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CellCentric receives £1.15m DTI award Cambridge, UK, 4th May 2006 CellCentric, a leading company in epigenetics, today announced that it has been awarded £1.15m from the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Technology Programme, as part of a £2.3m collaborative programme with three leading research institutions. The collaboration will enable CellCentric to rapidly progress its development of epigenetic based products by establishing multiple cell based screens for identifying proteins and small molecules that cause epigenetic change. These will have potential wide ranging utility including for bioprocessing, regenerative medicine and therapeutics including for cancer. CellCentric’s partners in the three-year programme are Prof Azim Surani of the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, Dr Wolf Reik of the Babraham Institute, Cambridge and Prof Keith Campbell of the University of Nottingham. These collaborators are world leaders in epigenetics and cell manipulation, with a proven track record of successful collaboration and innovation. Will West, CEO of CellCentric commented: ‘This award is an endorsement of CellCentric’s leadership in epigenetics. It will rapidly accelerate our product development for a range of commercial opportunities. It is great to be expanding our world-class discovery network to include Prof Keith Campbell, one of the pioneers of cell fate control’. Welcoming the new partnership, Science and Innovation Minister Lord Sainsbury said: “This collaboration provides a real opportunity to harness the world class expertise in epigenetics that we possess in the UK and direct it towards the task of wealth creation. ‘’By providing a focus for collaboration and delivery, this partnership will help establish British industry as the world leader in this area and, an attractive proposition for investors.” Jonathan Kestenbaum, NESTA CEO said: 'We are delighted that CellCentric has won an award from the DTI to fund an exciting programme of work consolidating CellCentric’s position as a leader in the field of epigenetics. NESTA invested seed finance in CellCentric, alongside other investors, and is delighted that the potential of the company continues to be recognised". Further information
At CellCentric:
Media Enquiries: Notes to editors About CellCentric Ltd. www.cellcentric.co.uk CellCentric Ltd. is a biotechnology company focused on the commercial exploitation of epigenetics and mechanisms that determine cell fate. The company was founded in May 2004 with initial funding from Avlar BioVentures and Providence Investment Trust and subsequently from The Rainbow Seed Fund and the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA). The company is based upon the world leading research of Prof Azim Surani FRS at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. CellCentric has a research and intellectual property pipeline agreement with the Babraham Institute, one of the largest concentrations of researchers in epigenetics, and has more recently initiated its first anti-cancer target validation and therapeutic development programme with Cancer Research Technology Ltd. CellCentric has a research programme with Prof Chris Boshoff at UCL, identifying novel epigenetic-related cancer targets as well as collaborators in the US. The company is also generating tools for cell growth and bioprocessing applications. Epigenetics Epigenetics is the study of the functional groups that sit on top of genes and their associated proteins. The pattern, or imprint, of these functional groups is responsible for a cell’s specific function and fate. It determines which genes are made accessible to the cell’s machinery for reading and translation into proteins. The field of epigenetics is expected to radically change traditional approaches to treating diseases, including cancer and degenerative conditions.
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