New Cheshire lab will boost North West life sciences industry

GE Healthcare Life Sciences will launch an open-access lab at Alderley Park’s Mereside Campus, the UK’s largest single-site life sciences campus, next week.

Set to open on Wednesday, October 30, the facility, in partnership with Alderley Park, will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accelerate their science through access to advanced technologies, services and training from GE Healthcare Life Sciences.

The partnership builds on the collaborative research environment and co-working laboratories at Alderley Park.

The expertise and technology from GE Healthcare Life Sciences will support SMEs from early stage R&D to process development through manufacturing.

GE says the lab will feature advanced protein and cell analysis technologies including ÄKTA systems for protein purification, Biacore 8K for drug discovery, and IN Cell Analyzer 6500HS for cellular imaging.

The partnership will also provide valuable insights about the challenges SMEs face and opportunities to collaborate on solutions that will benefit the UK’s life sciences community.

The biotechnology industry in the UK is growing rapidly, making partnerships a key component of the industry’s success.

According to the UK Office of Life Sciences, as of 2018, there were 5,870 life science companies in the UK employing 248,400 people and the top 25 global bioscience companies all had operations in the UK.

Kath Mackay, Alderley Park managing director, said: “We’re thrilled to be launching this facility which will help accelerate our customers’ research and discovery aims.

“The new GE laboratory is an excellent addition to the highly-specialised scientific services offered at the park and complements the existing oncology, analytical and open access services.”

Conor McKechnie, chief marketing officer, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, said: “The start-up community at Alderley Park has the creativity, vision and scientific expertise to help transform medicine. Providing them access to our technologies and services is a natural part of our mission to accelerate and advance biotherapeutics.”

The partnership is already earning commendations from the industry. Steve Bates, chief executive of the BioIndustry Association, said: “GE Healthcare Life Sciences is an important partner for the BIA and our community.

“This new lab will give our members early access and training for all the tools they need for drug discovery, protein science and bioprocessing research.”

GE Healthcare Life Sciences has been supporting UK biotech start-ups through its partnerships with Stevenage BioScience Catalyst (SBC) and Clustermarket, a leading online sharing marketplace.

The group said the opening of the lab at Alderley Park further demonstrates its commitment to supporting the UK’s growth and success in biotech.