Better understanding cancer drugs – Leiden spin-off Omivera receives seed investment
Impact
How do you know if a drug will actually work? The Leiden-based spin-off Omivera is developing a new technology that could provide clearer answers. The young company received a seed investment from the investment fund UNIIQ to support its development.
Omivera is creating a new technology for drug research called CellEKT. Using a method knowd as ‘kinome profiling’, researchers can get a functional overview of what is happening inside a living cell.
The technology was developed by Leiden researcher Joel Rüegger and his colleagues in the laboratory of Mario van der Stelt, in collaboration with pharmaceutical company Roche. The work was supported by the Oncode Institute and Oncode Accelerator. LURIS, the Knowledge Exchange Office of Leiden University, guided the process and created the conditions under which a long-term collaboration with Roche was established.
UNIIQ & Oncode Accelerator
UNIIQ is an investment fund that helps young companies further develop their technologies and bring them to market.
Oncode Accelerator is a nationwide collaboration of researchers across the Netherlands who aim to accelerate the development of new and better cancer treatments, with funding partly from the National Growth Fund.
The new platform helps researchers understand how medicines act in living cells. It bridges the gap between traditional laboratory tests and what actually happens in patients, making it possible to identify earlier in the research process which drug candidates are promising and which are not.
Proteins play a key role
The technology focuses on proteins called kinases. These proteins play an important role in processes such as cell growth and metabolism and have long been key targets for drug development. However, they are difficult to study using conventional methods.
In joint studies with Roche, the Leiden researchers found that results from traditional lab tests do not always reflect what happens inside living cells. ‘Measurements in cells using our new CellEKT technology give a more reliable picture of what we later see in patients,’ says researcher Joel Rüegger. ‘This helps scientists make better decisions during drug development.’
From fundamental research to real world impact
Omnivera is now active as a Contract Research Organization (CRO), and with the investment from UNIIQ, the company can continue to build its platform and expand its commercial activities.
Omivera is based at Leiden Bio Science Park and is a spin‑off of Leiden University. The company exemplifies how fundamental academic research can grow into applications with real societal and medical impact. ‘Bringing scientific discovery to the market means turning deep academic insights into technologies that accelerate real drug discovery,’ says Sara Cigna of LURIS, the Knowledge Exchange Office of Leiden University. ‘It strengthens Dutch innovation in life sciences and ensures that publicly funded research delivers tangible societal and economic impact.’