In November, CHAIN moved research base from the University of Nottingham into independent lab and office space at the art deco MediCity building in Nottingham. The move coincides with the Company’s expansion, hiring Lab Manager Claire Evans earlier this year to oversee the move and Junior Scientist Matthew Allen more recently to begin work on new grant funded projects beginning in the new year.
The new lab space allows for strain engineering, microbial cultivation, process development and product analysis. Despite the move, we will continue to partner with the Prof. Nigel Minton, a world-leader in clostridial gene technologies, at the University of Nottingham’s Synthetic Biology Research Centre. We are looking forward to fully implementing GMP practices to our processes and advancing our lead product, CHN-1, towards the clinic.
We would like to thank the BioCity Group and MediCity team for all their help and support during the move!
Ben Bradley, our Head of Partnerships and Licensing, is attending Gut-Brain Axis 2018, part of the Biotech Pharma Summit conference series in Paris September 6 & 7. This year’s event brings together leading scientists, physicians, and senior leaders to explore the brain and its engagement with the GI-nervous system axis in health and disease.
Chief Executive Dr Edward Green will be in attendance at Clostridium XV in Munich September 18 – 20, with Dr Janina Koelschbach and Emily Powell. Whilst Clostridium species have achieved notoriety as human and animal pathogens, most members of this genus are entirely benign and many have distinctive features of interest for production of fuels and chemicals. CHAIN is keen to collaborate with other experts in the field of Clostridium, so please say hi to our friendly team!
Dr Green will be speaking at the OBN BioTuesday Midlands Showcase hosted by BioCity in Nottingham on September 25. The evening, which is complimentary to attend, will include a range of targeted keynote talks followed by a series of six showcase presentations from innovative companies predominantly from the Midlands.
Dr Green will be speaking again at EFIB 2018 which will be held in Toulouse on 16 – 18 October. EFIB is the market leading annual event in Europe for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy. The focus this year will be on delivering new bio-based products & processes to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Mr Bradley will be on the “Engineering Biology: The Next Revolution” panel at the UK Bioscience Forum in London on October 18. This panel also features Tim Fell (Synthace), Tim Brears (Evonetix), Ryan Cawood (Oxford Genetics), and Ben Reeve (CustoMem) – so don’t miss it!
Mr Bradley will attend the Pharma Integrates 2018 conference in London on November 12-13. This conference brings together key industry leaders across the Pharmaceutical pipeline to share insights and create debate on crucial topics that influence the future of patient outcomes. Talk to Ben to learn more about our novel drug delivery platform.
Dr Green will be presenting at the BioCentury China Healthcare Summit, held in Shanghai 13 – 14 November. The event is sponsored by the BIA, which is supporting UK companies with the UK Department of International Trade to develop relations with Chinese investors.
CHAIN has been awarded £0.5M grant funding from Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation agency, to expand its range of biotechnology products. Building on a successful synthetic biology program, the grants support further development of CHAIN’s proprietary Clostridium platform for therapeutic and specialty chemical applications.
A two-year project will focus on the development of novel therapeutics targeting gut-related disease. CHAIN has successfully demonstrated the use of Clostridium to deliver small molecules to the gut. In this project, we will expand the range of therapeutics to include anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory peptides. This work will be carried out in collaboration with leading researchers in Clostridium genetics at the Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC) at the University of Nottingham.
The second project focuses on the production of high-value chiral chemicals. CHAIN has already successfully developed a Clostridium strain that produces (R) 1,3 butanediol, an important building block for several nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. In this project, we plan to improve microbial performance and deliver a cost-completive fermentation process for chemical production.
CHAIN is currently focused on the testing and progression of its lead gut microbiome therapeutic for the clinic, targeting inflammatory bowel disease.
Dr Edward Green, Chief Executive at CHAIN comments
“Grant funding supports our highly skilled discovery team, based at the SBRC and strengthens ties with the Centre. Ultimately, this serves to build and accelerate our product discovery pipeline without undue distraction from our lead product.”
This article first appeared on chainbiotech.com on 09/09/2017 and was covered by SynBioBeta synthetic biology news: https://synbiobeta.com/chain-awarded-0-5m-grant-funding-develop-healthcare-platform/.
CHAIN plans to attend a record number of microbiome and biotech conferences over the next year to showcase our therapeutic platform and identify partners for the development of novel, targeted therapies.
First up is the Spores Conference in April where our Technical Product Manager, Dr Daniela Heeg, will speak about CHAIN’s novel therapeutic delivery platform. The list below is by no means exhaustive – so watch this space! Follow CHAIN on twitter and LinkedIn for updates.
8th European Spores Conference
April 16-19, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Biotrinity 2018 will be attended by our Innovation Manager, Ben Bradley, who is speaking on 25th during the BioLaunchPad session
April 23-25th, London, UK
Biotech Investment Showcase
May 22-23, London, UK
2nd Annual Microbiome Discovery and Development Congress
June 7-8, Berlin, Germany
Microbiome Drug Development
June 19-21, Boston, USA
7th International Human Microbiome Congress 2018
June 26-28, APC Microbiome Institute Cork, Ireland