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amaxa to Co-ordinate Collaboration to Develop High-throughput Devices for Primary Cell Transfection

Lonza Group Ltd
1 Jul 2007

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amaxa AG, a leading provider of transfection technologies to the life science community, has announced that it will co-ordinate a European collaboration of eight partners to develop devices for ultra high-throughput delivery and screening of primary cells, for use in the study of immunological, neuronal and liver disorders, for example. The collaboration has been granted over €2.75 million in funding from the EC and will use amaxa’s Nucleofector® Technology – a unique method for the highly efficient transfection of primary cells.

The 36-month project, named MODEST-EU, is a collaboration between amaxa AG (Germany), Deutsches Rheumaforschungszentrum (Germany), RNAx GmbH (Germany), Protobios Ltd (Estonia), Fotec Forschungs- und Technologietransfer GmbH (Austria), HTP High Tech Plastics AG (Austria), Dominion Pharmakine SL (Spain) and Prevas AB (Sweden).

The devices developed using amaxa’s Nucleofector® Technology will represent the world’s first technology enabling high-throughput screenings in efficiently transfected and differentiated primary cells. The project will go on to study the application of this technology in the areas of immunology, neurology and liver disorders.

Dr. Birgit Nelsen-Salz, coordinator of the project, said “amaxa is the only institution worldwide, which has the necessary knowledge and experience to adapt the technical needs of device development to the conditions used for efficient transfection of primary cells and hard-to-transfect cell lines. As co-ordinator of the project we will ensure that the expertise brought by each partner will enable the collaboration to achieve the goal of providing powerful new tools for basic research and drug discovery”.

Each partner will play a significant role in the development of the devices: Prevas will be responsible for the building of the device from proof-of-principle up to prototype; Fotec will develop the production process for micro-plates; HTP will be involved in the prototyping of the 384-well plates. In addition, the application of nucleofection and cell based assays will be assessed by a team of outstanding experts: DRFZ (cell sorting and multiparameter flow-cytometry), RNAx (RNAi technology), Protobios (nervous system development and transcription regulation network) and Dominion Pharmakine (biomarkers related to site specific development of liver metastasis).

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