Unrivalled imaging capabilities now available to accelerate UK drug development

Medicines Discovery Catapult integrates Alderley Park’s imaging services and expertise, further enhancing preclinical imaging capabilities

Today [9 April 2019], Medicines Discovery Catapult has agreed with Alderley Park Ltd to integrate Alderley Park’s imaging services and expertise into their pre-clinical imaging capability, further enhancing their offering to UK SMEs.

Medicines Discovery Catapult will now offer collaborative research programmes across a range of advanced preclinical imaging and bioanalysis technologies that will drive future drug discovery and development across the UK.

The new imaging capabilities integrated into Medicines Discovery Catapult from Alderley Park includes the Siemens Inveon Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography Scanners, PE Wallac Wizard gamma Counter, and VisualSonics Fujifilm High Frequency ultrasound imaging system.

These services will now be combined with Medicines Discovery Catapult’s wider suite of technologies for preclinical drug discovery. These include Waters Desorption Electro Spray Ionisation – Mass Spectrometry, Rapid Evaporative Ionisation and Acoustic Mist Ionisation – Mass Spectrometry, and Perkin Elmer IVIS Lumina III near infra-red imaging.

Medicines Discovery Catapult is pleased to further announce the new establishment of Bruker Rapiflex Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization – Mass Spectrometry capability.

Alderley Park will continue to offer its other Oncology Services capabilities to a range of customers.

Chris Molloy, Chief Executive Officer of Medicines Discovery Catapult, says:

“We work at the forefront of drug discovery technology innovation, so that UK SMEs can access scarce, state-of-the-art technologies and expertise that enable their projects. The incorporation of Alderley Park’s imaging capabilities enhances our portfolio, with the ability to prove that these techniques are on the critical path for the future of medicines R&D.”

Monitoring, assessing and characterising novel therapeutics is an essential part of drug development. Preclinical imaging allows non-invasive assessment of biochemical and biological processes, enhancing our understanding of a drug’s safety, efficacy and mode of action.

Preclinical imaging can also be applied in combination with Medicines Discovery Catapult’s wider Discovery Science & Technology and Informatics capabilities.

The unique combination of preclinical imaging capabilities and expertise, alongside mass spectrometry, biomarker profiling, molecular pathology and super-resolution imaging, provides deeply informative data sets for better project decision-making.

 Dr Chris Doherty, Managing Director, of Alderley Park Limited says:

“By transferring Alderley Park’s imaging services to the Medicines Discovery Catapult we are able to help progress the creation of what will be a nationally significant imaging centre, which will benefit the Park as a whole. The imaging service we had compliments the imaging service the Catapult already provides and there’s more value to be had by putting the two services together.”

Alderley Park’s Mereside campus is continuing to flourish as a biotech cluster and is already home to some 70 SMEs and 200 start-up and virtual businesses, many of which may use these services. It is also home to a number of leading institutions in addition to Medicines Discovery Catapult, such as the AMR Centre and CRUK MI.