BioAscent has partnered with the University of Glasgow and Caldan Therapeutics to help support a Medical Research Scotland PhD studentship for Luca Vita. 

BioAscent is providing financial and practical support and drug discovery expertise to the collaboration as Luca works on his PhD focused on developing translational 3D organoids for the study of insulin sensitivity.

Luca is supervised by Dr Brian Hudson, working with his group at the University of Glasgow, who are highly experienced in the therapeutic area of Type 2 Diabetes and GPCR pharmacology. Through the collaboration, Luca has been able work in the BioAscent laboratories, gaining valuable access to the Incucyte live cell imaging system, allowing him to image organoid formation with the aim of testing novel compounds from Caldan Therapeutics to validate the assay as a translational platform.

Emily Russell, Senior Scientist in the Biosciences department at BioAscent who is acting as Luca’s supervisor comments:

“It is a great opportunity to work with Luca, and personally, I have learnt a lot about the different techniques he is working with. The team at BioAscent is enjoying the opportunity to expand our knowledge and experience in developing cutting edge 3D models to help Diabetes research and metabolic disease.

“BioAscent is committed to supporting and investing in student training and development, and we can add real value to Luca's PhD by providing him with access to equipment and expertise outside of the academic setting. He is delightful to work with and I am enjoying supporting an academic project - PhDs can follow different directions, and this allows us to try different things and explore different avenues."

Stuart McElroy, Director of Biosciences adds:

“It's been great having Luca working in the biosciences team. We are developing a programme of Academic-industrial collaborations to do our part in developing the next generation of Drug Discoverers whilst continue to gain knowledge and experience in cutting edge areas of translational research that will ultimately benefit our customers.”    

Find out more about working at BioAscent here.