Spin Out List

Acimetrics Limited was established in January 2004 to exploit proprietary University technology in Near Infrared (NIR) sensing, which provides significant and valuable new capabilities in non-contact, real time measurement of organic materials on a production line or in medical monitoring.
Contact Heather White - Senior Business Manager.

The company is developing a platform diagnostic technology which can be used to detect a range of analytes - from bacteria to small molecules, such as drugs of abuse. The assay features Bio Responsive Immuno Targeted liposomes which are able to form self-assembled aggregates in the presence of their targets, generating a colorimetric or fluorescent response. An assay for the detection of low levels of viable bacteria is available for licence.

Development towards commercial implementation of research work by Prof. Steve Furber's group on hardware support for large-scale neural nets. Neural nets self adapt to learn from information. They provide powerful models for processing inexact data and supporting complex decision making. However, neural nets have traditionally been deployed in software and small scale. Prof. Furber's group have developed new approaches to large scale deployments. The group is working towards the ultimate research goal of building a hardware system capable of supporting a model of a billion neuron system that can operate in real time.

CTC Ltd was formed to identify, research and develop to prototype stage, advanced process control systems applicable to control problems selected by its customers.

Dmist Technologies Ltd has developed unique, patented technology which permits the enhancement of video images (live or recorded) acquired under adverse environmental conditions; such as in the presence of fog, haze, rain or smoke. Dmist has already received strong interest from a wide range of sectors, such as; shipping, ports, airports, aircraft, general security surveillance, traffic monitoring, defence, outside broadcast television and underwater applications.

Foaming is a common problem in many liquid processes, particularly those involving fermentation. Foaming results in lost product, poor utilisation of processing equipment, the need for de-foaming chemicals and presents difficulties for level measurement and control. Based on research from the University of Manchester, Laser Technologies has developed a very low powered laser de-foaming system for applications in brewing, pharmaceutical, and water treatment.

Anti-fungal drug discovery: using its patented MutantBankT technology, F2G is able to identify novel molecular targets - the first step to finding new therapeutics for pathogenic fungi. The company also has a focused medicinal chemistry section, working on a natural product lead structure.

Aldezon is a start-up drug discovery business founded by Prof David Garrod (University of Manchester) and Dr Clive Robinson (St Mary's Hospital Medical School). It is focused on developing a new class of drugs known as Allergen Delivery Inhibitors (ADIs) which will have a key role in the prevention and treatment of a range allergic conditions. The company is currently seeking to fund the continued development of its novel asthma management compounds.
Contact: Dr Rich Ferrie, Senior Business Manager (Biomedica)

Development of software for a face generator to provide true-to-life, digitally synthesized facial images for use in electronic and e-commerce markets, providing end users with the ability to manipulate these images in a variety of ways. Contact: Louise Butcher

This spin-out company was formed in July 1999 as a joint venture between the University Of Manchester and Dr. Richard Walmsley, an expert in yeast molecular genetics. The company was established to exploit novel technology that was developed from research under the leadership of Dr Walmsley, and which forms the basis for a range of products called 'GreenScreen' now being commercialised by Gentronix Ltd. The GreenScreen assay system enables Pharmaceutical companies to get a cost-effective preview of the toxicity of potential drug candidates in early stage drug development by indicating the outcome of the later stage, costly battery of pre-clinical regulatory tests that must be completed before clinical trials can begin. Gentronix has several blue-chip Pharmaceutical companies in it's client list, and several new products in development.

Development of software that uses active shape modelling to facilitate the automated reading of digital images for clinical trials. The time-saving and reduced costs provided by this system for the analysis of medical imaging will be of major importance to the pharmaceutical industry.

Peering and collocation services for Internet Service Providers, including Rack management service, 24/7 operations back-up, Full on-line UPS and generator, Filestore back-up, Air conditioning.

Nano ePrint, based in Manchester, is a spin-out company formed in June 2006 following pioneering research at the University of Manchester. Nano ePrint owns a suite of intellectual property related to a planar nanoelectronics platform. This technology ("Self-Switching Devices") is unique with electronic devices being fabricated in one-step of lithography or printing, enabling extremely low-cost manufacture.

Manchester Informatics Ltd handles the commercial exploitation of the work of the ten research groups within the University's Department of Computer Science.The company provides consultancy and support services to the industrial community in respect of training, consultancy, out-licensing, etc.

Microarray has an innovative technology that enables the manufacture of ultra low cost, high performance sensors, for a wide variety of aqueous sensor applications such as water quality, environmental and medical diagnostics. Electrochemical measurement techniques are widespread but to date are unsuitable for applications where the solution being measured is flowing or moving in any way as the response of such sensors is affected. Microarrays microelectrode system means that for a fraction of a penny, electrochemical sensors can be produced that overcome this problem. The company already has a license agreement in place for the technology in the water quality sector but is looking for other agreements in other application areas.
Contact Mark Thompson - Director, Microarray Ltd

Motac provides services to clients in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to aid the discovery and development of diagnostics and therapeutics to treat disorders of higher brain function (eg movement disorders, Parkinson's). These services include the progression of novel therapeutics through preclinical and clinical trials.

