Edinburgh’s PhaSER Biomedical has received a $2.3m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue its work in accelerating drug discovery and development.
The spin-out will provide 8HUM transgenic mouse models, humanised for key pathways involved in the metabolism and disposition of drugs, to all the foundation grantees.
The models recapitulate the ways drugs are metabolised in humans and have applications including drug efficacy, the prediction of drug interactions and the more informed design of clinical trials.
The three-year programme will see PhaSER collaborate within the Global Health Discovery Collaboratory Programme, which is also funded by the Gates Foundation. This will provide collaborating researchers – involved in combatting diseases such as Malaria, TB, HIV, pandemic preparedness and non-hormonal contraception – with access to the drug development platform.
The 8HUM model has been extensively characterised and validated over the course of 15 years research and has demonstrated its power in addressing common drug discovery and development challenges.
Roland Wolf, PhaSER’s founder, commented: “We are delighted to receive this support from the Gates Foundation, which will allow us to provide these valuable mice to drug discovery groups working on some of the most pressing global health care challenges we are faced with today.”
