Chromatide receives investment to build intellectual property portfolio

Chromatide, a company providing specialised products and services to a broad spectrum of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, has received investment from RisingStars Growth Fund II and Merseyside Special Investment Fund's Liverpool Seed Fund.

With this investment the company aims to build its intellectual property portfolio initially in the area of novel technologies for synthesis and purification of biomolecules. These technologies will be specifically designed to facilitate, and reduce costs, of processes in production of biomolecules in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Chromatide's intellectual property will be licensed out in a number of different fields. Its proprietary core technologies use commodity products from an unrelated industry, providing cost effective solutions to several industry issues.

Dr Don Wellings, CSO, said: "My idea to use a common domestic product in a scientific application results from a little observation and the ability to think laterally. The resultant IP underpins a number of commercial opportunities. At Chromatide, we have a broad and varied range of expertise, and we are already using this to develop additional new technologies in the areas of polymer synthesis, biomolecule purification and instrument design."

Mark Wyatt, investment director at Enterprise Ventures, said: "Dr Wellings and Dr Gulzar, the co-founders of Chromatide, have many years of experience in blue chip organisations, and they are well networked and regarded within the peptide and chromatography community. We are excited to be working alongside them to develop Chromatide and to help to bring to market the proprietary technologies that are currently under development."

Mike Bakewell, investment manager at Liverpool Ventures, said: "We are pleased to be supporting a company as innovative as Chromatide. They have developed cutting edge approaches to improve the manufacture of biomolecules and we look forward to helping them progress the development of their Intellectual Property Portfolio.'.

Rayna Dean, non-executive chairman of Chromatide, who was introduced to the company by Enterprise Ventures, said: 'It is a pleasure to be involved with a company which applies such lateral thinking to its inventiveness. I am sure Chromatide's exciting discoveries will enable it to deliver both value to its investors and benefits to the pharmaceutical and related industries.'.