Investment

LYVA Labs, the Liverpool City Region’s innovation commercialisation organisation, has invested £250,000 into emerging biotech, Daresbury Proteins.

Halton-based Daresbury Proteins produces proteins used in academic and industrial research. The company can also rapidly assess the functionality of proteins, whilst reducing cost and risk by removing the manufacturing bottlenecks associated with cell line development.

LYVA Labs has made the investment from its Health and Life Science Challenge fund and three new jobs will be created at Daresbury Protein, with plans to expand this to 50 new jobs within the region in the next five years.

Jennet Beesly, director at Daresbury Proteins said: “The growth of the market is attributed to some key driving factors such as increasing incidence of chronic diseases, growth in the geriatric population, and increasing demand for protein biologics.

“Emerging economies are likely to create significant growth opportunities for players in the market, and companies, such as LYVA Labs are noticing this and understanding the impact this sort of business will have on the region.”

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Lorna Green, CEO of LYVA Labs said: “It’s an exciting time for biotech and in particular the global protein expression market, and innovators like Daresbury Proteins are impacting the industry in a big way.

“Bringing such an interesting, and growing, sector to the city region, as well as the opportunity for the increased workforce, is great, and we’re proud to be a part of Daresbury Proteins’ journey.”

The company has previously received funding from Mayor Steve Rotheram’s £3.2m Future Innovation Fund.

The Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “I want to the Liverpool City Region to be known as a global innovation hub, as a place that creates more businesses, attracts greater investment and files more patents.

“There’s already been a huge appetite from businesses who want to work with us, and I can’t wait to see where these investments will catapult them to the next stage of their journey. Most importantly, we’re helping to create well-paid, highly-skilled jobs for local people.”

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LYVA Labs is a wholly owned subsidiary of LCR Ventures Ltd and was created to drive growth and innovation across Liverpool City Region.