Liverpool stem cell researcher secures £3.1 million funding

Liverpool developer of stem cell organ regenerative medicine Videregen has secured funding totalling £3.1 million after a life-saving operation on a ten-year-old boy.

Youngster Ciaran Finn-Lynch was critically ill with a rare condition that meant he had a narrow windpipe (trachea) which resulted in difficulties breathing.

Ciaran is alive today after being the recipient of pioneering transplant surgery in 2010 which combined a donor windpipe with his own stem cells to give him a new trachea.

Liverpool-based Videregen has further developed the cutting edge platform technology which has significantly moved on since Ciaran’s life-saving operation.

The research-institute spin-out, based at Liverpool Science Park, has now received £900k in equity funding from The North West Fund for Biomedical managed by SPARK Impact, grant funding to the value of £1.9 million from Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) and £300,000 from London Business Angels and other private investors.

This investment will enable extensive manufacture development and clinical research with the aim of being the world’s first commercially available tissue engineered stem cell organ replacement product.

Dr Steve Bloor, chief executive officer at Videregen, said: “We developed our world-leading technology platform to help address the chronic shortage of organs for transplantation.

“Our regenerative medicine allows organs to be restored to function and is expected to increase the quality and length of life, and reduce healthcare costs.

“This investment is critical because it will allow us to further develop our product and to carry out formal clinical trials with the ultimate aim of commercialising it.

“Trachea replacement is the first product from our platform technology, from which our research partner Northwick Park Institute for Medical Research is also developing bowel and liver replacement organs.

“The funding from The North West Fund for Biomedical, managed by SPARK Impact, Innovate UK and other investors will allow us to demonstrate the potential of the technology with our trachea replacement product. Hopefully this will pave the way for other organ replacements that could make a real difference to thousands of people’s lives.”

Videregen works with the NHS Blood and Transplant centre in Speke and in collaboration with world leading teams at the University College London, the Cell Therapy Catapult and the Royal Free London.

Dr Marc d’Abbadie, investment director at SPARK Impact, said: “The technology developed by Videregen is expected to show clear benefits as an innovative and potentially globally disruptive form of regenerative medicine, and we’re proud to be helping them to achieve their ambitions.

“SPARK Impact has now invested over £20 million into 52 biomedical companies that are helping to address some of the healthcare challenges that we face – not only in the UK but globally.”

The North West Fund for Biomedical is a sub-fund of The North West Fund, a substantial pot of money jointly financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank and available to invest in small and medium sized businesses in the North West of England to support their start-up, development and growth.