The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in the UK has opened a £20m ($23.2m) robotic AI laboratory to test drugs and vaccines against infections and diseases.
The Liverpool Accelerate Laboratory was developed with the LSTM-led iiCON: Infection Innovation Consortium and received funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
It is due to open next year and is expected to generate £40m in investment during its first three years, alongside new jobs in the region.
Researchers and companies will use human organoids, tissue cultures grown in the laboratory, to assess how potential treatments may perform in people, reducing reliance on animal testing.
The work will take place in a Containment Level 3 (CL3) facility, allowing scientists to handle pathogens, including salmonella and TB, using automated equipment.
LSTM research and innovation pro vice-chancellor Professor Giancarlo Biagini said: "The Liverpool Accelerate Laboratory is an advanced facility that builds on years of pioneering organoid research at LSTM and partner organisations.
"It harnesses the potential held by this exciting technology to accelerate the development of advanced human infection models for emerging and high-consequence diseases.
"By incorporating machine learning, AI and robotics in a highly secure Category 3 facility, we are automating the development and commercialisation of these advanced organoid models, to expand the scale and speed of infectious disease research and development while delivering precision and reproducibility."
The steel-clad facility has been designed to meet forthcoming changes to the Terrorism Act. The project also aligns with the UK Government's £75m national roadmap to shift away from animal testing towards human-relevant alternatives.
iiCON founding director Professor Janet Hemingway said: "Research using human organoids is at the cutting edge of infection research and development (R&D)—moving drug discovery away from animal testing and offering new ways of shaping more targeted treatments to respond to some of our most challenging infections."
The laboratory will be open to businesses of all sizes, offering initial pilot studies aimed particularly at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups developing new vaccines and drugs.
Postdoctoral research assistant Claire Caygill has been working on integrating the robotics and biology systems at the lab.
"LSTM opens $23m robotic AI lab for infection research" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.