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Cyclacel has its roots in the work of one of its co-founders – Professor Sir David Lane. His team from the University of Dundee discovered the P53 gene – the so called "tumour suppressor gene".
Cyclacel’s staff are drawn from around the globe – with over 10 nationalities represented. Over 75 per cent of the workforce is involved in research and development.
The company was formed in 1997 and originally had a small lab in Dundee’s incubator site, moving to much larger custom built premises in 2000.
Cyclacel’s Human Resources Manager Gill Christie describes the company’s approach as "a combination of cell cycle biology and rational drug design". However accurate this phrase may be, it fails to do justice to Cyclacel’s unique approach.
Traditional cancer therapies are brutal by design. Some may be effective at controlling the disease and some may not – but all will have an adverse effect on the healthy human body. In many cases, the "cure" can end up causing extremely unpleasant side effects.
That’s because cancer therapies tend to target cells fairly broadly, for instance, singling-out fast-growing cells in the body. While this may succeed in controlling the cancer, it will also destroy perfectly healthy cells.
As such, traditional cancer therapies need to be given very carefully. Often, the treatment which would cure the cancer would result in harming the patient even further. With recent reports indicating the lifetime risk of cancer as 40%, maintaining the status quo is not an option.
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Cyclacel looks at the problem in an entirely different way. As Professor Lane explains, "Our idea is to find drugs which target only cancer cells – limiting side effects and toxicity.
We design and develop small molecule drugs that act on key cell cycle regulators. The idea is to stop uncontrolled cell division in cancer and other diseases involving abnormal cell proliferation." This isn’t a new idea in itself, but our approach goes even further. We’re working towards individual customised treatments based on the patient’s genetic makeup.
"In theory you could test people suffering from cancer to see how they are likely to respond to a particular drug, and then give them a very specific treatment which targets that cancer effectively and not the healthy cell.
"Of course, this has implications for the traditional model of drug development.
Individualised treatments could revolutionise drug development and drug pricing. For example, we could see relatively expensive treatments – but treatments which are likely to be far more effective than the traditional drugs."
Cyclacel isn’t working on these advances alone. They have strong partnerships with universities across the UK – as well as commercial collaborations throughout the world.
Gill Christie is keen to emphasise how Cyclacel differs from so-called ‘big pharma’. "As an industry, biotechnology is very flexible, quick and efficient. When you compare companies like ourselves to the traditional large pharmaceutical companies. For example, we’re able to have biology and chemistry working side-by-side which allows for a faster progression of products through the research and development stage."
"We develop our technology in-house. One of our key strengths is in structural biology – from identifying targets through to developing ways to disrupt the target process in order to treat the cancer. The methodology is to understand the cell cycle in cancer. Our three approaches are arresting growth and spread, interfering with mitosis (cell division and duplication) and apoptosis – cell death.
"Another key difference is that it’s practical for us to look at very individualised therapies. In contrast, large companies may not be interested in this approach – the potential market size just isn’t there for them."
Employing some 70 staff, (including Cyclacel’s mitosis team sited in Cambridge’s Babraham Institute, headed by David Glover), 60 per cent have PhDs. Cyclacel’s staff are drawn from around the globe – with over 10 nationalities represented. Over 75 per cent of the workforce is involved in research and development.
As Gill is keen to emphasis, Cyclacel works to maintain the best elements of scientific research, combining this with a strong commercial approach.
Typically, the people at Cyclacel work in project teams – from early discover right through to clinical trials. The key scientific disciplines involved are chemistry and biology. By routinely moving people around, expertise can flow throughout the company – researchers regularly get the chance to apply their knowledge in a new setting.
In common with the rest of the industry, around 10 out of 100 ideas get to phase one trial – and only one per cent of these then go to market.
The optimistic mood at Cyclacel mirrors the company’s general feelings about the Scottish biotechnology sector. Gill Christie sees an industry pulling together – "It’s co-ordinating its achievements and building a strong cluster. People further afield are now starting to take notice of Scotland."
However, Gill feels there’s still much work to be done. "In general, people don’t quite know what to think of the biotechnology sector in Scotland. The geography is not familiar – they don’t realise how close the big cities are to each other – nothing compared to the distances people need to travel in the US.
"But once people come to see for themselves, they want to stay – the quality of life compares very well to some of the best places in the world. Combine that with a growing number of companies carrying out cutting edge research, and it’s a great proposition."
Contact Details
Cyclacel Ltd
James Lindsay Place
Dundee
DD1 5JJ
44 (0)1382 206062
Fax:
44 (0)1382 206067
Web URL:
www.cyclacel.com
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