High demand stokes ambition at Aptamer Group

Aptamer Group was founded in the Leeds basement of husband and wife team Dr Arron Tolley and Melanie Ellyard in 2008.

Since it began trading in 2012, it has attracted the attention of major pharmaceutical firms, global technology companies and environmental research organisations.

Aptamer Group, which employs five people and has an estimated turnover of £500,000 for 2015, has £2m in orders forecast for its next financial year.

Ms Ellyard told The Yorkshire Post that the business is set to grow “substantially” in the next 12 months.

Aptamers are synthetic antibodies that can be used for in anything from medicine to the defence industry, Ms Ellyard said.

She said: “They’re largely seen as a disruptive technology against antibodies. Antibodies are used in all kinds of different fields, whether that’s medical diagnostic devices, to therapeutic reasons.

“We’ve worked with organisations who want aptamers to detect toxins in sea water for environmental needs.”

Unlike antibodies, which are typically by an animal’s immune system, aptamers can be created to tight specifications using test tubes, she said.

“It’s a process that lends itself very well to automation,” she said.

“We’ve automated the process, which means we can produce these things quickly and accurately, and at a lower cost than an antibody.”

Due to the technology’s versatile nature, the group works across a range of markets.

Ms Ellyard said: “There are lots of drugs that have gotten so far in clinical trials but have had to be shelved.

“For pharmaceutical companies, aptamers are a way of breathing life back into these drugs.”

They can also be used for defence, allowing safe detection of poisons like ricin and anthrax, she added.

While aptamer technology was developed around 20 years ago, the industry was bound due by US patents until recent years.

Prior to trading, Dr Tolley did extensive research out of Leeds University on the intellectual property involved in the patents and on developing the group’s own intellectual property.

Aptamer Group has four divisions, including Aptamer Solutions, which creates custom aptamers for clients and Aptamer Diagnostics, which works on the application of the technology in sensors and detection systems.

It also has companies that focus on aptamers in therapeutic settings and biomarker discovery.

The group has been based at York Science Park since expanding in 2013. In addition to its five staff, the business uses liquid-handling robots that are equivalent to a workforce of around 15, Ms Ellyard said.

One of Aptamer Group’s current projects includes working with Sharp Laboratories Europe and others on a handheld device that could be used by GPs and patients to detect respiratory diseases such as asthma.

“Sometimes people struggle with the idea of ‘what’s your niche?’,” Ms Ellyard said.

“We don’t have one. We develop aptamers and we do it really, really well.

“That’s one of the things that makes the company so interesting. No two days are the same.”