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17 THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER PARTNERS WITH XIMBIO The University and Ximbio, part of Cancer Research Technology (the development and commercialisation arm of Cancer Research UK) are pleased to announce that they are partnering to make the University's life science research tools more widely available to the worldwide scientific community. The partnership will begin with an initial listing of 7 antibodies from the laboratory of Professor Martin Humphries, Professor of Biochemistry, Vice-President and Dean in the Faculty of Life Sciences. The University has been nominated as part of the "golden diamond", alongside Oxford, Imperial, UCL and Cambridge, due to its thriving research activity and reputation as one of the leading research- intensive British universities. Honoured by remarkable academic achievements and a long list of Nobel laureates, the University continues to provide the scientific community with breakthrough discoveries and cutting-edge innovations. Ximbio is an online reagents portal for the life science community and has been developed to change the way that research reagents are searched, sourced and shared. It aims to broaden the range of tools available to scientists globally and support and advance life science research. UMIP and Ximbio have established and implemented a master commercial agreement. This makes it very easy to add the University's research tools to the Ximbio platform. The first researcher to participate is Professor Martin Humphries who has contributed seven monoclonal antibodies which will be made globally available on the Ximbio portal for researchers working on cell adhesion and signalling through integrins. These antibodies, directed against CD49e,CD49b, CD29 and CD151, have been generated in Professor Humphries' laboratory, by a very productive team with a strong interest in understanding the role of cell adhesion molecules in orchestrating the dialogue between cells and their environment. Amongst many others, his discoveries include the description of conformational changes in integrin molecules, which define the level of connection between cells and the extracellular matrix. Through the use of mass spectrometry and biochemical analysis, Professor Humphries was able to understand the multi-component complexes of integrins, called adhesomes, and their involvement in cell movement and the different types of adhesion. All the antibodies provided by the University have been used in top level publications by Professor Humphries and others, and their presence on the Ximbio website will undoubtedly promote and facilitate future research in the field of cell adhesion and signalling. For scientists looking for specific reagents to use in their experiments, Ximbio offers a fully searchable database, extensive datasheets, and supplier options, and in future will also feature peer reviews of listed products. Each reagent record can be linked to the originating inventor, enabling scientists and institutions to be credited for their work. Ximbio will operate as a business unit of CRT, and will focus on all areas of biology. Melanie Hardman, Head of Ximbio said: "We have created Ximbio to be a place where scientists can share their research, and reagent companies can source new products, in a streamlined process that saves both time and resource. We hope to accelerate life science research." Edward Maughfling, Express Licensing Manager at UMIP commented: "Research Reagents are a key component of UMIP's Express Licensing strategy and we are really pleased to partner with Ximbio to make the University's research reagents available online."