Reinnervate partners with AMS Biotechnology (Europe) Limited for Distribution of Alvetex^®

31 / 05 / 2011

Sedgefield, UK. 31 May 2011. Reinnervate, an innovative life sciences company driving the adoption of routine 3D cell culture, is delighted to announce that it is partnering with AMS Biotechnology (Europe) Limited (“AMSBIO”) for the non-exclusive distribution and sale of alvetex^®, its breakthrough 3D cell culture technology. AMSBIO is a premier provider of quality life science research reagents and services to researchers across the world.

Alvetex is available for order through the AMSBIO website www.amsbio.com and is featured in AMSBIO’s new Stem Cell product catalogue.

Alvetex^® is a unique and proprietary cell culture scaffold that, for the first time, enables genuine 3D cell growth to be performed routinely and cost-effectively in cell biology laboratories. Alvetex^® was named as one of the top ten life science innovations of 2010 by The Scientist magazine.

Using alvetex^® enables researchers to grow cells in a manner that far more closely mimics their growth in vivo than is possible using traditional 2D techniques, greatly improving the accuracy and relevance of biological assays.

Reinnervate launched its first product, the alvetex^® 12-well plate, in Europe at the end of November 2010 and introduced 6-well and 12-well inserts and petri dish formats at the end of March 2011. The Company intends to launch alvetex^® products in a range of other formats over the next 12 months, including 24, 48 and 96 well plates.

Richard Rowling, Commercial Director, commented: “We’ve had a tremendous reception to launch of alvetex^® over the past six months and there appears to be great demand for this breakthrough product as researchers are increasingly moving towards 3D cell culture. Our mission is to get researchers around the world to understand the benefits of 3D cell culture and to use it routinely. We are therefore very pleased to have signed this distribution agreement with AMSBIO as part of our strategy to partner, on a non-exclusive basis, with multiple distributors of life sciences research products.”

Alex Sim CEO at AMSBIO, commented: “reinnervate has created an excellent and game-changing technology that will enable cell culture to provide much more relevant information than ever before. Alvetex^® is compatible with the wide range of extracellular matrix proteins and other essential cell culture products already provided by AMSBIO, which means we are able to offer biologists a highly comprehensive range of products for the rapidly growing field of 3D cell culture. We are delighted to add alvetex^® to our product portfolio and support its increasing use in research laboratories across the world.”

About alvetex^®

Alvetex^® is a unique polystyrene material that provides a robust and inert scaffold for cells to grow and form complex 3D structures in the laboratory, mimicking the normal growth and formation of tissues in the body. Reinnervate has extensively tested and validated alvetex^® with a large number of cell types, including liver, skin, cancer and stem cells, all of which have important applications in basic research into cell development, disease modelling and drug safety screening.

Alvetex^® has been launched globally in several formats: a 12-well culture plate, 6-well and 12-well inserts and a deep petri dish. These formats provide researchers with an exceptional degree of versatility in how they choose to construct different 3D cell culture models. Through enabling alternative applications, such as long-term 3D cell culture over several weeks, 3D cell growth at air/liquid interface and 3D cell growth with different media constituents, to be performed simply and routinely, reinnervate continues to make genuine 3D cell culture a reality for researchers today.

Alvetex^® is available from LGC Standards and AMSBIO.

See the company video - www.reinnervate.com/company-video

For further information, please contact

For Reinnervate
Richard Rowling, Commercial Director
Barry Lynch, Marketing Manager
+44 (0)191 334 3988
info@reinnervate.com

Mark Swallow / Malcolm Robertson
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
+44 (0)207 638 9571
mark.swallow@citigatedr.co.uk

For AMSBIO
Alex Sim, CEO +44 (0) 1235 828 200
info@amsbio.com

About reinnervate

Reinnervate is an innovative life sciences company dedicated to making routine 3D cell culture a reality for researchers in academia and in the pharmaceutical and related industries.

Reinnervate’s core technology is alvetex^®, a unique and proprietary scaffold that enables routine 3D cell culture in the laboratory. Alvetex provides a nanoscale environment that supports genuine homogeneous 3D cell growth. Cells grown using alvetex form complex 3D tissue cultures which more closely mimic normal in-vivo cell growth and the formation of tissues in the body than conventional techniques. The use of alvetex-derived 3D cell cultures can provide researchers with greater insight into how cells behave in the body in response to external factors (such as drug candidates) than is currently possible with existing 2D or other emerging 3D cell culture technologies.

Reinnervate has generated significant data, which have been published extensively in peer-reviewed publications, exemplifying the use of alvetex in a large number of cell types and applications. Alvetex^® has been launched globally in several formats: a 12-well culture plate, 6-well and 12-well inserts and a deep well petri dish.

Reinnervate is also using its cell biology expertise to generate a library of synthetic small molecules that mediate stem cell differentiation in vitro. The first of these small molecules, ec23^®, is commercially available and offers the potential for robust and reproducible differentiation of neural cell types.

Reinnervate was founded in 2002 based on the pioneering research of Professor Stefan Przyborski and his lab at Durham University, UK, and is funded by NorthStar Equity Investors (NSEI), management and private investors.

www.reinnervate.com
www.reinnervate.com/company-video

About AMSBIO

Founded in 1987, AMS Biotechnology (AMSBIO) is recognized as a leading international provider of unique & innovative products & custom services for life sciences research. An established supplier of assays for cell function and behavior including angiogenesis, invasion, migration and proliferation; AMSBIO offers the most comprehensive product solutions for 3D cell culture; with natural, recombinant and synthetic matrices, quality-tested and guaranteed pathogen free.

The AMSBIO range includes over 23,000 polyclonal & monoclonal antibodies, peptides, recombinant proteins, extracellular matrix, molecular detection reagents, & tissue DNA, RNA, protein & microarray products. Key research areas include: apoptosis, cell signaling, DNA damage, electrophoresis, glycobiology, post translational modification & stem cell biology.

www.amsbio.com
www.amsbio.com/alvetex.aspx