INTEGRA Biosciences has awarded 50 EVOLVE manual pipettes, GRIPTIPS® pipette tips worth US $1000 and various lab accessories to UK-based start-up Creasallis, helping to accelerate its pioneering research into improving the penetration of therapeutic antibodies into tumors.
The prize – part of the recent ‘INTEGRA supports start-ups’ competition – will allow the company to accurately pipette volumes of 0.2 to 5000 μl, increasing the laboratory’s capabilities as it continues to grow and innovate in this novel area of antibody research.
Creasallis was founded in 2021 to overcome one of the major limitations of antibody therapies: their inability to effectively penetrate tumors, resulting in only surface-level treatment. The young company has already made significant scientific advancements in this area with its groundbreaking, patented CreaTap (Creasallis Tumor Antibody Penetration) plug-and-play technology, which can be incorporated into any existing antibody.
Creasallis currently operates in a multi-use laboratory at the Babraham Research Campus, and previously only had access to a limited number of communal pipettes, shared between different companies, regardless of their primary research focus. The trailblazing team was therefore thrilled to win the ‘INTEGRA supports start-ups competition’, which ran until April 2023. Dr Joyce Ratti, Head of Protein Sciences at Creasallis, explained: “It is a very generous prize, far greater than I expected.
Our 50 brand new EVOLVE manual pipettes will allow us to designate a set to each task – such as cell culture or protein work – helping to prevent contamination. Having access to different volumes ranges is also hugely beneficial, making pipetting different quantities much easier and far more accurate. Most importantly, we now have the resources to expand our capabilities in the lab and take on more employees in the future when we are ready, accelerating this novel area of research.”
Read more about Creasallis and how it will use INTEGRA’s liquid handling solutions.