Grant will help develop ground-breaking disease test device for women

Life sciences business, Aptamer Group, in partnership with Bioliquid Innovative Genetics and Anima Design of Spain, has been awarded a €1.125m/£979,000 grant as part of the Eurostar-3 competition.

York-based Aptamer Group, working with its partners within a consortium, will develop a new medical device for improved non-invasive prenatal testing and the diagnosis of placental disease. 

Current prenatal diagnostic methods are highly invasive, carrying risk of miscarriage, infection, and injury to the foetus.

Aptamer Group will be developing Optimer binders – which can be used as synthetic alternatives to antibodies – to be used within the new medical device.

Dr Rob Quinn, interim chief executive officer of Aptamer Group, said: “We are extremely pleased to have been selected for such an exciting and prestigious grant, and to bring the power of our Optimer platform to develop novel reagents to support improved foetal and placental diagnostics.

“The consortium members all bring important expert knowledge of their specialisms, and we look forward to working closely with them to develop Optimer binders to enable this new device for more tolerable, personalised medicine approaches in the field of foetal and women’s health.”

The Eurostars-3 competition is a joint program sponsored by Eureka and the European Commission.