A Cardiff-based spin-out from the Universities of Cardiff and Manchester that aims to develop selective compounds for therapeutic use in treatments covering disorders such as dementia, incontinence and cardiovascular disease. Contact: Prof. Robin Davies at Cardiff University

Development of network monitoring and management software tools : reduce costs and downtime by providing real-time assurance that networks are performing efficiently and effectively, by warning of potential disruptions or failures, and by providing status logs for review and analysis.

Nanoco Technologies Ltd is a world leading nano-technology company which produces fluorescent semiconductor nano-particles quantum dots and quantum dot
products. Nanoco's quantum dots are non-toxic (free of cadmium) and RoHS compliant. Optical (color) and electronic properties of quantum dots can be changed by altering the size of the nano-crystalline particles. Nanoco manufacture large 50 gram batches of quantum dots and are currently scaling production capability through to 1 kilogram.

For further information, please see our website

NeuTec Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company which evolved from the Infectious Diseases Research Unit at the University of Manchester. Neu Tec now has two antibody products in multi-national clinical trials.

NeuTec's pioneering approach to the identification of new microbial targets has given it a strong patent position for the development of new therapeutic agents against a diverse range of infectious diseases. The intellectual property rights were transferred from the University of Manchester into the new company in 1997, and the company has steadily grown since this time. It floated on the Alternative Investment Market in February 2002.

Therapeutics Ltd aims to be the market leader in offering innovative, effective and affordable solutions for the management of oncological and non-oncological conditions in the global medical market and world leader in light only and combination medical and aesthetic treatments for Vitiligo and Acne using Omnilux LED technology.

Omnilux technology is based on an LED matrix delivering pure non laser the light. Uniquely the treatment head of Omnilux adjusts to the contours of the body, delivering the correct dose of light to the treatment area. Omnilux is available as:

Established in 1998 with the right to the patented Paterson Photodynamic Therapy lamp for worldwide penetration. Photo Therapeutics research, develop and manufacture non-laser light sources with potentially worldwide medical and cosmetic applications.

In association with the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research and Cancer Research UK, Photo Therapeutics developed the Paterson Lamp, a non-laser light-source used in photodynamic therapy as a non-invasive, effective treatment for skin cancer and lesions that could or would become cancerous if left untreated.

During the initial clinical research work it was observed that the red light emitted by the Paterson Lamp had a rejuvenation effect on the appearance and tone of the skin surrounding the treatment area. This observation lead to further trials and the development of the cosmetic unit, enlighten, marketed to the beauty salon industry as a fine line and wrinkle reduction treatment for the eye area.

Our next generation of light source, Omnilux pdt (medical) and Omnilux Revive (cosmetic) have been developed from the core technology of the Paterson light source.

Both products use an LED matrix to deliver the light; uniquely the treatment head of Omnilux adjusts to the contours of the body, delivering the correct dose of light to the treatment area.

Oncoprobe Ltd was formed in 1999 to commercialise a unique technology that enables bespoke cancer treatment by determining the chemosensitivity of individual patient tumours. The company is exploiting inter-disciplinary research in the field of electrochemistry of living cells carried out at the University of Manchester, and owns the patents and commercial rights to this technology. The novel patented technology enables drug selection to be made for individual patients to improve treatment effectiveness. The Company has developed a product to measure the responsiveness of individual patient cancer cells (from excised tumours or biopsy samples) to various drugs so that treatment may be optimised for each patient.
Contact Jim Bristow

Contract molecular biology services: customised in situ Hybridisation (ISH) services for the drug development industry. ISH is an extremely powerful research tool for the molecular biologist, allowing cellular localisation of a variety of nucleic acid sequences.

Development of software product: monitorMV - a toolbox of technologies for process condition monitoring, fault detection and diagnosis in industrial plants. monitorMV can make a significant contribution to the integrity of the day-to-day control room operations of industrial processes. The mass of data from a process plant can be analysed intelligently in real time to provide operational staff with advanced warnings of potentially catastrophic events. Predictions using monitorMV have already realised savings in excess of ?5m.

The PETRRA positron camera, developed in the UK by the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, is a completely novel PET (Positron Emission Tomography) medical imaging system based on interfacing barium fluoride crystals to a multi-wire proportional chamber filled with a photo-sensitive vapour. PET acknowledged as the method of choice for detection and staging of most types of cancer.
Clinical trials of the PETRRA prototype camera have now yielded the first clinical images of brain and torso. The images demonstrate the potential advantages that PETRRA offers over conventional PET imaging.

Novel and patented detector and signal processing technology, which will significantly reduce the purchasing and maintenance costs of PETRRA when compared with conventional PET A superior field of view (40 x 60 cm) that allows large portions of the body to be imaged in a much shorter time period than conventional PET, thereby increasing patient throughput. This faster throughput of patients both increases patient comfort and opens up the opportunities for PETRRA to be used for fast whole body imaging of a large numbers of patients Patients can, in some cases, be imaged with an injection of 1/3rd of the FDG levels that are required for conventional PET.

