REINNERVATE, a biotechnology company founded by Prof Stefan Przyborski of Durham University's School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, has won a major international research and development award.
The company’s breakthrough 3D cell structure technology, alvetex, was chosen by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine to be among the hundred most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.
The R&D 100 Award was presented to reinnervate at a special Gala Awards Banquet on October 13 at the Renaissance Orlando Hotel, SeaWorld, Florida, USA.
Reinnervate has also announced that it has signed agreements with seven new European distributors for the non-exclusive distribution of alvetex.
These agreements mark a significant expansion of reinnervate’s distribution network. Under the terms of the new agreements, alvetex will be distributed and sold under the reinnervate brand by regional distributors of life sciences research products—Generon (UK), Biozol GmbH (Germany), Chemie Brunschwig AG (Switzerland), THP Medical Products (Austria), In Vitro AS (Denmark), Euroclone (Italy), and Bio Connect (the Benelux region).
Following the recent expansion of reinnervate’s distribution network in Asia and Australia, the appointment of these new distributors further increases the company’s global reach, enabling more researchers to directly access the alvetex 3D technology platform.
Prof Przyborski's company assists in the funding of eight research PhDs in the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences and the Department of Chemistry, with a view to benefiting from the technology that the students help to develop.
In collaboration, reinnervate then further builds on the research, developing products here in the UK so that they are ready for the international bio-tech market.
Alvetex is a unique and proprietary cell structure scaffold that, for the first time, enables genuine 3D cell growth to be performed routinely and cost effectively in cell biology laboratories.
Prof Przyborski said: “Technology has now advanced to the stage where scientists can move away from basic two dimensional models simulating cell growth in the laboratory. Alvetex creates more valuable three dimensional systems.”