Insider Media reports Cardiff-headquartered biopharmaceutical company Cellesce has received a six figure funding package to open up opportunities in the marketplace for its products.

Cellesce produces organoids, three dimensional stem cell cultures that can organise into mini-organs for the study of tumours to enable cancer drug discovery.

In recent months Cellesce, which was founded out of the University of Bath, has moved into a laboratory in Cardiff and has launched its first range of colorectal organoids, orginally derived from tumours. It was backed by the Development Bank of Wales.

Investment executive Philip Barnes said “Cellesce is an exciting start-up, which is poised to take advantage of fast evolving organoid technology. The company has high growth potential and is making exciting progress in an important area of medical research. We’re pleased to offer our continued support to the team as they further develop their organoid technology.”

Nicholas Duggan, Cellesce chief executive, said “We are delighted by the confidence that Development Bank of Wales has shown in Cellesce. We already have our first commercial customers and huge interest is being shown by organisations involved in several areas of medical research. This new funding will enable us to take our expansion technology to the next stage with Cellesce becoming the leading provider of organoids and expansion services to a number of key movers in cancer drug discovery.”