Double first for CRB

Leading research peptide and antibody manufacturer, Cambridge Research Biochemicals (CRB), triumphed in the ‘Outstanding Growth’ category of the Business for Life Awards (Dec 6), hosted by The Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (CELS) in Newcastle. The company has also been awarded a prestigious Grant for Business Investment from the UK’s regional development agency One North East that will form around 35% of a larger capital investment that the company is making in further expansion and job creation. The new capital will allow CRB to expand synthesis of long and complex peptides through the purchase of a Liberty Peptide Synthesizer, said to be one of the most advanced instruments of its kind and a new flatbed synthesiser to double capacity. The synthesiser will for example, enable CRB to make higher purity peptides up to 10 times faster than by conventional methods a spokesperson said. Emily Humphrys, CRB’s Commercial Director, commented: “Our peptide customers in the pharmaceutical drug discovery sector and in academic disease research will benefit from our ability to produce increasingly complex peptides, as well as more exotic ones, faster and at less expense and our antibody customers will find that we can make highly specific antibodies from these extremely long and challenging peptides.”

Dr Mike Gait from the Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge commented: “In our work, the microwave capacity of the Liberty speeds up coupling reactions and recently allowed us to synthesise PNA of up to 23 residues in yields much higher than we could obtain previously with a more conventional peptide synthesizer. This has particularly aided our research on developing in vivo targeting of microRNAs by PNA.” Emily Humphrys’ added: “This grant and the award from CELS are fantastic news for CRB, its customers and its staff. Furthermore, I’m delighted that our recent success has been recognised with such a prestigious award but our ambitious plans don’t stop there. The company has increased its turnover by 25% and is on track for a further 35% increase in 2010 as our growth strategy continues to give us a framework to develop strategic partnerships, expand our production team and commit to further capital investment.”