Latest Lab Talk news in brief: major investment, sector ‘vulnerable’, contracts, sales and acquisitions
15 Oct 2025
University of Nottingham spin-out Forge Genetics has raised a total of £2 million to expand its commercial work developing bacteria strains and adapt its tool for use with human and animal cells.
The firm, which has developed a novel gene-editing tool, secured funding from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, through its appointed fund manager, Mercia Ventures.
Forge claims its technology has advantages over gene-editing tool CRISPR, including more precise targeting that enables more bacterial cells to survive editing process, and application on a wider range of bacterial strains. The firm also asserts that it can detect unwanted DNA mutations resulting from the editing process and filter out the damaged cells.
Forge Genetics was founded by Professor Nigel Minton, Dr Chris Humphreys and Dr Craig Woods from the University of Nottingham, who were later joined by Dr Lisa Thomas. Since its launch less than two years ago, has secured over £2.2m worth of business. The company, which is based at the university, plans to double its 10-strong team within the next two years. Pic: l-r Lisa Thomas, Craig Woods, Chris Humphreys
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Plimsoll’s latest report suggest that 160 out of 682 leading companies in the UK scientific & laboratory equipment industry are in “financial danger”. However, it adds, 407 are generating their best profits.
The analysis notes 62 companies are currently rated as “highly attractive” acquisition targets, while 56 grew sales by more than 10% in the last year against sector average growth of 1%. Overall, 323 firms reported higher sales, with 327 seeing declines. Additionally, some 272 companies are worth more than a year ago, while 105 lost more than a quarter of their value.
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Newly appointed joint administrators of TC BioPharm Limited Michael Magnay and Rob Croxen of Alvarez & Marsal have launched a sale process for the business and assets of the firm.
Motherwell-based TC BioPharm was an early developer of allogeneic Gamma-Delta T-Cell therapies, initially treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia and was the first company to conduct Phase II clinical studies in AML using Gamma-Delta T Cells.
No immediate redundancies are being made before sale of the business, with interested parties invited to contact abaird@alvarezandmarsal.com.
Said Magnay: “As Joint Administrators, our priority is to run a sale process at pace, and we encourage any parties interested in acquiring the business and assets, which include the intellectual property, to reach out to us as soon as possible.”
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Cleanroom contamination control solutions specialist Redditch Medical has been acquired by German healthcare company Schülke & Mayr.
The deal marks an exit for Traditum Private Equity, which invested early last year and has achieved a significant return.
Founded in 2012 as a subsidiary of the Entaco Group, Redditch Medical manufactures the InSpec range of cleanroom disinfectants and detergents for the life sciences industry, and provides technical support, including microbiological and chemical analytics. The company is based in County Durham and employs 44 staff, with exports accounting for the majority of its turnover.
Traditum will retain a stake in Entaco’s remaining divisions, based in Worcestershire, which manufacture surgical needles and medical devices. Entaco and Redditch Medical CEO Steve Brown will remain with Redditch Medical under its new ownership.
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The US National Institute on Aging’s Long Life Family Study (LLFS) has selected PacBio’s Revio system to generate genomic and epigenomic data from as many as 7,800 participants over five years.
It aims to capture highly accurate HiFi long-read sequencing data designed to shed light on why longevity runs in families and what drives healthier aging.
“Long-read HiFi sequencing gives us the accuracy and resolution to see variants and methylation patterns missed by other technologies,” said Dr. Michael Province, professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and contact principal investigator of the project. “By generating comprehensive genomes and epigenomes from extended pedigrees with multiple family members living to exceptional ages in LLFS, we expect to sharpen our ability to pinpoint pathways that influence healthy aging and exceptional longevity.”
The Long Life Family study has enrolled 5,438 individuals across 539 three-generational pedigrees in the U.S. and Denmark and conducted three major rounds of ‘in-home phenotypic’ visits spanning a period of nearly 20 years.
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UK-based startup Scindo’s development of an AI platform to discover and design next-generation enzymes, has raised £4 million in funding. Led by Kadmos Capital and Clay Capital, it includes PINC, the venture arm of international food and beverage company Paulig and existing investors Synbioven, AgFunder, SOSV, Farvatn Venture and Savantus Ventures.
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Digital chemistry company Chemify is relocating to Glasgow’s life science facility, Health Innovation Hub (HiH).
The pharmaceutical, biotechnology and industrial technology provider will occupy more than 40,000 sq ft across two floors with additional space on the ground floor of the site, a move billed as the largest commercial letting of the year to date for life sciences in Glasgow. Previously headquartered at the Advanced Research Centre (ARC) at the University of Glasgow, Chemify currently employs 165 leading scientists and specialists from around the world.
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Intertronics has released a new white paper on bonding process validation in medical devices. Process Validation in Medical Device Bonding: Controlling Variables advises manufacturers on how to minimise or eliminate process variables, ISO/FDA compliance and reliability improvements.
It also provides recommendations for medical device manufacturers to speed products to market and minimise risk. A 2023 study by Deloitte of the FDA Medical Device Recalls Database suggested that poor production and process controls accounted for 15.2 per cent of recalls.
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Dublin-based AI pathology company Deciphex has secured €15 million in venture debt from Claret Capital Partners to accelerate expansion across the US and UK markets. It follows a €31 million Series C in January with the firm aiming to become “the UK's leading histopathology provider by 2027”.
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Owlstone Medical has won an award of up to US$49.1 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health for the Platform Optimizing SynBio for Early Intervention and Detection in Oncology (POSEIDON) program. The program aims to develop first-in-class synthetic-sensor based Multi-Cancer-Early Detection tests for Stage I detection of more than 30 solid tumours, using breath and urine samples that can be performed in the home and available over the counter.
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Pic: (clockwise from top) Glasgow HiH, Intertronics, Forge Genetics, Redditch Medical
