Environmental chamber assists in asthma research

Saffron Scientific has supplied a bespoke environmental chamber to assist St George's Hospital Medical School (SGHMS), London, in its efforts to develop a revolutionary new medicine for asthma.

The research and development is focused on developing a treatment to help those who already have the condition and also to protect those who are at risk of developing it.

According to Asthma UK, over 5.2 million people in the UK suffer from asthma (that's one in 12 adults and one in ten children).

Asthma now costs the NHS an average of £889 million per year.

Common triggers of asthma are allergies and the house dust mite.

These mites induce allergic reactions in up to 90% of sufferers, triggering rhinitis allergica or bronchial asthma.

The mites are so tiny that they are virtually invisible without magnification.

SGHMS required an environmental chamber to grow house dust mites as part of its drug development programme.

The chamber has been designed specifically to create and control the precise humidity that these mites thrive on, and to protect the scientists while working with the powerful asthma-causing substances that the mites produce.

Adapted from the Saffron standard Beta range style of glove-box, the chamber incorporates exacting levels of intelligence and control to maintain the high levels of accuracy required by the customer.

Clive Robinson, reader in respiratory cell science and co-founder of the SGHMS spin-out company Aldezon, which is developing the machine, said: "It has been a pleasure collaborating with the staff at Saffron Scientific during the specification, design and construction phases of this unusual requirement.

"Their ability to draw on extensive expertise enabled us to proceed quickly from placing the contract to installation of the finished product.

"The chamber will be vital in enabling Aldezon to fulfil its busy drug development schedule."