Latest Lab Talk News in Brief: fundraising, events, appointments, regulation

Open Access publisher MDPI announced a new two-year agreement with the UK’s Jisc consortium. Until the end of 2027, more than 60 UK institutions will have access to MDPI’s Institutional Open Access Program, including substantial discounts on Article Processing Charges.

De Montfort University is the latest institution to join MDPI’s partnership program. The University of the West of Scotland, University of West London, Robert Gordon University, and University of Leicester also joined in 2025. MDPI has also opened its first office in the United States.

The organisation’s 2025 annual reported its journal portfolio included 500 titles, with

150 new Institutional Open Access Program partners and 32 new society agreements.

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Broughton has achieved Good Manufacturing Practice accreditation at its Oak Tree House facility in Lancashire, following an inspection by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. The firm said that, together with its accreditation at its Coleby House site in North Yorkshire, it could support clients with testing to “the highest regulatory standards”, helping ensure products were “compliant, safe and ready for consumers”. Oak Tree House site now holds GMP accreditation, ISO 17025 accreditation and controlled drugs licenses up to and including Schedule I.

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Abselion has appointed Dale Gordon as chair of the board of directors, a move coinciding with the recent establishment of its US subsidiary. Gordon brings more than 30 years’ experience across the life sciences sector, most recently as CEO of Mirus Bio, a provider of transfection technologies widely used in viral vector production. He was also CEO at Gemini Bio and held leadership roles at GE Life Sciences (now Cytiva), and Merck Millipore.

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UK-BASED cleanroom engineering company Total Clean Air, a UKAS ISO 17025-accredited cleanroom constructor, has been appointed European partner for US-based decontamination technology firm TOMI Environmental Solutions.

The firm said partnership combined TOMI’s decontamination technology with Total Clean Air’s expertise in cleanroom design, construction and validation, “enabling organisations to implement integrated contamination control solutions within regulated environments”.

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A new X-ray imaging technique could transform how hospitals analyse tissue samples, potentially speeding up diagnoses and improving outcomes for patients, says a new study led by UCL researchers.

The technology, developed in collaboration with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, Rigaku Americas and Creatv MicroTech, produces 3D maps of biological tissue without cutting or staining samples. At present, histopathology techniques used for the examination of tissue to study, diagnose and treat diseases depend on slicing tissue samples, extracted in a biopsy, into thin sections, staining them with dyes and examining each slice under a microscope. These 2D images are stacked on top of each other to create a 3D image and then interpreted by specialists to identify disease. The developers say their new technology could improve the current time-consuming, costly and destructive process that often results in crucial follow-up tests that might provide the correct diagnosis not being performed.

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UK-based life science software compan, Lab Thread has released a free version of its Unified Lab Software Platform, available to academic and non-profit researchers worldwide and tailored to support early-stage. Academic users can access a range of powerful features, including a DNA sequence viewer, an electronic notebook (ELN) system and accompanying templates that remove the need for extensive set-up processes.

Co-founder and CTO Deyan Sultov said: “Putting these systems in place can be extremely resource-intensive, something that can be challenging for academic and non-profit research where budgets are limited.”

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Actoris has launched its Biophysics Centre of Excellence, a major expansion of infrastructure, expertise and strategic partnerships designed to meet accelerating global demand for high-fidelity experimental data in AI-driven drug discovery.
Tom Fleming, co-founder and CEO, said: “Our new biophysics Centre of Excellence signals our total commitment to the acceleration of drug discovery progress through the provision of robust, scalable, and AI-ready datasets.”
The new centre represents a tenfold expansion of Arctoris’ biophysical instrumentation park and a substantial increase in laboratory footprint. The firm said its expanded capacity positions the company as a global reference site for quantitative molecular interaction science at industrial scale

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Sustainable drainage system specialist Sudsplanter has partnered with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) on three flood prevention and research projects designed to advance the use of nature-based solutions in urban water management.   

The first initiative - a pilot in Edinburgh’s Craigleith area led by Scottish Water - involved the installation of free water butts and Sudsplanter-supplied sustainable drainage planter systems at 27 residential properties. The aim was to reduce surface water entering the combined sewer system from domestic roof-tops and help mitigate flooding downstream.  

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Viridi, the UK-based deep-tech company, has appointed Alastair Sanderson, formerly of Unilever, as a strategic advisor, as it enters the ‘critical scale-up phase’ of its CO₂-based chemistry platform, from laboratory and pilot stages towards commercial deployment and industrial partnerships.

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The Chemical Business Association has welcomed the announcement that biocides are to be included within renewed EU-UK negotiations, with the agreement due to take effect next year.

Operations director Elaine McGavin said: “Since the UK’s departure from the EU, companies have had to navigate a separate UK biocides regime alongside the EU system established under the Biocidal Products Regulation. This has created a dual regulatory system, increasing costs and administrative burdens for businesses trading across both markets.

She added the HSE’s lead role in UK biocide regulation, had been hampered by a significant inherited workload that has contributed to delays.

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The UK faces significant pressure to comply with legislation for fluorinated gases (F-Gas) used in refrigeration, claims an Aggreko whitepaper.

Temperature Check: What Does UK Industry Need to Compete? Says the challenge is exacerbated by widespread ageing cooling infrastructure, volatile market conditions, and the growing threat of extreme weather. The report surveyed 334 manufacturing plant managers responsible for cooling processes at companies with a turnover of at least £50 million.

The UK is aiming for a 98.6% reduction in hydrofluorocarbons, which comprise the vast majority of F-gas emissions, by 2048 compared to 2015 levels.

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ELRIG, the not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation dedicated to the global drug discovery community, has announced the keynote speakers for Advances in Cell-based Screening 2026, taking place at AstraZeneca in Gothenburg, Sweden from 6–7 May. Prof Hazel Screen (Queen Mary University of LondonUL) and Dr Dave Powell (Relation Therapeutics) will deliver the keynote presentations during the free-to-attend event which aims to unite scientist from across pharma, biotech, academia, and the supplier ecosystem to discuss what is needed to engineer the post-animal drug discovery pipeline.

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Ireland’s Athlone Laboratories hosted three of the Dublin government’s leading figures for responsible for the country’s pharma sector, to discuss the future of domestic critical medicines. Peter Burke, minister for enterprise, tourism and employment; Rory Mullen, head of biopharma and food at inward foreign investment body IDA Ireland; and Noeleen Hussey, regional manager – west region, IDA Ireland. The meeting focussed on Beta-Lactams, a class of antibiotics vital for patient care and health systems.

Ireland’s Critical Medicine’s Act prioritises their supply and availability, with Athlone Laboratories and its sister company, Gaelic Laboratories, among Irish firms specialising Beta-Lactam manufacture and occupying a key role in Ireland’s contract manufacturing.

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University of Edinburgh spin-out BIOCAPTIVA has raised £1.58 million in a new funding round and launched its first product in the USA.

The operation was led by existing investor Archangels, with support from Old College Capital, BBI, Scottish Enterprise, and new investor EverQuest Capital Partners.

The spin-out’s novel magnetic bead technology is designed to improve how cell-free DNA is captured from blood and make liquid biopsy testing more reliable, scalable, and accessible.

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Pic: Lab Thread, Broughton, Athlone Laboratories, BIOCAPTIVA