Abcam Expands Cell Engineering Capabilities Through Asset Purchase of Applied StemCell’s Gene Editing Platform and Oncology Product Portfolio

Read more

Abcam appoints Michael Baldock as Chief Financial Officer

Read more

Abcam announces successful acquisition of Expedeon’s Proteomics and Immunology business, enhancing its conjugation capability

Read more

Abcam and SomaServe announce comprehensive partnership to realise the potential of PolyNaut® ‘bionic’ nanoparticles for delivery to live cells

  • Commercialise novel cell delivery platform technology
  • Develop novel delivery methods for research applications
  • Revolutionise utility of live cell imaging to explore disease

Cambridge, UK, – 17 December 2019: Abcam plc, a global innovator in life science reagents and tools, and SomaServe Ltd, a Pharma service and specialist reagent business exploiting PolyNaut® Technology, have announced a partnership to commercialise the cell delivery potential of the polymer-based ’bionic’ nanoparticles, which can carry a range of payloads directly to live cells.

Dr Fran Crawford, CEO, SomaServe, commented: “Abcam’s reputation as an innovator in the field of biological reagents and dedicated global commercialisation infrastructure, coupled with their transparent and collegiate partnership approach, made them the standout choice as our development and commercialisation partner for the PolyNaut® Technology platform. We are excited to be working together to maximise the potential of our innovative delivery platform for research and diagnostic applications.“

Dr Cheri Walker, SVP Corporate Development, Abcam, added: “Investing in innovative ideas and platform technologies, and supporting these through to global commercialization, is a key element of our growth strategy. Our industry expertise and co-location in major technology hubs throughout the world, enables our partners to rapidly get their innovations into the hands of the global research community. Our objective is to partner, fund and commercialize early stage technologies which have the promise to improve and accelerate research. And ultimately to contribute to advancing the understanding of biology and cause of disease, which enables new treatments and improved health outcomes.“

The collaboration will initially focus on the development and global commercialisation of a suite of CelLuminate dyes, specifically created to revolutionise live cell imaging by enabling cells to remain functional and viable for up to 14 days. This crucial reduction in toxicity gives users the ability to thoroughly probe and analyse their cells, enabling them to achieve deeper insights and advance their understanding.

Beyond improving and enhancing live cell imaging, the team will work together to expand the delivery and assay options of the platform, including optimising its potential in combination with antibodies and other technologies. In addition to the commercial partnership, Abcam has invested in SomaServe’s seed round to help accelerate the development of an innovative market leading platform for research, diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

About Abcam

As a global life sciences company, Abcam identifies, develops, and distributes high-quality biological reagents and tools that are crucial to research, drug discovery and diagnostics. Working across the industry, the Company supports life scientists to achieve their mission, faster.

Abcam partners with life science organisations to co-create novel binders for use in drug discovery, in vitro diagnostics and therapeutics, driven by the Company’s proprietary discovery platforms and world-leading, antibody expertise.

By constantly innovating its binders and assays, Abcam is helping advance the global understanding of biology and causes of disease, which enables new treatments and improved health. The Company’s pioneering data-sharing approach gives scientists increased confidence in their results by providing validation, user comments and peer-reviewed citations for its 110,000 products.

With ten sites globally, many of Abcam’s 1,100 strong team are located in the world’s leading life science research hubs, complementing a global network of services and support.

To discover more, please visit www.abcam.com and www.abcamplc.com.

About SomaServe

Founded in 2018, SomaServe was spun out of UCL with the mission to build a uniquely positioned pharma service and specialist reagent business exploiting PolyNaut® Technology to image live cells and improve the therapeutic viability of molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties.

PolyNaut® Technology is a versatile nano-engineered polymer technology for in vivo intracellular delivery. The resulting polymer nanoparticle vesicle is known as ’the bionic nanoparticle’. The widely diverse polymer structure is highly flexible and can accept small molecules, peptides and proteins, antibodies, nuclear material, dyes and probes. The resulting nanoparticles then deliver their cargo to the interior of the cell, greatly enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of the encapsulated molecules. In addition, it is possible to functionalise the vesicle surface with targeting ligands to aid penetration of biological barriers such as the blood brain barrier.

This cell delivery technology can also be successfully employed to enhance live cell imaging. The resulting CelLuminate suite of dyes have been developed to image live cells in vitro. CelLuminate has the benefit of significantly reduced cytotoxicity compared to industry standard cell imaging reagents. Cells under test can remain functional and viable for periods of up to fourteen days, giving researchers in industry and academia more time for image analysis.

