Major achievement as ApconiX receives the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2025.
Professor Ruth Roberts, Co-director of ApconiX and Professor of Drug Discovery at the University of Birmingham, has celebrated a major achievement as ApconiX receives the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2025.
The award recognises iSLA – the ApconiX in vitro Seizure Liability Assay. With a pressing need to develop new drugs to treat a range of conditions, this new test helps make drug development safer and more successful. Developed over three years, iSLA builds on original open-source research carried out by the ApconiX team.
Professor Roberts joined colleagues and collaborators at Windsor Castle to mark the occasion.
iSLA is a test that predicts if a new drug might cause seizures. It works by checking the electrical activity in human brain cells in the lab and by testing 15 human ion channels linked to seizures.
This breakthrough addresses a critical challenge in drug development: toxicity. Pharmaceutical companies invest hundreds of millions to billions, in new drugs only to see many fail in clinical trials. Identifying seizure risk early could save resources, allowing them to be redirected to safer, more effective compounds.
Importantly, iSLA also has the potential to reduce animal testing.
The research behind iSLA was published in Toxicological Sciences in October 2023.
The University of Birmingham and ApconiX share a long-standing collaboration through student placements, joint projects and training. This partnership that continues to drive success for both organisations.
ApconiX was founded by Professor Ruth Roberts, Dr Michael Morton and Dr Richard Knight, colleagues with the drive and ambition to create a world-renowned drug safety company. The journey began with the idea to provide life science companies with access to high quality drug safety expertise, normally available only in large pharmaceutical companies.
ApconiX has previously won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in 2022 and a King’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in 2024.
Receiving the King’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation is a real honour for ApconiX and a testament to the power of collaborative science. With iSLA, we set out to tackle one of the toughest challenges in drug discovery, and I am incredibly proud of what our team has achieved. This innovation has the potential to make medicines safer, reduce reliance on animals, and ultimately bring better therapies to patients faster.
The King’s Awards for Enterprise, formerly The Queen’s Awards, are the UK’s most prestigious business awards. Established in 1965, they celebrate outstanding achievements in innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity. The awards celebrate the success of exciting and innovative businesses which are leading the way with pioneering products or services, delivering impressive social mobility programmes, or showing their commitment to excellent sustainable development practices.
Now in its 59th year, is the successful businesses can display the esteemed King’s Awards Emblem for the next five years.
ApconiX is an integrated toxicology and ion channel company at the forefront of innovative thinking in nonclinical toxicology and safety science.
Chair in Drug Discovery
Professor Ruth Roberts is Chair in Drug Discovery at the School of Biosciences and has an extensive career in drug discovery and development.
