Northern Alliance Partner Alcyomics Awarded an Innovate UK Grant to Support the Fight against COVID-19
Alcyomics, one of Northern Alliance Advanced Therapies Treatment Centre’s partners, has been awarded a Fast Start grant of £50,000 from Innovate UK to undertake critical scientific support to aid in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19.
The £40 million Fast Start competition was looking to fast-track the development of research, innovation and ideas to support the battle against COVID-19. Innovate UK received a record 8,600 applications; Alcyomics was one of the 800 successful candidates.
Alcyomics has developed a variety of human-based assays specifically designed to aid research into the virus causing COVID 19, SARS-CoV-2. Several assays have been designed to aid in the identification of new drug targets for COVID-19 and an assessment of safety and efficacy of new and re-purposed drug candidates.
Ultimately, the company will develop a simple blood screening test to identify those at most risk of a severe COVID-19 infection. This work looks to reduce the mortality and morbidity rates by assessing susceptible groups, enabling the economy to recover faster by reducing the number of the population off work due to their low risk status.
A link to Alcyomics’ COVID-19 response can be found here: http://alcyomics.com/covid-19/
