CN Bio Innovations marks World Hepatitis Day by signing research agreement with Imperial College London

Posted July 2014

Collaboration will develop and further validate CN Bio’s in vitro model of Hepatitis B liver infection

Oxford, UK, 28 July 2014: CN Bio Innovations Ltd (CN Bio), an expert in developing leading edge human biomimetic platforms to test and develop therapeutics for serious diseases, announced today that it has signed a research agreement with Imperial College London to advance the development of in vitro models of liver infection based on the company’s LiverChip™ platform. The announcement coincides with the WHO World Hepatitis Day and serves to further emphasise the current efforts being forged by industry and academia to find cures for Hepatitis and other serious liver diseases.

Validation of in vitro system for liver infection

Dr Marcus Dorner, who is the Lead Principal Investigator on the new project at Imperial, commented: “Unfortunately, the liver models currently in widespread use often fail to accurately reproduce what we see in vivo, limiting their utility.” He continued: “We’re excited about the early potential shown by CN Bio’s platform for studying the pathology of Hepatitis B and look forward to presenting our results from this ongoing program of work at a number of international conferences this Fall.”

Forging enabling partnerships and alliances with Academia and Industry

Dr Emma Sceats, COO at CN Bio, said: “We are pleased to extend our relationship with Imperial through this new collaboration with Dr Dorner and Professor Mark Thursz. Forging partnerships with key opinion leaders and academic groups is a cornerstone of our research and development strategy whose goal is to bring to market biomimetic models that will provide unique insights into liver biology and disease pathology. Through alliance partnerships with major pharmaceutical and biotech companies, CN Bio’s experts are using these models to accelerate the development of drugs that will provide life-changing treatment and cures for patients affected by serious liver diseases.”

Early results from the collaboration are due to be presented at a number of conferences including the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) meeting in Boston, November 7–11, 2014. For more details visit the CN Bio website.

About CN Bio Innovations (CN Bio)

CN Bio Innovations (CN Bio), formerly Zyoxel Ltd, is part of the Hong Kong-based, CN Innovations Holdings Limited (CNI). CN Bio provides human biomimetic platforms for the testing and development of therapeutics for serious human diseases. Working closely with academic pioneers in the bio-engineering field, CN Bio is developing next generation tissue and disease models which will improve the quality of life for millions of people around the world by fast tracking breakthrough therapies to market.