Oct 13 2010
Beta-Pro LLC, announced today that it has expanded its operations to accommodate increasing demands from pharmaceutical drug discovery and research institutes in the $2 billion hepatocyte market. The human cellular sciences company now manages extensive laboratory facilities in the University of Virginia Research Park in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"Beta-Pro has already established a foothold in the human pancreatic islet cell market and has consistently been able to supply diabetes researchers and transplant centers with high-quality, clinical and transplantable human islets and other pancreatic biomaterials," said Beta-Pro Principle Scientific Advisor and Professor of Surgery at the University of Virginia, Kenneth L. Brayman, M.D., Ph.D. "Based on our success we are now broadening the focus of our cellular services to include liver biology and the needs of pharmaceutical companies in testing drugs in human hepatocyte-cell cultures."
Beta-Pro partners with leading pharmaceutical companies and research organizations including: Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Merck, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), and The Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beta-Pro's new laboratory is designated as a good laboratory practice (GLP) facility and is now fully operational. The company has moved its snap-frozen cell bank to the new location and will use the facility to focus on hepatocytes and other human cell applications, including drug discovery services and toxicology screening using human cells.