The latest Business updates from the science industry


DUNE Project to Drive Opportunities for UK Companies by Heather Hobbs


A ground breaking ceremony for the new PIP-II particle accelerator – which will power the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment – was held on 15 March, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), near Chicago, USA. The DUNE Project aims to address key questions about the origins and structure of the universe. The UK has committed £65 million investment to help build and operate DUNE, PIP-II and technology for the neutrino beam.


British Consul-General for Chicago, John Saville, who represented the UK Government at the PIP-II ground-breaking event said: “The UK is proud to be a strategic partner in PIP-II through our provision of key accelerator components. The scale of PIP-II refl ects the scale of our commitment to promoting scientifi c discovery and the benefi ts of innovation that fl ow from this. We are excited to work with our US and global partners in pursuit of these mutual goals.”


The 200-metre-long PIP-II accelerator is the fi rst accelerator project built in the United States with signifi cant contributions from international partners. It will use the latest superconducting technology and the UK is expected to win key contracts to provide the crucial cryomodules at the heart of the accelerator.


Peter McIntosh, the Deputy Director of the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC) at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory, which


is the UK’s Centre of Excellence for the study of the production, acceleration and delivery of charged particle beams, is leading one of the teams working on PIP II. “LBNF/DUNE provides the UK’s Daresbury Laboratory with a fantastic opportunity to harness its accelerator development expertise and use it to establish new manufacturing and system integration capabilities. Working in close partnership with UK industry and the team at FermiLab we can deliver critical superconducting accelerator systems for PIP-II, and this work will signifi cantly strengthen the UK’s accelerator delivery impact for decades to come.”


Dr Alec Gunner, New Business Streams Manager for the technology engineering specialists TWI added: “The opportunities which arise from this project are fi rstly the project itself - the opportunity for UK industry to engage in large, prestigious Big Science programmes is an end in its own right. However, further possibilities arise from this programme as a consequence, eg the installation of a world- class high vacuum electron beam welding facility in the UK. This is an enabling capability which is available for use by industry in the development and manufacture of high value assemblies, including niobium for the medical sector, titanium for use in satellite propellant tanks and zirconium for power applications. TWI will be engaging


In a cleanroom at Fermilab, a technician works on a string of superconducting 325-MHz spoke resonator cavities for the PIP-II particle accelerator. (Credit: Fermilab)


directly with its industrial members and the wider community to allow UK industry to take full advantage of this exciting new facility.”


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Survey Highlights Success of NovaUCD Supported Companies


University College Dublin’s (UCD) Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs, has revealed that since it opened 15 years ago, supported companies have raised over €760 million in equity funding. UCD has supported over 360 companies and early- stage ventures operating in sectors including AgTech, CleanTech, FinTech, ICT, MedTech and Life Sciences, through the services and supports provided by NovaUCD. The combined annual turnover of the companies surveyed amounted to over €113 million in 2018 and collectively they currently employ over 1,040 people directly, more than 950 of whom are based in Ireland.


At NovaUCD new high-tech and knowledge-intensive start-up companies are nurtured and supported to enable them to develop, scale and create jobs. Early-stage ventures have additionally completed programmes run by NovaUCD, such as the UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme (and its predecessor the Campus Company Development Programme) and the UCD Start- Up Stars Programme.


Julie Sinnamon, CEO, Enterprise Ireland, said “Start-ups are the life blood of the Irish economy and a key role for Enterprise


UCD’s technology transfer team, which is responsible for the commercialisation of the intellectual property emerging from UCD’s


world-class NovaUCD.


Since 2003, 45 new UCD spin-out companies have been incorporated; over 825 inventions have been disclosed by UCD researchers; over 280 priority patent applications have been fi led and more than 200 licensing deals have been concluded with a range of indigenous and international businesses such as, Amdocs, Amryt and Glanbia.


Julie Sinnamon, CEO, Enterprise Ireland and Tom Flanagan, UCD Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation (Credit:Conor McCabe Photography)


Ireland is to support the start-up ecosystem. Enterprise Ireland has supported NovaUCD over the last 15 years and I would like to congratulate the centre and the companies on their success.”


Six private sector sponsors; AIB, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers and Xilinx contributed to the development of the NovaUCD facility originally, along with Enterprise Ireland and UCD. NovaUCD’s technology transfer team has in addition been supported through Enterprise Ireland’s Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative (TTSI) since 2007. TTSI is managed and administered by Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI).


48729pr@reply-direct.com Partnership to Advance Therapies in Autoimmune Disease


Pathios Therapeutics, a developer of fi rst in class therapies for autoimmune diseases and immuno-oncology is utilising Sygnature Discovery’s G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) target to accelerate its drug discovery and development programmes. Under the partnership agreement Sygnature are deploying their computational chemistry, library design and synthesis and medium throughput screening capability to broaden Pathios’ hit fi nding. As part of this agreement, Sygnature will receive equity in addition to fees. GPR65, a pH sensing GPCR is characteristic of certain T helper 17 (Th17) cell populations which have been shown to contribute signifi cantly to the pathology of autoimmune conditions, such as ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. In addition, recently published studies have demonstrated GPR65 drives tumour associated macrophages (TAM) to adopt a phenotype that supports cancer immune evasion.


“We founded Pathios to build on emerging science that demonstrated GPR65 sits at the nexus of autoimmune disease and immuno-oncology as this receptor links pathology caused by a low pH environment,” said Executive Chairman and co-Founder Tom McCarthy.


“The ultimate aim is to block the pathological process that GPR65 initiates without interfering with the physiological role of this receptor. In addition to developing potent and selective drugs to modulate GPR65, we are continuing to broaden the understanding of the fundamental biological processes that link to GPR65’s effects in Th17 cells, TAMs and other cell types. Our team has worked closely with Sygnature in the past and know they have the deep experience, expertise and state-of-the-art drug discovery and development infrastructure to drive our programme forward. I’m delighted on this rare occasion Sygnature also chose to invest in


Pathios and expand our GPR65 drug discovery efforts while we explore Series A funding opportunities”. Simon Hirst, CEO of Sygnature, added: “We are extremely pleased to take this exceptional opportunity to partner with, and invest in Pathios on their drug discovery projects. Based on our diligence activities, we are excited about the potential for GPR65 modulation to be central to new treatments for autoimmune disease and a critical mechanism of action in next generation immuno-oncology drugs targeting the tumour micro-environment. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Tom and the rest of Pathios’ tremendously talented team again and contribute to the potential positive impact their therapeutics will have on patients’ lives.”


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