Plasticell is pleased to announce it has been awarded the 2016 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. The award is the UK’s highest accolade for outstanding commercial success as a result of innovation in recognition of Plasticell’s contribution to the advancement of regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy as well as other areas of biomedical research. Dr. Choo, Plasticell’s founder and Executive Chairman, will receive the award from HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace on 14 July 2016.
Plasticell’s technology, CombiCult®, performs miniaturised screening of large numbers of variables in combination to determine optimal culture conditions for cells grown in the laboratory. A recent peer-reviewed scientific publication demonstrates how CombiCult® allows scientists to perform and compare 10,000 stem cell experiments in parallel, whereas the individual experiments would require around 200 years performed back-to-back.The technology thus greatly accelerates the process of drug discovery and has widespread applications in biomedical R&D, notably in stem cell research and further in industrial manufacture of antibody therapeutics, immunotherapies, cell therapies, gene therapies and research reagents.
Dennis Saw, Plasticell’s Chief Executive, commented, “We are immensely proud to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation in the fields of medicine and bioscience. It is a tribute to the longstanding effort and dedication that have gone into the continued development and promotion of this innovative technology.”
Plasticell, founded in 2002, develops high throughput methods for the commercialisation of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The Company currently develops cell therapies, with its lead internal programme in optimizing manufacturing of umbilical cord blood stem cells, which can be used to treat up to 70 different indications including many cancers. Plasticell also forms alliances with industry-leading partners to discover and develop further products, for instance a recently announced collaboration with Pierre Fabre Laboratories to discover plant-based products for the treatment of obesity and diabetes.
In 2010, Plasticell spun out a sister biotechnology venture, Progenitor Therapeutics, focused on the discovery of small molecule drugs that regenerate specific tissues of the body in response to disease or ageing.
Dr Choo commented, ” Our company has developed one of the key technology platforms in the life sciences, made significant progress in developing ground-breaking therapies for serious diseases, enabled multiple partners to advance diverse products towards the market and bolstered the UK biotech industry by spinning out a further biotech venture.”
“This award recognises the exceptionally hard work of our scientists who have made all this possible, alongside the vision of our investors who have supported the company over the past decade. We look forward to continued innovation and further product development as Plasticell progresses its exciting therapeutic programmes.“ added Dr Choo.
Plasticell and Progenitor Therapeutics are co-located at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, the UK’s first open innovation campus located on the site of GlaxoSmithKline’s Medicines Research Centre.
About Plasticell
Plasticell is a UK biotechnology company specialising in applying massively parallel screens to discover optimal cell culture protocols for the development and manufacture of cell and gene therapies. The company has developed industry-leading methods of manipulating cells to maintain, expand, differentiate, mature and transfect various high value cell types including stem cells. Plasticell develops therapeutic products, with active projects in hematopoietic stem cell expansion, manufacture of blood platelets and discovery of drugs that stimulate brown adipose tissue.
Plasticell's proprietary technology, Combinatorial Cell Culture™ (CombiCult®), determines optimal protocols for any specific outcome in cell biology through the sampling of cell culture variables in multiple random combinations. CombiCult® has received a number of industry awards including the R&D 100 Award which recognises the most significant technology products globally.
Plasticell also forms strategic alliances with industry partners in drug discovery, cell and gene therapy applications and has announced collaborations with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies including GSK, UCB, JCR Pharmaceuticals, Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, Merck-Millipore, Sigma Aldrich, NHSBT, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Progenitor Therapeutics.
For more information visit Plasticell's website: www.plasticell.co.uk
About Dr Yen Choo
Dr Yen Choo is a molecular biologist and bioentrepreneur who has successfully founded three UK biotechnology ventures. For over 20 years, he has focused on applying novel methods to engineer proteins and cells to accelerate the discovery of cell and gene therapies, and drugs that regenerate the body after disease and/or ageing. Dr Choo is currently CEO of Progenitor Therapeutics Ltd and Executive Chairman of Plasticell Ltd.
Dr Choo obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge while working on the structure and function of zinc finger proteins under Sir Aaron Klug. For his thesis, he received the MRC’s Max Perutz Student Prize (1995) and the Prize for Young Scientists awarded by GE and Science (1996). He was also staff scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, where he directed the laboratory’s zinc finger engineering group for five years.
In 1999, Dr Choo and Sir Aaron co-founded Gendaq Ltd, a UK biotech company focused on engineering zinc fingers, later acquired by Sangamo Biosciences Inc. This technology is the gold standard in gene editing – it was licensed to Sigma Aldrich and others in the drug research market, and to Dow AgroSciences in the agricultural field. Sangamo has developed further therapeutic products based on the technology, including a gene therapy that may provide a functional cure for HIV/AIDS, currently in clinical trials.
Dr Choo founded Plasticell Ltd in 2002, to develop cell-based combinatorial techniques that accelerate stem cell research, leading to cell and gene therapy products.
In 2010, Dr Choo founded Progenitor Therapeutics Ltd, a sister biotechnology venture, to discover small molecule drugs that regenerate specific tissues of the human body in response to disease or aging. The company collaborates with GSK and is funded by SR One (GSK’s venture capital arm). Progenitor’s lead programme is in osteoarthritis and further programmes are in multiple sclerosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Dr Choo is a member of the Steering Committee for the UK Stem Cell Bank and for the Use of Stem Cell Lines, which oversees the UK Stem Cell Bank and all research involving human embryonic stem cell lines in the UK.
Outside the world of science, Yen enjoys travelling to observe wildlife in its natural environment, and is frequently found underwater diving with sharks.
About The Queens Awards 2016
• 249 Queen’s Awards (QA) have been announced this year for outstanding business achievement in the fields of International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development.
