Cotton Mouton Diagnostics (CMD), a diagnostics technology company founded in 2014, has received a £500,000 investment from CPI Enterprises through the Innovate UK Catapult Associated Fund.
This investment supports the commercial scaling of CMD’s αBET platform, a next-generation benchtop instrument for endotoxin and pyrogen testing.
These tests are essential to ensure the safety of injectable medicines.
Traditionally, such testing relies on Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL), derived from horseshoe crab blood — a practice facing increasing regulatory scrutiny owing to its environmental impact and ethical concerns.
CMD’s αBET system not only reduces reagent consumption by more than 90% compared with conventional methods but is also designed to be more user-friendly and cost-effective.
By incorporating recombinant reagents and expanding assay capabilities, the company aims to align with global regulatory movements that seek alternatives to animal-derived testing.
According to CMD CEO, Jenna Bowen, this new funding will accelerate the platform’s integration into modern pharmaceutical workflows to deliver “smarter, faster and more sustainable” testing methods.
Meanwhile, Aston University has been awarded a £345,000 BBSRC Network grant to lead IMPALA-NET (Integral Membrane Proteins And Lipid Assemblies Network UK), a collaborative research initiative aiming to revolutionise how membrane proteins are extracted and studied for drug discovery.
Headed by Dr Alice Rothnie (pictured), the project brings together experts from institutions including King’s College London, Imperial College and Diamond Light Source.
Membrane proteins are the target of approximately half of all pharmaceutical drugs, yet traditional extraction methods using detergents often compromise protein structure by stripping away surrounding lipids.
IMPALA-NET will develop polymer-lipid particles (PLPs), synthetic nanoparticles capable of preserving both the proteins and their native lipid environments.
This innovation is expected to yield more accurate drug screening outcomes and significantly improve the efficiency of identifying viable therapeutic compounds.
Both initiatives exemplify the UK’s strategic investment in cutting-edge research and commercialisation with broad implications for the pharmaceutical sector.
By supporting novel technologies such as CMD’s αBET system and Aston University’s PLP techniques, these projects address key challenges in safety testing and drug efficacy — paving the way for more effective, ethical and commercially viable drug development practices.