Scottish biotechnology company PhaSER Biomedical has secured a $2.7m (£2m), two-year grant renewal from the Gates Foundation to support research into treatments for some of the world's most neglected diseases.

The funding extends PhaSER's role in the Global Health Discovery Collaboratory, providing Gates Foundation grantees worldwide with access to its humanised mouse models and expertise in drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, bioanalysis and computational modelling.

At the centre of the platform is the company's 8HUM mouse model, which has been genetically modified to incorporate human pathways involved in drug metabolism and elimination. Developed through research involving the University of Dundee, CXR Biosciences, Taconic Farms and Scottish Enterprise, the model is intended to help researchers understand how candidate drugs are likely to behave in humans.

Conventional animal models can present challenges because differences between mouse and human metabolism may affect how compounds are processed, potentially complicating the interpretation of preclinical results. By incorporating human metabolic pathways, PhaSER aims to provide more relevant information earlier in drug development and help researchers make better-informed decisions about which candidates to progress.

The renewed funding builds on an initial $2.3m award in 2024. During the first phase, the 8HUM platform was used across global health research programmes involving tuberculosis, malaria, schistosomiasis and Chagas disease. PhaSER says the work has helped strengthen confidence in candidate selection and support the progression of development programmes.

Beyond infectious disease research, the company is seeking to establish 8HUM as a broader drug discovery tool, generating data that can inform pharmacology, safety, efficacy and clinical pharmacokinetics.

PhaSER is also developing HERALD (Human Exposure and Response Analyser in Linked Drugs), an AI-driven platform designed to assess drug-drug interactions. The work addresses the challenge of polypharmacy, where patients taking multiple medicines may be exposed to adverse interactions.

HERALD is being developed through a collaboration involving PhaSER, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the University of Dundee. The project aims to combine data from humanised models with clinical trial and real-world evidence, alongside machine learning and computational modelling.

Professor Roland Wolf, PhaSER's founder, said the first two years of the Collaboratory programme had demonstrated the potential of humanised models to provide more relevant evidence in drug development.

He said the renewed funding would allow the company to build on that progress, developing new models and capabilities in collaboration with Gates Foundation grantees and the University of Dundee.

The funding comes as PhaSER prepares to expand its operations and team, including recruitment in computational modelling and AI. It has also appointed Richard Bickerton, co-founder of Exscientia, as a non-executive director.

Pic: Pilan Filmes