Newcells Biotech
Newcells Biotech technology enables scientists to produce cells in a lab environment and build them into mini-models of human tissues. These models enable scientists to better predict how new potentially life-saving drugs will behave in the body. This technology improves the chance that these therapies will be successfully launched for the benefit of patients while also lessening the reliance on animals in drug research.
Supporting Spin-Outs
Take Newcells Biotech, for example, which started in Newcastle University – one of the country’s most respected academic establishments and a beacon for groundbreaking research.
The company’s revolutionary technology enables scientists to produce cells in a lab environment and build them into mini-models of human tissues. These models enable scientists to better predict how new potentially life-saving drugs will behave in the body. This technology improves the chance that these therapies will be successfully launched for the benefit of patients while also lessening the reliance on animals in drug research.
The project first received funding from Northstar Ventures in 2015, a venture capital firm specialising in fledgling, high growth businesses and providing advice and support as well as money.
The £0.15m investment enabled Newcells to immediately expand its work in cell production, model building and assay development based on stem cell technology.
The business raised a further £2m in 2018, in a second funding round led by Northstar and NVM Private Equity, which was used to expand its operations, commercialise its services and expand its market reach internationally, including to the major USA market. And this technology has been crucial in the understanding of, and fight against, the coronavirus.
Working alongside the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Newcells developed a cellular model of the human upper airway. This provided a valuable platform to study how the Covid virus spread and grew, providing a platform for testing new drugs to combat the pandemic. This advance would not have been possible without venture capital funding.
