The latest Business updates from the science industry


by Heather Hobbs Partnership Takes Heart Pacing Technology to New Level


MedTech company Ceryx Medical has partnered with Berlin-based Osypka Medical to develop a heart device which, through real-time modulation, is set to change the way patients with heart failure and other cardiac conditions are treated. Its bionic device Cyson, prompts the heart to beat in line with the patient’s breathing, listening and responding to the body, rather than triggering the strict metronomic beats that current pacemakers do.


Ceryx’s CEO, Dr Stuart Plant, said, “It’s a huge breakthrough in the treatment of people with even the most serious heart conditions. Our studies show that Cysoni increases cardiac output by at least 20% when compared with monotonic pacing while at the same time it enables heart cells to repair themselves. This is a ground-breaking development for patients with conditions such as heart failure, who will have the opportunity to live longer, fuller lives.”


The partnership will result in the combination of the Welsh MedTech company’s device with Osypka Medical’s pacemaker for the purpose of in-human testing. This clinical study is scheduled to take place in the 3rd quarter of 2023 and will take Ceryx closer to commercialising its technology.


Dr Plant explained: “Osypka is a world leader in cardiac pacing technologies and is well-known for their innovation in the development and manufacturing of medical devices, it’s great that their team has shown such enthusiasm for our product. We’re hopeful that a longer- term partnership will emerge from this, which sees Cysoni becoming a standard part of pacemaking technology.”


Dr Markus Osypka, President and CEO of Osypka Medical said: “We believe in hemodynamically optimised pacing therapy. Ceryx’s Cysoni technology has the potential to become another quantum leap in pacing therapy very much like A-V synchronous pacing is today, but without placing the additional burden on the operator.”


The clinical trials, which will take place in the UK and New Zealand, will involve heart failure patients who have undergone a coronary artery bypass being fi tted with this external device. These patients are usually paced for just a few hours after surgery, but the Ceryx team plans to extend this in order to build a full picture of Cysoni’s capabilities.


“All of our data so far points to Cysoni being capable of doing things no other pacing device has been able to do,” said Dr Plant. It’s the result of ground-breaking research at the Universities of Bath and Bristol. The technology has also undergone fi ve years of rigorous laboratory testing and pre-clinical evaluations as part of our collaboration with the University of Auckland in New Zealand. This next step, in partnership with Osypka, takes us within touching distance of making Cysoni available to the global healthcare community.”


Last year Ceryx Medical received a Business Start-up Award from the Institute of Physics (IOP) and was the winner of an Innovation Award from Mediwales.


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/QqWR 59480pr@reply-direct.com


Stuart Plant


Lab Expansion Supports Continued Research into Neurological Diseases


Biotech start-up Samsara Therapeutics, an early-stage drug discovery company, has expanded into a further 1,000 ft2 of R&D lab space at The Oxford Trust’s Wood Centre for Innovation in Headington, Oxford.


Founded in 2018 with operations in Oxford and Boston, USA and with backing from Berlin-based Apollo Ventures, the company has major collaborations with INSERM and the University of Dundee.


It is working on new therapies for extending healthy ageing and treating age-related and genetic diseases, including Parkinson’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Charcot-Marie Tooth disease (CMT), by identifying molecules that induce the cellular process of autophagy, which decreases as people age and is dysfunctional in many illnesses.


Using its Lysoseeker™ platform, to identify potent autophagy modulators, Samsara is focused on both treatment


symptoms and the underlying cause and is aiming to be the fi rst company to introduce autophagy-inducing drug therapy to the market.


Having moved into the centre in March 2021 with eight people, the company has rapidly expanded to 16 people and 2,960 ft2 of lab and offi ce space. The new CL2 lab space, together with a recent recruitment drive, will allow Samsara Therapeutics to increase the drug discovery and validation capabilities in key neuro disease areas.


Peter Hamley, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer at Samsara Therapeutics said: “Taking lab and offi ce space at The Oxford Trust’s Wood Centre for Innovation has allowed us to expand our research and grow organically, which is incredibly valuable for a biotech start-up such as Samsara.


“With this additional space and recruitment of more staff, we are confi dent that we will make signifi cant progress towards developing disease-modifying therapeutics for patients living with debilitating neurological diseases. There is compelling evidence from human


of disease


genetics that many diseases are driven by autophagy dysfunction. Samsara Therapeutics’ mission is


to discover new mechanisms


which can restore autophagy and deploy new drugs to target these mechanisms.”


In addition, Samsara Therapeutics recently announced funding from the CMT Research Foundation (CMT-RF), a US-based not-for-profi t focused solely on delivering treatments and cures for Charcot-Marie Tooth disease (CMT). The partnership with Samsara Therapeutics is the charity’s largest investment to date and is focused on optimising their pipeline of autophagy compounds that may eventually become a treatment option for CMT patients.


CMT affects one in 2,500 people and patients suffer from progressive muscle atrophy of legs and arms, causing walking, running and balance problems and abnormal hand and foot functioning.


John K Blackwood, Vice President of Biology, Samsara Therapeutics said: “We have shown that our SAM002-2 series can signifi cantly reduce PMP22 over-expression that causes CMT by stimulating autophagy in axons and Schwann cells restoring neuromuscular impairment and sciatic nerve electrophysiology in preclinical models. The CMT Research Foundation has awarded the grant on this basis.”


Steve Burgess, Chief Executive Offi cer, The Oxford Trust added: “We are pleased to be able to accelerate lab provision at our Wood Centre for Innovation that provides early-stage companies such as Samsara Therapeutics space and the opportunity to achieve their quest. We wish them continued success.”


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/Vo5x and ilmt.co/PL/a16J 59384pr@reply-direct.com


The Wood Centre for Innovation in Headington’s Global Health & Life Sciences District.


The Samsara Therapeutics team in their new lab space.


To be included in our next issue, send all your News stories to: heather@intlabmate.com


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