About the Cellular Therapies Facility
The Cellular Therapies Facility is a state-of-the-art clean room GMP service providing a dedicated home for the development of Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products (ATMPs), regenerative medicine therapies for use in clinical trials, tissue preparation for transplant and for the development of human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs).
The facility is run by Newcastle Biomedicine, a partnership between Newcastle University and the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The main GMP clean rooms are based at the International Centre for Life in central Newcastle, whilst the sister clean room facility is based in Haematological Sciences (Institute of Cellular Medicine) at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle.
The Centre for Life facility consists of 9 EU GMP ‘Grade B’ clean rooms, supported by 2 ‘Grade C’ preparation rooms, making the provision one of the largest academic run units in Europe. ‘Grade A’ working environments are provided for all cell manipulation activities, together with comprehensive incubation, centrifugation and storage facilities.
The Facility has over 25 years experience of working with hematopoietic stem cells and more recent experience with the GMP-compliant manufacture of ATMPs. This includes the development of autologous tolerogenic dendritic cells for rheumatoid arthritis with Professor John Isaacs and the expansion of limbal stem cells with Professor Francisco Figueiredo.