The patented PolyNaut® technology underpins SomaServe’s portfolio of specialist reagents and is at the heart of the Precision Services offering. Precision Services provide bespoke drug discovery and product development services to pharma and non-pharma companies for proprietary molecules through the conduct of iterative feasibility studies and technology licence. The focus of the Precision Services division is to improve the therapeutic viability of potential therapeutic molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties.

For more information see http://somaserve.com/home-somaserve.

Media contacts

At Abcam:

Dr Lynne Trowbridge
T: +44 7815 167026
E: lynne.trowbridge@abcam.com

At SomaServe:

Dr Fran Crawford, CEO
M: 07714 672027

Abcam Honoured As One Of The UK’s Best Places To Work In 2020; A Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award Winner

Cambridge UK, 11 December 2019: – Abcam has been honoured with a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, recognising the Best Places to Work in 2020. Abcam is ranked 6th in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work UK list.

The Employees’ Choice Awards are based solely on the input of employees who elect to provide feedback on their jobs, work environments and companies on Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest job and recruiting sites.

Alan Hirzel, CEO, Abcam, commented “I’m delighted that our people have rated Abcam as one of the best places to work. As we continue to grow, we want to attract and retain the best talent to help us support the life science community in furthering their research. This phenomenal feedback demonstrates just how good a company we are to work for.”

Nick Skinner, SVP of Human Resources, Abcam said “I am proud that we have a culture in which our employees can grow and thrive and develop their careers as we grow as an organisation. Thank you to all our employees who help to make us one of the best places to work.”

Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor President, Chief Operating Officer and incoming CEO said “This year marks the shift to a culture-first decade in the workplace. Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards winners are prioritising their culture and mission and putting employees at the heart of everything they do. In turn, their employees have recognised them as truly the Best Places to Work in 2020. In addition, this year’s winners stand out for providing exceptional career growth opportunities and encouraging work which is driven by impact and purpose. Congratulations go to all of the companies this year who stand out in the eyes of their employees.”

About Abcam

As a global life sciences company, Abcam identifies, develops, and distributes high-quality biological reagents and tools that are crucial to research, drug discovery and diagnostics. Working across the industry, the Company supports life scientists to achieve their mission, faster.

Abcam partners with life science organisations to co-create novel binders for use in drug discovery, in vitro diagnostics and therapeutics, driven by the Company’s proprietary discovery platforms and world-leading, antibody expertise.

By constantly innovating its binders and assays, Abcam is helping advance the global understanding of biology and causes of disease, which enables new treatments and improved health. The Company’s pioneering data-sharing approach gives scientists increased confidence in their results by providing validation, user comments and peer-reviewed citations for its 110,000 products.

With ten sites globally, many of Abcam’s 1,100 strong team are located in the world’s leading life science research hubs, complementing a global network of services and support. Abcam was admitted to AIM in 2005 (AIM: ABC).

To discover more, please visit www.abcam.com and www.abcamplc.com

Media Contact: Claire Thompson, claire.thompson@agilityhealthtech.com, M: 44 (0)7885591187
About Glassdoor

Glassdoor combines all the latest jobs with millions of reviews and insights to make it easy for people to find a job that is uniquely right for them. As a result, Glassdoor helps employers hire truly informed candidates at scale through effective recruiting solutions like job advertising and employer branding products. Launched in 2008, Glassdoor now has reviews and insights for over one million companies located in more than 190 countries. For more information, visit glassdoor.com. Glassdoor® is a registered trademark of Glassdoor, Inc.

On Glassdoor, current and former employees voluntarily and anonymously share insights and opinions about their work environments by sharing a company review, designed to capture a genuine and authentic inside look at what a specific job may be like at a particular company. When sharing a company review on Glassdoor, employees are asked to rate their satisfaction with the company overall, and key workplace factors like career opportunities, compensation and benefits, culture and values, senior management and work/life balance. In addition, employees are asked to describe the best reasons to work at their companies as well as any downsides.

Media Contact: Jo Cresswell – pr@glassdoor.com

About Glassdoor Best Places to Work Awards

Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work were determined using company reviews shared by UK-based employees between 23rd October 2018 and 21st October 2019. To be considered for the UK award, a company must have had at least 1,000 or more employees and have received at least 30 ratings across each of the eight workplace attributes from UK-based employees during the period of eligibility. The final list is compiled using Glassdoor’s proprietary algorithm, led by its Economic Research Team, and takes into account quantity, quality and consistency of reviews.

For the complete list of the Glassdoor Best Places to Work winners in 2020, please visit: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Award/Best-Places-to-Work-UK-LST_KQ0,22.htm