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Scottish biomedical startup gets £1.8m from Gates Foundation

PhaSER Biomedical
Image credit: PhaSER Biomedical

PhaSER Biomedical, a Scottish startup specialising in drug discovery, has secured a $2.3m (£1.8m) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The new grant funding will support a three-year programme from PhaSER Biomedical in collaboration with the Gates Foundation-backed Global Health Discovery Collaboratory Programme.

Founded in 2022, the Edinburgh-based business is developing models that recapitulate the ways drugs are metabolised in humans, providing insight into efficacy, reaction prediction and the design of clinical trials.

The programme will provide these insights to researchers involved in combatting diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and pandemic preparedness.

The startup said its “8HUM” model has been characterised and validated over 15 years of research at the University of Dundee, CXR biosciences, Taconic Farms and Scottish Enterprise.

The Gates Foundation previously awarded the University of Dundee a separate grant, totalling nearly $1m, for work associated with 8HUM.

PhaSER has previously secured an additional £970,00 from investors.

“We are delighted to receive this support from the Gates Foundation, which will allow us to provide these valuable mice to drug discovery groups working on some of the most pressing global healthcare challenges we are faced with today,” said PhaSER Biomedical founder Prof Roland Wolf.

“We look forward to continuing our work to accelerate and improve drug discovery activities.”

Other UK-founded drug discovery startups that have received backing recently include Belfast’s AMPLY, Cambridge’s Kuano and Manchester’s Biorelate.

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