103597Novel manufacture and commercialisation of a 96-well 3D skin model for drug and toxicology testingClosedCollaborative R&DISCFAlcyomics have developed unique, non-animal, non-artificial human skin explant assays (Skimune™ and Skimune™3D) which can test for safety and efficacy of novel drugs and compounds, including cosmetics. Alcyomics assays enable the products of the pharmacuetical, chemical and cosmetics industries to reach the clinic and/or the market place, quicker by early assessment of their safety profiles. Alcyomics has recently improved their service offering by developing Skimune™ 3D, a new 3D human skin model for skin sensitisation which predicts adverse immune responses or allergy, as well as toxic profiles, of the compounds under test. The next stage of development involves improving the scalablility of this 3D skin model to increase capacity and further commercialisation. The project funding will be used to transform the existing model into a standard 96-well plate format, thereby increasing the number of drugs and novel compounds that can be tested and creating a platform that is amenable to future automation. The construction of this tool will involve novel, bespoke manufacturing processes and collaboration with another North East company (ReproCELL). Successful completion of this work will enable Alcyomics to increase the capacity of their drug testing operation for the toxicology and genotoxicity markets. This will provide a greater service provision and aid Alcyomics to achieve its objective to become a 'one-stop shop' for safety and efficacy profiling for the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetics industry globally. ReproCELL as distributor will also aid in increasing sales and marketing.