The Native Antigen Company Limited

At the start of 2016, Zika virus hit the headlines with an outbreak in Brazil far larger than any seen before, causing a huge rise in the number of children born with smaller than average heads and other abnormalities. As this virus is relatively recent, there are very few diagnostic methods of detecting the disease it causes, and most of the currently av...

Diagnostic tests are a vital component of disease diagnosis and vaccine research. For any test, the important parameters are sensitivity (i.e. the ability of the test to correctly identify a positive sample) and specificity (i.e. its ability to discriminate correctly between different diseases). Most diagnostic tests are simple plate-based assays or pregn...

The global market for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has become the fastest growing segment of the pharmaceutical industry. The antigen is the lynchpin of therapeutic mAb development, so understanding, controlling and engineering antigens to increase immunogenicity is of vital interest to the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industry. Despite the s...

The Native Antigen Company (NAC) proposes to examine the technical feasibility of developing a novel mammalian cell expression system which would overcome the current barriers to producing suitable antigens from enveloped viruses for use as vaccine candidates. Our innovative approach would centre on the provision of pure Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) contai...

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in economically developed countries. CDI is primarily linked with hospital admission and prior antimicrobial treatment. Although significant advances have been made to reduce incidence, a number of hypervirulent and highly transmissible strains have recently emerged. Resulta...

Early detection of infectious disease offers the greatest opportunity to contain potential outbreaks, save lives and decrease the economic burden of healthcare. Rapid diagnostic test kits are one of the most effective ways to achieve this, allowing health care workers or members of the public to identify disease in the community. These tests, usually in t...