Moredun Commercialise Tools to Support Veterinary Research

Moredun has entered into an agreement with AbD Serotec, a leader in antibody products for veterinary research, to commercialise novel immunology tools to support veterinary research. The tools were developed at Moredun in collaboration with the Institute of Animal Health.

Cattle and sheep dendritic cell growth kits are the first products to be launched under the agreement and are now available to veterinary researchers from AbD. Further kit launches are planned later in the year.

Dendritic cells are immune cells forming part of the mammalian immune system. Being able to grow these cells in the laboratory is important for studies of the immune response in cattle and sheep to a variety of different infections. The new kits enable researchers to consistently grow these cells in the laboratory, which will save both time and money, and potentially reduce the number of animals used in veterinary research reduce as researchers will be able to take a more targeted and informed approach to vaccine evaluation.

Moredun is internationally renowned for its research in the infectious diseases of livestock. The development of these growth kits is another example of how Moredun’s research and expertise is supporting animal health research around the World.

Professor Gary Entrican from Moredun commented “We are pleased to make these important tools available to the research community. Understanding the immune response to infectious agents is essential for the development of effective vaccines and these new tools will enable further research across a range oflivestockdiseases.Moredun hasan ongoing research programme focused on  learning more about the immune systems of livestock to support the  development of sheep and cattle vaccines.”

In addition to funding from the Scottish Government the development of the dendritic cell growth kits was supported by the Genomia Fund, BBSRC Immunological Toolbox Project and NADIR (The Network of Animal Disease Infectiology Research Projects).