvantiCell Science, said: “The output would be used by groups such as the pharmaceutical sector, to help screen materials that might potentially go on to become life- saving drugs.” The company says funding will enable it to “take its technology a step further”. It aims to use three- dimensional additive printing to assemble its cell models and, when coupled with other proprietary technologies, to deliver them to customers in a “plug and play” format. The concept caught the imagination of the European Commission’s evaluators, who hand- picked and invested in businesses with positivedisruptive global ambitions to change the established value networks and existing markets. Dr Colin Wilde, AvantiCell Science’s chief scientific officer, said: “Success in the EU SME Instrument competition is a major recognition of the value of AvantiCell Science’s underpinning technology and the ethical approach we have adopted throughout the company’s existence.” AvantiCell Science has been operating for nine years from its Auchincruive HQ and has increased the number of highly- skilled jobs from four to 20. Dr Oliver added: “The announcement of the SME Instrument programme by the European Commission is a catalyst for further growth, and is a vote of confidence in the company’s business objectives. “It is all the more exciting that this was the first time there had been an EU programme dedicated to SMEs for which a single entity could apply.” AvantiCell Science has, with European and UK partners, built human cell model alternatives to conventional tests which focus on a range of medical challenges. They range from the creation of an artificial pancreas to screening of anticancer drug candidates or potential osteoporosis treatments.