The island’s first dedicated, patient-accessible biobanking service enabling individuals to locally store their own biological materials was opened today in Ebrington Square, Derry~Londonderry, by Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt MLA.
Developed to meet stringent regulatory standards, the LifeCellsNI facility is working towards licensing by the UK regulator, Human Tissue Authority and marks a groundbreaking development for Northern Ireland's healthcare and medical research sectors.
Until now, no dedicated, patient-accessible long-term storage service has been available locally for a broad range of clinical and research applications. As a result, patients, clinics and research organisations have had to rely on facilities in mainland UK, increasing cost, complexity and turnaround times.
Founded by health innovation and life sciences specialist Catherine King, LifeCellsNI is designed to provide a regulated cryogenic storage and laboratory processing hub. This will introduce a new, dedicated, patient-accessible cell and tissue storage service to the island of Ireland, expanding access to local, long-term storage of biological materials, supporting access to future treatments faster, cheaper, and more reliably when they need them.
Stored human cells and tissues may support treatments in areas such as regenerative medicine & cancer care, as well as enabling the development of personalised therapies and advancing medical research. Access to a patient’s own cells can improve treatment success, reduce delays and costs, and ensure patients can benefit quickly from the latest medical innovations.
The newly opened facility will offer long-term cryogenic storage, controlled laboratory processing within a cleanroom environment and contingency biobanking services for healthcare providers, universities and private companies. Access to the laboratory and cleanroom facilities will also be available to rent for research purposes.
LifeCellsNI recently completed a £590,000 funding round to develop the facility led by The AMP Angel Syndicate with support from Co-Fund III, managed by Clarendon Fund Managers.
Catherine King, Founder and Chief Executive of LifeCellsNI said: “Our facility at Ebrington Square will be a gamechanger for medical research and healthcare on the island of Ireland. Having worked closely with clinicians and researchers in life sciences, it was clear there was an infrastructure gap in the Northern Ireland healthcare sector and LifeCellsNI is now here to fulfil that need.
"Until now, the region has lacked the regulated biobanking infrastructure required to fully participate in advanced therapy programmes and regenerative medicine research. This facility removes that barrier, enabling Health Trusts, universities and private life sciences companies to securely and compliantly store samples locally, without the significant cost of building and maintaining their own facilities.”
Mike Nesbitt MLA, Health Minister for Northern Ireland, said, “I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to LifeCellsNI today and was interested to hear more about the establishment of Northern Ireland’s first dedicated patient-accessible biobanking service and their work towards licensing by the UK regulator, Human Tissue Authority.
“Innovative solutions that address the complexities of modern healthcare are vital to improve patient outcomes, increase efficiency within the system and reduce health inequalities.
“Partnerships between Health and Social Care (HSC) and commercial research organisations, such as LifeCellsNI, are essential to attracting, delivering, and scaling high quality clinical trials in Northern Ireland.”
LifeCellsNI has long term growth plans intending to expand into ethically governed donor cell collection and supply, supporting advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) development and cellular research across the island of Ireland.
The company was incubated within The AMP Growth Incubator ecosystem and has received ecosystem support from regional innovation bodies including Invest Northern Ireland, Founder Labs Pre Accelerator, Health Innovation Research Alliance North Ireland (HIRANI) and Derry City and Strabane District Council.
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