Hamamatsu Photonics UK Ltd and the Medical Technologies Innovation Facility enter into a partnership agreement

Hamamatsu Photonics UK Ltd and Medical Technologies Innovation Facility (MTIF) are pleased to announce they have entered into a partnership agreement enabling customers the ability to view and utilize Hamamatsu’s Functional Drug Screening System (FDSS) µCELL. This is the first FDSS/µCELL to be made available in the UK in this way.

This new collaboration aims to leverage the photonics expertise, novel proprietary technology and applications of Hamamatsu, with the significant medical technology research and development capabilities of MTIF.

“This is a high-end specialist piece of equipment utilised in the development of innovative medicines around the world. We are very excited to be able to provide customers with this capability, that complements our own research using this technically superb equipment”. Says Professor John Hunt, Head of Strategic Research at MTIF and within Nottingham Trent University.

“This partnership provides companies with a unique opportunity to use cutting edge high through-put technology to screen compounds for pharmacological activity. These capabilities are usually unavailable to all but the largest organisations. This collaboration allows organisations of every size the opportunity to accelerate their drug discovery programme”. Says Professor Mike Hannay, Managing Director of the Medical Technologies Innovation Facility (MTIF) .

“Hamamatsu has a long history in developing cutting edge scientific equipment for the life science market; our FDSS/µCELL enables scientists, such as those working at MTIF, to make breakthroughs in the field of drug discovery and compound research. We are really excited about this new partnership between Hamamatsu and the team at MTIF helping to make such advanced instrumentation available to hundreds of potential users throughout the UK research community”. Tim Stokes, Managing Director of Hamamatsu Photonics UK Ltd.

The FDSS/μCELL is a compact, easy to use screening system that enables monitoring of GPCRs and ion channels for drug discovery and life science research. Screening various compounds at high throughput (96 / 384 well assays) is enabled by fluorescence or luminescence measurements using a highly sensitive Hamamatsu camera, which captures cell dynamics under the same conditions with no time lag between wells. It is also capable of recording changes in electrical potential in iPSC-derived neuronal and cardiac stem cells to gain a better understanding of toxic compound effects.

Through this new technical collaboration, HPUK and MTIF will organically integrate their respective advanced technologies and development capabilities to showcase this novel laboratory screening technology onsite at MTIF in Nottingham, UK.

Hamamatsu Photonics and MTIF aim to benefit the UK life science sector by accelerating the availability of new medical and pharmaceutical therapies. By aligning capabilities and ambitions, the parties will deliver benefit to clients by helping them to successfully navigate the complexities of discovering drug and cell therapy candidates.

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