The technology is now ready for commercialisation and license partnerships are now being sought

The company was set up to develop and market data mining software and has significant expertise in the field of genetic programming. The powerful software product Gmax has potential application in many industries for predictive modelling and is being targeted initially at the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector for knowledge discovery from informatics databases. The software also has very large potential in the direct marketing industry for maximisation of advertising campaign revenues.
Contact: Heather White - Senior Business Manager

Wound-healing therapies - development of pharmaceutical products to prevent scarring and to accelerate wound healing, for rapid repair and regeneration following any form of injury, trauma or surgery. Renovo will develop pharmaceutical products at least up to Phase II clinical development and is also open to research collaborations at earlier discovery and development stages.

Senexis was established in 2002 with ?1.4m seed funding from BTG and Catalyst BioMedica to develop drug candidates for Alzheimer's disease based on their proprietary 'meptide' technology. If this approach proves to be effective, meptides could revolutionize the treatment of ageing-related diseases in much the same way that antibiotics have revolutionized the treatment of infectious diseases. Senexis Ltd moved to new premises in Cambridge in May 2004 but still has strong research links with the University.

Conformetrix offers a new platform technology that, for the first time, can rapidly determine highly accurate and biologically-relevant (aqueous) 3D and 4D structures of any small soluble molecule. Uniquely, our proprietary method quantifies experimentally the 4D conformational preference (in terms of modality, angle and libration amplitude) of each rotatable bond without recourse to electrostatics or van der Waals calculations.

Dr. Gordon Barker
Business Development Manager

TDL Sensors Ltd develops and licenses tunable diode laser-based gas sensor and analysis technology. The systems enable real-time, in-situ and highly sensitive measurement of gas emissions; which can be monitored remotely.The company collaborates with a number of licensees to develop prototypes and systems for specific sectors and applications, including; vehicle emissions, industrial process control and emissions monitoring, medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

Transitive is the leader in cross-platform virtualization solutions, with products deployed on more than 10 million computers worldwide. Transitive’s QuickTransit products allow software created for one CPU and operating system to run on different CPUs and/or operating systems without modification to source code or binaries, at near-native performance. Transitive’s achievements include the Rosetta software built into all Intel-based Apple Macs and the IBM PowerVM Lx86 software that is available with IBM Power Systems enterprise servers.

ViBio Ltd is focused on the development and commercialisation of the next generation of highly accurate prognostic tests for cervical cancer. These new tests take advantage of our unique insight into disease mechanism to provide women with more predictive information. This ensures that only those women who are at high risk of disease progression receive clinical intervention, whilst many women will receive reassurance that they are at low risk of disease. Founded by Drs Ian and Lynne Hampson, this venture has been supported by an investment from the Liverpool Seed Fund.

Contact: Dr Rich Ferrie, Senior Business Manager (Biomedica)

Multisensor Systems Ltd provides reliable and cost-effective volatile organic compound (VOC) monitoring systems for industrial and environmental applications. Our products are based on leading edge technology that draws upon the experience gained from over 20 years of research at the University of Manchester.

Working closely with major UK water utility and waste management companies, our systems have been refined to provide a robust solution for real-time VOC measurement in demanding site environments. Providing remote automated operation, the systems are designed to survive continuous field deployment with extended service intervals.

Capabilities include development of core sensing technologies, design and build of bespoke instrumentation, electronic control systems and software. In addition we are able to provide analytical laboratory support for characterisation of your application.

Plasma Clean is a technology development and licensing business whose strategy is to partner in the air cleansing sector to add value to our partners' products.
The company was established by the University of Manchester in 2002 and has recently received venture capital backing from four UK investors.
Plasma Clean specialises in novel technologies to radically improve air quality in commercial, industrial and domestic sectors leading to a healthier environment.

Arviaâ„¢ Technology is a new company that was set up in January 2007 with a wealth of high-level commercial and technical experience primarily from the water industry.

The Arvia process offers a significant breakthrough in truly cost-effective removal of organic micropollutants. The process, which is patent-protected, will be of particular interest for direct replacement of activated carbon.

Phagenesis Limited was incorporated in 2007 to facilitate the development of medical device technology for the assessment, treatment and management of dysphagia (swallowing problems) post stroke. Our mission is to become the 'Leader in Dysphagia Care' though fast track innovation development, clinical excellence and operation to the highest quality standards. By doing so, we aim to substantially improve the quality and longevity of life for patients with swallowing difficulties and establish Phagenesis products as the new standard of dysphagia care.

Myconostica is a specialised diagnostics company pioneering the development and sale of rapid, molecular diagnostic tests for life threatening fungal diseases in humans. The speed and sensitivity of the company's products are key differentiators and underpinned by world class technology and processes.

Operating from Manchester, UK, the company was founded in early 2006 by Professor David Denning, Professor of Medicine and Medical Mycology, University Hospital South Manchester and a leading authority on fungal diseases.