Public Funding for Oxford Mestar Limited

Recent advances in cell therapy and immunotherapy are changing the face of modern medicine. In particular a new type of treatment – CAR-T therapy – made from the patient’s own immune cells is offering new hope to cancer sufferers. The drawback of these treatments is that they are extraordinarily expensive to produce using current methods and hence are unaffordable to public healthcare systems. The aim of this project is to develop a new type of manufacturing system that dramatically reduces production costs through the use of automation and modular design. By developing and commercialising this technology the project partners ambition is help make CAR-T therapy accessible to everyone and to become world leaders in equipment for cell-therapy manufacturing and in cell-therapy manufacturing services. **** Lead in Jiangsu Province: Aokai (Suzhou) Biomedcial Ltd. Application Reference: SBZ2017000276 ****

"Recent advances in cell therapy and immunotherapy are changing the face of modern medicine. In particular a new type of treatment -- CAR-T therapy, made from the patient's own immune cells -- is offering new hope to cancer patients. The drawback of these treatments is that they are extraordinarily expensive to produce using current methods and hence are unaffordable to public healthcare systems. Automation is key to making cell therapy manufacturing more efficient and more affordable. One factor holding back progress in this area is that current technologies for process control and monitoring are either inadequte or involve a high level of manual input. The aim of this project is to develop a new type of in-line measurement system that uses the power of digital holographic microscopy to image cells in 3D directly within a bioreactor system. Machine learning software will then interpret the images to generate a rich set of measurements that can be used to optimise the speed and quality of the process in real time. Developing this technology will give UK startups Oxford MEStar and See-Through Scientific a world-beating competitive edge in the rapidly growing CAR-T manufacturing market."

Implants that can help osteoarthritis patients to repair damaged or diseased cartilage have had limited success to date and are only available to repair small areas of cartilage damage. University College London has invented a novel biomimetic osteochondral scaffold that replicates the properties of natural cartilage and can be shaped to fit the joint more effectively, encouraging the formation of new cartilage in a biomechanical environment that is conducive for cartilage formation. This project will analyse the scope of the final product, understanding the limitation of the scaffolds and further developing platform technology within the commercial environment to accelerate translation for clinical and economic benefit. It is expected that successful delivery of this program will lead to the development of a scaffold that can be used clinically in a one-step surgical procedure for treatment of large cartilage defects in OA patients. As a result, the quality of life of individuals with osteochondral defects, which lead to OA will be improved allowing a pain free, more active lifestyle.