• The awards are made annually by HM The Queen and are only given for the highest levels of excellence demonstrated in each category.
• To find out more about next year’s awards visit the Queen’s Award website
Plasticell’s technology, CombiCult®, performs miniaturised screening of large numbers of variables in combination to determine optimal culture conditions for cells grown in the laboratory. A recent peer-reviewed scientific publication demonstrates how CombiCult® allows scientists to perform and compare 10,000 stem cell experiments in parallel, whereas the individual experiments would require around 200 years performed back-to-back.The technology thus greatly accelerates the process of drug discovery and has widespread applications in biomedical R&D, notably in stem cell research and further in industrial manufacture of antibody therapeutics, immunotherapies, cell therapies, gene therapies and research reagents.
Dennis Saw, Plasticell’s Chief Executive, commented, “We are immensely proud to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation in the fields of medicine and bioscience. It is a tribute to the longstanding effort and dedication that have gone into the continued development and promotion of this innovative technology.”
Plasticell, founded in 2002, develops high throughput methods for the commercialisation of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The Company currently develops cell therapies, with its lead internal programme in optimizing manufacturing of umbilical cord blood stem cells, which can be used to treat up to 70 different indications including many cancers. Plasticell also forms alliances with industry-leading partners to discover and develop further products, for instance a recently announced collaboration with Pierre Fabre Laboratories to discover plant-based products for the treatment of obesity and diabetes.
In 2010, Plasticell spun out a sister biotechnology venture, Progenitor Therapeutics, focused on the discovery of small molecule drugs that regenerate specific tissues of the body in response to disease or ageing.
Dr Choo commented, ” Our company has developed one of the key technology platforms in the life sciences, made significant progress in developing ground-breaking therapies for serious diseases, enabled multiple partners to advance diverse products towards the market and bolstered the UK biotech industry by spinning out a further biotech venture.”
“This award recognises the exceptionally hard work of our scientists who have made all this possible, alongside the vision of our investors who have supported the company over the past decade. We look forward to continued innovation and further product development as Plasticell progresses its exciting therapeutic programmes.“ added Dr Choo.
Plasticell and Progenitor Therapeutics are co-located at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, the UK’s first open innovation campus located on the site of GlaxoSmithKline’s Medicines Research Centre.
About Plasticell
Plasticell is a UK biotechnology company specialising in applying massively parallel screens to discover optimal cell culture protocols for the development and manufacture of cell and gene therapies. The company has developed industry-leading methods of manipulating cells to maintain, expand, differentiate, mature and transfect various high value cell types including stem cells. Plasticell develops therapeutic products, with active projects in hematopoietic stem cell expansion, manufacture of blood platelets and discovery of drugs that stimulate brown adipose tissue.
Plasticell's proprietary technology, Combinatorial Cell Culture™ (CombiCult®), determines optimal protocols for any specific outcome in cell biology through the sampling of cell culture variables in multiple random combinations. CombiCult® has received a number of industry awards including the R&D 100 Award which recognises the most significant technology products globally.
Plasticell also forms strategic alliances with industry partners in drug discovery, cell and gene therapy applications and has announced collaborations with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies including GSK, UCB, JCR Pharmaceuticals, Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, Merck-Millipore, Sigma Aldrich, NHSBT, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Progenitor Therapeutics.
For more information visit Plasticell's website: www.plasticell.co.uk
About Dr Yen Choo
Dr Yen Choo is a molecular biologist and bioentrepreneur who has successfully founded three UK biotechnology ventures. For over 20 years, he has focused on applying novel methods to engineer proteins and cells to accelerate the discovery of cell and gene therapies, and drugs that regenerate the body after disease and/or ageing. Dr Choo is currently CEO of Progenitor Therapeutics Ltd and Executive Chairman of Plasticell Ltd.
Dr Choo obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge while working on the structure and function of zinc finger proteins under Sir Aaron Klug. For his thesis, he received the MRC’s Max Perutz Student Prize (1995) and the Prize for Young Scientists awarded by GE and Science (1996). He was also staff scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, where he directed the laboratory’s zinc finger engineering group for five years.
In 1999, Dr Choo and Sir Aaron co-founded Gendaq Ltd, a UK biotech company focused on engineering zinc fingers, later acquired by Sangamo Biosciences Inc. This technology is the gold standard in gene editing – it was licensed to Sigma Aldrich and others in the drug research market, and to Dow AgroSciences in the agricultural field. Sangamo has developed further therapeutic products based on the technology, including a gene therapy that may provide a functional cure for HIV/AIDS, currently in clinical trials.
Dr Choo founded Plasticell Ltd in 2002, to develop cell-based combinatorial techniques that accelerate stem cell research, leading to cell and gene therapy products.
In 2010, Dr Choo founded Progenitor Therapeutics Ltd, a sister biotechnology venture, to discover small molecule drugs that regenerate specific tissues of the human body in response to disease or aging. The company collaborates with GSK and is funded by SR One (GSK’s venture capital arm). Progenitor’s lead programme is in osteoarthritis and further programmes are in multiple sclerosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Dr Choo is a member of the Steering Committee for the UK Stem Cell Bank and for the Use of Stem Cell Lines, which oversees the UK Stem Cell Bank and all research involving human embryonic stem cell lines in the UK.
Outside the world of science, Yen enjoys travelling to observe wildlife in its natural environment, and is frequently found underwater diving with sharks.
About The Queens Awards 2016
• 249 Queen’s Awards (QA) have been announced this year for outstanding business achievement in the fields of International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development.
• The awards are made annually by HM The Queen and are only given for the highest levels of excellence demonstrated in each category.
• To find out more about next year’s awards visit the Queen’s Award website
