Reinnervate Ltd announce Kirkstall Ltd collaboration

30 / 03 / 2012

Reinnervate (inventors of alvetex^®scaffold) and Kirkstall (developers of the Quasi-Vivo^® system) today announced that they will collaborate to bring next generation three dimensional (3D) cell culture products to market in 2012. The two UK companies are world leaders in the development of cell culture systems that bridge the current gap between 2D in -vitro cell culture and animal models.

'We are delighted that Kirkstall have decided to offer alvetex scaffold at the heart of their 3D Quasi-Vivo^®platform' commented Richard Rowling, Commercial Director at Reinnervate. 'alvetex^®scaffold is becoming the industry standard for scientists who need to retain the native structure and functionality of cells to better mimic in-vivo biological models' he added.

The two companies aim to launch the new joint product at the Kirkstall sponsored 'Advances in in-vitro cell culture’ meeting in Utrecht on 22-23 May 2012. http://www.invitrom.org/kirkstall/kirks.html


Malcolm Wilkinson, CEO of Kirkstall Ltd said 'life scientists are beginning to realise that perfusion based cell culture systems can significantly improve the biological relevance of in- vitro cell based assays. The Quasi-Vivo^® system already helps many leading laboratories improve the predictive accuracy of their ADMET studies. The early data we have that combines perfusion based cell culture with 3D cell growth shows stunning differences when compared to traditional 2D approaches.'

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed

About Alvetex^®Scaffold

Alvetex^®Scaffold 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^®Scaffold 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^®Scaffold 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^®Scaffold was voted as one of the top 100 innovative products of 2011 at the R&D 100 awards and was named among the winners of The Scientist magazine’s “Top 10 Life Science Innovations of 2010”.

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

Quasi-Vivo^® is a system comprising novel, patented cell culture chambers, designed to introduce flow of media and provide an easy to use way of creating interconnected systems to model cell to cell signalling. Chambers can be supplied with dedicated ancillary components and other consumables such as tubing, peristaltic pumps, culture medium reservoirs, etc. The product range is steadily being expanded to include a number of proprietary reagents, media and cells, some of which will be obtained under OEM agreements from established providers, such as Reinnervate.

By closely mimicking human metabolism the Quasi-Vivo^®system provides a more physiologically accurate representation than culture grown in static well plates.
The system has many applications in pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic and research industries. The system is available to purchase in kit form or Kirkstall can carry out contract research on your behalf.

For further information, please contact

For Reinnervate
Richard Rowling, Commercial Director  +44 (0)1740 625266
info@reinnervate.com


David Robinson
Alto Marketing
+44 (0) 1489 557672
davidr@alto-marketing
For Kirkstall
Malcolm Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)114 213 1800
jmw@kirkstall.org

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^®Scaffold, a unique and proprietary scaffold that enables routine 3D cell culture in the laboratory. Alvetex^®Scaffold 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^®Scaffold 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 continues to develop its technology for use in the 3D cell culture. During 2012 Reinnervate will deliver further innovative products to help researchers improve the growth and function of their cultured cells

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 Kirstall Ltd
Kirkstall is based in Sheffield (UK) within the heart of the city’s University Campus and cluster of Biotech related research laboratories.

The company has an exclusive world-wide licence to technology which was the outcome of over 7 years of research by an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Pisa. Kirkstall has developed this research into a commercially available inter-connected cell culture system, which can be set up so that it mimics the human metabolism, resulting in high quality, rather than just high throughput screening.

Kirkstall is developing a range of products, both instruments and consumables, for cell culture which will have applications in safety and toxicity screening as well as in stem cell research and tissue engineering. Kirkstall sponsors an annual conference attended by many of Europe’s leading experts from industry and academia. The 2012 event will be held in Utrecht on 22-23 May .http://www.invitrom.org/kirkstall/kirks.html