Latest Lab Talk News in Brief: Awards, approvals, licences, collaborations and more

The award recognises the company’s international growth since its founding in 2015. Antibodies.com has tripled its customer base over the past five years and now supplies research reagents to scientists in more than 100 countries across over 5,000 research institutions and biopharma companies. (Pic: bottom right)

The MHRA is establishing a new hub in Belfast aimed at strengthening engagement with Northern Ireland’s life sciences sector.

Hosted by Invest Northern Ireland, the hub will provide organisations with access to regulatory expertise covering areas including innovation pathways, clinical investigations and product development support.

Northern Ireland’s life sciences sector includes around 250 businesses supporting approximately 18,000 jobs.

Vetter has begun construction of a new commercial production site for injectable drugs in Saarlouis, Germany.

The CDMO plans to invest almost €500m in the facility by its planned commissioning in 2031. The first phase includes a 50,000 sqm manufacturing site with cleanrooms for aseptic filling of syringes and vials, alongside laboratories and warehouses.

The site is expected to create 400 to 500 jobs initially, potentially rising to 2,000 over time.

Amsbio says researchers at the Karolinska Institute are using its adeno-associated virus products in research investigating rheumatoid arthritis pain.

In a peer-reviewed study, researchers used AAV technology for conditional Ifnar1 knockout in sensory neurons, resulting in reduced joint pain and improved function. The approach enabled investigation of joint-innervating neurons linked to inflammatory pain mechanisms in rheumatoid arthritis.

Roche Diagnostics has received CE Mark approval for the Elecsys pTau217 blood test for Alzheimer’s disease, enabling use in clinical settings in the UK and Ireland.

The test is designed to help rule in and rule out amyloid pathology using a minimally invasive blood draw. Roche said it offers comparable accuracy to PET-CT scans and cerebrospinal fluid testing while potentially helping reduce diagnostic delays.

The test was developed in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company.

Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult is providing investment to UK biotech company Lir Therapeutics to support development of its AI-driven AAV capsid design platform.

Funding from the Innovate UK Cross Catapult Investment Pilot will support biological validation of the company’s nAAVigator platform and generation of datasets intended to attract pharma partners and investors.

The platform is designed to address challenges associated with AAV-based gene therapies, including manufacturing, potency and immunogenicity.

Modular Clean Air is now wholly owned by Total Clean Air, following its launch as a joint venture in 2025.

The move positions MCA as TCA’s dedicated modular cleanroom brand, supporting increased demand for modular cleanroom solutions across pharmaceuticals, life sciences and other regulated sectors.

TCA chief executive Phillip Godden (bottom left) said the change will provide a more integrated approach to project delivery by combining cleanroom and modular construction expertise under a single structure.

Envoke has raised a further £1.6m to support expansion into the Asia-Pacific market.

The Leeds-based company develops software providing remote training and support for users of complex laboratory equipment. Its platform creates virtual replicas of instruments, enabling interactive training, troubleshooting and maintenance support.

Customers include Bio-Rad, Thermo Fisher Scientific, PacBio, Haemonetics and the Mayo Clinic. The company, headed by CEO Stuart Warrington (top left) said the latest funding round brings total investment to more than £4m.

A major UK and Ireland study into treatment of Wilms tumour has found children have similarly high recovery rates regardless of hospital size or annual case volume.

The University College London-led study analysed 17 years of data from more than 1,000 children treated across 20 specialist centres. Researchers found no significant variation in survival rates between smaller and larger centres or where treatment differed from standard care guidelines in more complex cases.

Clinisys France has obtained Qualiopi certification for its training activities.

The French certification confirms compliance with the national quality framework for training providers and allows professionally funded training programmes to be delivered through public and mutualised funding mechanisms.

Hua Wang has been named recipient of the 2026 Biomaterials Science lectureship.

The award recognises early-career researchers making significant contributions to the biomaterials field. Wang is associate professor in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with research spanning cancer immunotherapy, immunoengineering and biomaterials.

FUJIFILM Biosciences and NextCell Pharma have announced a global commercial launch linked to their strategic collaboration in mesenchymal stromal cell research.

The offering combines FUJIFILM Biosciences’ PRIME-XV MSC Expansion XSFM medium with NextCell-Cord RUO, a research-use-only MSC product derived from umbilical cord tissue. The companies said the collaboration is intended to support more standardised and efficient cell therapy research workflows.

IOP Publishing has developed a machine learning-powered tool designed to detect duplicate peer review reports.

The Duplicate Review Checker automatically flags highly similar reviewer reports to editorial teams, helping identify unreliable or fraudulent peer review activity. Since pilot deployment in 2024, the system has processed around 500,000 reports and identified nearly 2,500 cases with substantial content overlap.

Ceva Animal Health and Japan-based Mitsui & Co have launched Ceva Bussan Animal Health, a joint venture that brings together Bussan Animal Health (BAH) and Ceva Japan. As part of the transaction, Mitsui has transferred 60% of its shareholding in BAH to Ceva. The venture will be operated by Ceva as a controlling shareholder with Mitsui’s support.

Mitsui has made an additional strategic equity investment in Ceva, further reinforcing the long-standing partnership between companies.

Meanwhile, Ian Tarpey has been appointed EVP, group innovation and R&D director at Ceva, joining the executive committee. He brings more than 25 years of international animal health R&D experience, including senior leadership roles at MSD Animal Health and Intervet.

Axithra has appointed Lars Kongsbak as chief executive officer as the company moves towards clinical testing and planned Series A financing.

The Ghent University and imec spin-off is developing a Raman spectroscopy-based platform for therapeutic drug monitoring. Co-founder Leander Van Neste will move into the role of COO.

Eva Blasco has received the 2026 Polymer Chemistry lectureship.

The award recognises early-career researchers making significant contributions to polymer science. Blasco, based at Heidelberg University, has published more than 125 papers and received multiple international research awards.

A study led by the University of St Andrews suggests weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic taken around pregnancy do not appear to increase the risk of major birth defects.

Published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the systematic review analysed more than 49,000 pregnancies exposed to GLP-1 receptor agonists over a 20-year period. Researchers said the findings provide cautious reassurance for unexpected pregnancies but do not support routine use during pregnancy.