Public Funding for Paraytec Limited

To develop a bladder cancer monitoring tool for patients, a group with high recurrence levels, by use of a urine test to replace the current practice of camera insertion into the bladder.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

Can we detect and monitor bladder cancer with a urine test? For many patients with bladder cancer (BC), their cancer comes back after treatment and so they have to be regularly checked. These patients are checked with a cystoscope. This is a long thin flexible tube with a light and a camera at the end that is inserted into the urethra (the tube that carries urine out of the body) and up into the bladder. The camera shows the inside of the bladder and the doctor can make a diagnosis. This method of diagnosis (cystoscopy) can be uncomfortable for the patient and is expensive to the NHS. This project aims to find out if a new laboratory method could be used instead. The test needs to be able to tell the difference between tumour cells and other things in the urine like regular cells shed into the urine by the normal action of the bladder and germs that are not due to these cancers. To do this we will shine UV and visual light at samples which mimic urine samples and take a video of the samples flowing. We have a new better way of doing this that will give us sharper images of the cells, especially in the UV light, and allow us to look at bigger samples up to 50 ml. Computer software will then take the data from the instrument and tell us information about the cells. We hope to be able to tell the difference between tumour cells, normal cells and blood cells and reduce the number of cystoscopies that patients need in future.

Biotherapeutic drugs are an increasingly important class of new medicines and their effective action in the therapeutic treatment of disease has attracted interest from both academic and industry sectors. Despite the overwhelming benefits to patients, the availability of these drugs at point-of-care is inextricably linked to their affordability. Currently, the costs associated with the development and production of safe and effective biotherapeutic drugs are extremely high, and such costs must ultimately be passed on in the final drug product. One of the major risk areas in drug development is the occurrence of bundles of drug molecules known as aggregates, which can result in unwanted side-effects in patients or in a reduction of therapeutic effectiveness. This project brings together biopharmaceutical companies, academic research leaders and developers of scientific instruments in order to produce novel sensors that can improve the detection of drug aggregates throughout the drug development process. With this novel analytical technology, we aim to attenuate the risks associated with aggregation to ensure the delivery of safe and cost-effective drugs in the future.

The driver for this project is the need for technical innovation, as identified by users in the pharmaceutical industry, for imaging dissolution of complex tablet formulations. This project will develop the prototype of new analytical instrument to allow rapid measurement and characterisation of how complex formulations release their active components in biological media.

This project brings together the innovative detection technology of Paraytec Ltd with the target recognition technology provided by Aptamer Diagnostic Ltd to create the next generation of detection instruments. These novel platforms will allow rapid field and point-of-care based diagnosis based on multiple markers of disease or contamination. Simultaneous detection of multiple markers will reduce the ambiguity associated with diagnostic systems which look for single markers. It will also save both time and expense associated with routine laboratory based sample screening, allowing them to focus on samples where more detailed analysis is required.

To develop a demonstrator version of a miniaturized instrument for rapid in vitro release testing of semi-solid formulations in pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, cosmetics and personal care products. Current methods are slow, resource intensive and require large amounts of sample. The project will address all of these shortfalls, develop new competencies in formulation science and is seeing a strong market pull. The innovation will come from the miniaturisation and the application of Paraytec's unique technology to allow direct imaging of both the receptor and the semi-solid dosage form.

Awaiting Public Summary

Awaiting Public Summary