27 November 2006 Grant and Universal Sensors forge manufacturing partnership thanks to East of England IRC
- Grant Technologies to manufacture Universal Sensors’ ground breaking potentiometric biosensor reader
Universal Sensors (www.universalsensors.co.uk), developer of a novel polymer-coated biosensor platform (on behalf of Sensortec Limited - www.sensortec.uk.com), and Grant Instruments, a world renowned manufacturer/supplier of custom and own-brand scientific, life sciences and data acquisition products, have forged a manufacturing partnership thanks to the matchmaking service offered by the East of England Innovation Relay Centre (IRC).
Universal Sensors needed a local manufacturing partner to commercialise the design of its potentiometric biosensor reader, to provide a prototyping service, printed circuit board layout expertise, and ensure that the final product would ramp to volume. As an early stage technology development company, it also wanted to work with a partner that had a good track record and an established reputation in the worldwide scientific and life sciences sectors.
“We talked to David Reynolds at the IRC about suitable partners as they offer a free partnering service to organisations based in the region,” said Dr Duncan Purvis, technical and business development manager at Universal Sensors. “We were introduced to the Technologies team within Grant and were impressed by the breadth of their capability and their willingness to sit down with us to understand our problems and technical challenges and find solutions to them.
“In addition, partnering with a company whose brand is synonymous with quality and reliability is clearly advantageous,” added Duncan Purvis. “The partnership has worked really well and the first batch of Grant-manufactured readers has shipped to trial customers - a second batch is currently in production.”
Universal Sensors’ low-cost highly-portable 12-channel biosensor platform utilises patented Universal Transducer System (UTS) technology - under a contractual relationship from Sensortec Limited - to provide rapid and ultra-sensitive detection of contaminants, toxins and disease markers in complex samples such as milk, homogenates, serum, blood and urine. For example, it has a detection range of 10 parts per trillion (the equivalent of one eye dropper in 100 Olympic swimming pools) and gives highly accurate results in less than 15 minutes. Potential applications are extensive and include pharmaceutical, clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and food quality assurance.
Dr David Reynolds, European Technology Adviser for the East of England IRC, said: “Finding and forging the right partnerships is a fundamental challenge for many technology based businesses and my job is to minimise the risk for my clients by getting to know them as individuals and understanding their businesses intimately. This is a highly personalised service and companies that work with us get access to the world’s largest technology partnering network with around 1400 people in 250 organisations across 31 countries.”
The IRC is funded by the East of England Development Agency and the European Commission and is focused on building effective partnerships for regional ‘technology’ companies.
Grant has worked with the IRC for several years and through it has forged a number of successful partnerships with technology companies in the region. Grant launched its bespoke design/manufacturing service (Grant Technologies) in response to an increasing demand for fast turnaround custom-built solutions across scientific and industrial markets.
“We are strong supporters of the services offered by David and his team at the IRC as it overcomes the big problem of finding compatible partners,” said Paul Pergande, head of Grant Technologies. “David knows our business well and was confident that we’d be a good match for Universal Sensors given their requirements and overall objectives. We are delighted to be working alongside the team at Universal Sensors to help bring to market its ground breaking biosensor reader, which, due to its rapid speed of test and ultra-sensitivity, clearly has huge potential in the life sciences market.”
About Grant Technologies (www.grant.co.uk)
Grant Technologies is a division of Grant Instruments (Cambridge) Limited, a world renowned manufacturer/supplier of scientific, life sciences and data acquisition products. Grant Technologies designs and manufactures custom scientific and industrial equipment to meet its customers’ application-specific requirements. Using its thermodynamics, mixing, data acquisition and extensive manufacturing expertise, the company has delivered successful solutions to hundreds of companies across a diverse range of industry sectors. The company is headquartered at Shepreth, Cambridge, England, and has an extensive network of dealers and distributors servicing Europe, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific region.
About Universal Sensors (www.universalsensors.co.uk)
Universal Sensors Limited is an early stage technology development company with exclusive rights from Sensortec Limited (www.sensortec.uk.com) to develop and initiate commercialisation of their globally competitive IPR in conducting polymer based biosensors. Sensortec Limited’s proprietary technology enables quantitative detection of specific analytes (e.g. proteins, drugs, and contaminants) in complex fluids with minimal sample preparation. These biosensors can be commercialised within a broad range of markets in the life science sector (e.g. pharmaceutical, clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and food quality assurance). Universal Sensors has developed low-cost highly-portable 12-channel biosensor platform to provide rapid and ultra-sensitive detection of contaminants, toxins and disease markers in complex aqueous-based samples. The company is based at Ickleton in Cambridge.
About East of England Innovation Relay centre (www.innovation-east.co.uk)
The East of England Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) is a regional technology transfer and partnering service with offices in Cambridge, Stevenage and Norwich. Its focus is the promotion of innovation through technology and know-how based partnerships, regionally, nationally and globally. IRC offers a free service to organisations based in the East of England.
As part of the world's largest technology transfer network, IRC provides customers with a unique gateway to new regional, national and international markets and partners by promoting client’s innovative products and technology to prospective partners, licensees and customers; helping to source new products, technologies or expertise to complement a client’s business or to meet a specific need. The service can also help find partners for research and development projects.
East of England IRC is supported by the East of England Development Agency and the European Commission.
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Media contact:
Martin Brooke (for Grant Instruments)
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 244500
Email: martin@mba-pr.com