BEDFORD, MASS., and PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLA., OCT. 25, 2011—Toxikon, a preclinical contract research organization that provides development services to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries, and Ocean Ridge Biosciences (ORB), a genomic services provider to the health care and life science industries, have formed a partnership to globally market their respective expertise and provide increased discovery through preclinical development services to its clients.
The partnership began by collaborating on the development of an ocular disease model, specifically a uveitis disease models in mice and rats. During development, Toxikon and Ocean Ridge worked together in assessing and validating target cytokine levels in inflamed versus healthy animal tissue. The lipopolysaccharides (LPS) injection-based uveitis model induces uvea/ocular inflammation and cytokine elevation, which is undergoing final validation for use in Toxikon’s preclinical ocular disease screening program.
Both Toxikon and Ocean Ridge have built strong partnerships with many other life science companies and academic research institutions and have now created expanded commercial resources for drug discovery and development capabilities.
Toxikon previously owned and operated four toxicology and chemistry sites in South Florida for 19 years. ORB staff recently coauthored studies appearing in the journals PNAS and Nature with scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter Florida. In addition, ORB is engaged in research collaborations with scientists at Emory University, Roosevelt Hospital in New York, and the University of Miami. ORB also participates in the biotechnology training programs offered by Palm Beach State College and the Workforce Alliance of Palm Beach County. In addition to providing genomic services, ORB is engaged in distributing products and in-licensing promising technologies in the genomics tool space.
“We are pleased to now partner with Ocean Ridge Biosciences, and with shared goals and objectives to foster research and development collaborations, this partnership makes sense for our clients,” said Nancy L. DiGiulio, Toxikon’s Vice President.
“Toxikon is a well-respected CRO that provides broad expertise in preclinical contract research with operations in the U.S. and Europe. We are honored to support Toxikon’s provision of services to their clients through our focused expertise in RNA profiling and Biomarker Discovery,” said David Willoughby, Sr. Scientist and Manager at Ocean Ridge Biosciences.
About Toxikon
Toxikon is a preclinical contract research organization. We contract and partner with biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries to deliver exceptional product development services from concept to final product.
About Ocean Ridge Biosciences
Ocean Ridge Biosciences is a contract research laboratory that provides reliable, efficient, and innovative RNA Profiling and Biomarker Discovery services to academic and commercial investigators engaged in Drug Discovery & Development. ORB’s RNA Profiling services utilize genome-scale technologies such as sequencing and microarrays, and are enriched by the company’s superior capabilities in bioinformatics. ORB is an industry leader in microarray-based profiling of microRNA. In the field of Biomarker Discovery, ORB provides a unique service for discovery of circulating RNA biomarkers, as well as a flexible platform for multiplex protein profiling.
