Gifford Bioscience expands with a new dedicated radiometric laboratory at the BioHub Birmingham
The expansion increases capacity for the company, which works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to progress drug candidates.
Gifford Bioscience now employs 12 PhD level scientists, who are all experts in gold-standard radiometric methods and kinetic affinity techniques.
Gifford Bioscience Limited, a preclinical contract research organisation, has expanded its facilities at the BioHub Birmingham® with additional radiometric laboratory space.
Gifford Bioscience specialises in receptor pharmacology and occupancy studies for neuroscience, oncology and metabolic diseases. Their work helps customers address the translational gap from models to humans, by bringing together evidence from different experimental systems, to guide decisions about which compounds to progress.
In recent years we’ve seen consistent demand for our services and much of this has been international, with half our business coming from the US, and a further third from continental Europe.
The company now employs 12 PhD level scientists, who are all experts in gold-standard radiometric methods and kinetic affinity techniques, which measure how quickly and how strongly two molecules interact. Its customised assays use human and animal tissues, and cultured cells.
Gifford Bioscience’s collaboration with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham via the Human Biomaterials Resource Centre, an official biobank operated by the University’s College of Medicine and Health, provides access to diverse post-surgical human tissue. The company also obtains human brain tissue through the UK Brain Bank Network, alongside model tissue, live cells, membranes and recombinant proteins.
Gifford Bioscience has been based at the BioHub Birmingham, the University’s purpose-built biomedical incubator, since 2017. The new laboratory will operate alongside their existing facilities, providing additional capacity for radioligand binding, quantitative autoradiography, uptake and release, and receptor occupancy studies.
Gifford Bioscience celebrated the expansion with members of the BioHub Birmingham facility management team, thanking them for their support throughout the company’s development and growth.
We chose Birmingham for its concentration of universities, research centres, and hospitals, and its excellent transport links. The BioHub has been a great enabler for us, and the location has provided access to the tissue banks and other research infrastructure we need on a daily basis. It’s a great base to do science from, internationally.
“We’re always delighted to see our resident companies expand and contribute to the growing biomedical footprint in the region, a real-life example of the incubation pipeline in action,” said Dr Claire Litchfield, Senior Laboratory Manager at the BioHub Birmingham.
Notes for editors
Notes for editors
For media information contact Ruth Ashton, University of Birmingham Enterprise, email: r.c.ashton@bham.ac.uk
About the BioHub Birmingham®
The BioHub Birmingham® is managed by University of Birmingham Enterprise, which helps researchers turn their ideas into new services, products and enterprises that meet real-world needs. We also provide incubation, and support innovators and entrepreneurs with mentoring, advice, and training, manage the University’s Academic Consultancy Service, and University of Birmingham Enterprise Operating Divisions. Follow us on LinkedIn and X.
For enquiries about space at the BioHub please use the Birmingham Research Park application form.
About Gifford Bioscience
Gifford Bioscience Limited is a UK preclinical contract research organisation based at BioHub Birmingham®. Established in 2017, it provides radiometric studies, functional assays, surface plasmon resonance and custom assay development for pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug discovery programmes. Organisations looking to understand how a compound interacts with its target, or how Gifford’s services could support their research, can visit www.giffordbioscience.com.