CN Bio Innovations agrees new Imperial College London alliance

CN Bio Innovations has announced a new collaboration with Imperial College London to develop new in vitro models of liver infection.

Based on the company's LiverChip platform, the research will expand current understanding of the pathology of hepatitis B – an important priority, given that current liver models in widespread use often fail to accurately reproduce what can be seen in vivo.

The announcement coincides with the World Health Organization's World Hepatitis Day event and underlines the efforts being made by industry and academia partners to find cures for hepatitis and other serious liver diseases.

Early results from the collaboration will be presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in November 2014.

Dr Emma Sceats, chief operating officer at CN Bio, said: "Forging partnerships with key opinion leaders and academic groups is a cornerstone of our research and development strategy."

The firm is a provider of human biomimetic platforms for the testing and development of therapeutics for serious human diseases and was formerly known as Zyoxel.