Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast-Natuurwetenschappelijk

TNO spin-off Peregrion brings science to the marketplace LEIDEN, Netherlands, March 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ten years of development at TNO, the largest independent research and technology organisation in the Netherlands and one of the largest in the EU, has yielded a track record and acceptance by regulators of the accelerated biomedical mass spectrometry (AMS) technology. TNO aims to boost the technology's market impact by both developing the technology further and launching Peregrion. The purpose of this spin-off company is to aid pharmaceutical companies in accelerating their own early clinical development programmes. Using Accelerated biomedical Mass Spectrometry (AMS) for microtracer studies optimises and de-risks the development of candidate drugs. Peregrion is the 41st spin-off since the start of TNO Tech Transfer. Peregrion will build on TNO's legacy of generating early human microtracer data from absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion studies. TNO has optimised the process through the years, for instance by developing a sample preparation technology to enable the detection, identification and quantification of all human metabolites as early as clinical phase 1. Currently, a large number of top-20 pharmaceutical companies are using TNO's AMS technology to advance their medicine development programmes. In the meantime, the acceptance by industry is growing for the microtracer approach that will be transferred to Peregrion. Wouter Vaes, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Peregrion: "We have clearly managed to position the microtracer approach as one of the most promising animal-free innovation trajectories. Moreover, we have now reached to point that the global pharmaceutical industry is embracing our technology to implement the 'human first, human only' strategy as the preferred method to obtain drug metabolism data, from a scientific as well as a business perspective." Steven Erpelinck, Chief Commercial Officer and co-founder of Peregrion: "TNO positions Peregrion to further build on the AMS technology that we developed, offering the ideal setting to support clients in the pharmaceutical industry with bringing the best medicines to patients earlier." Broadening biomedical application TNO will continue to focus on developing the AMS technology further and on broadening the biomedical application field of AMS and microtracer studies. TNO is currently working on applying this technology for biomarkers and efficacy research in early clinical development. In addition, TNO is maturing this technology for data enrichment studies of biologics and paediatric drugs. Peter van Dijken, Managing Director of TNO Healthy Living and Work: "We are very proud at TNO that our 10 years of pre-competitive research proves that it is still possible to generically improve the drug development process." About AMS technology The development of medicines is a long and arduous process. To register a new medicine by submitting a dossier to regulators like the FDA and EMA can take between 10 and 15 years, with the whole process costing about 1 to 1.5 billion euros. Ninety percent of the medicines in clinical development never make it to the registration phase. The AMS technology using microtracers can deliver relevant biopharmaceutical data at earlier stages of the programme and potentially reduce the drug development time by 2 years. This greatly contributes to medicines becoming available to patients much sooner. For an earlier article on TNO's AMS technology, please read: . About TNO TNO is the largest independent research and technology organisation in the Netherlands and one of the largest in the EU. We innovate, investigate, and orchestrate, collaborating closely with governments, universities and the private sector. We inform government on policies and empower evidence-based decision-making through rigorous investigations, cutting-edge scientific insights, and reliable measurements. By building national and international consortia and ecosystems, we drive technological and methodological breakthroughs that help to realise a secure, sustainable, healthy, and digital society, and strengthen the earning power of the Dutch economy. SOURCE TNO

The turbine in Wieringermeer, The Netherlands, where the full-scale tests will take place. Photo Credit: TNO Energy Transition A consortium composed of LM Wind Power (Kolding, Denmark), GE Renewable Energy (Paris, France) and TNO (The Hague, Netherlands) released an update on project TIADE (Turbine Improvements for Additional Energy) to develop technologies and design methods for more efficient operation of next-generation wind turbine rotors, wind farms with large rotor wakes and demonstrate them in the field. The TIADE project is said to have reached a new milestone with the research wind turbine becoming fully operational. The innovations developed in the project will be tested on the full-scale, 130-meter-diameter turbine recently installed in Wieringermeer, Netherlands, which is powered by carbon fiber two-piece blades, which allows the outer 12 meters of the blades to be replaced by several innovative tips. “Our revolutionary two-piece blade design has helped us drive down the levelized cost of energy [LCOE],” says Ben Hendriks, chief engineer, Turbine System Integration at LM Wind Power. “Here, in this project, we are applying new technology to significantly increase speed and reduce cost associated with testing and validation.” According to Peter Eecen, R&D manager at TNO Wind Energy, innovations in wind turbine blades are essential to make renewable wind energy even more affordable. “We are proud we will validate blade innovations and aerodynamic simulations tools in the field, together with GE Renewable Energy and LM Wind Power,” Eecen says. “Thereto advanced measurement techniques are used in a unique setup that combines detailed wind inflow measurements and unsteady pressure measurements on the blade.” Various innovative blade add-ons, such as spoilers, serrations, vortex generators, ‘turbulators’ and blade tip improvements will be validated using advanced measurement techniques. The consortia notes that results will accelerate wide-scale application of rotors with higher annual energy production and thus a considerably lower cost of offshore wind energy (Suzlon Group recently optimized a nacelle to meet LCOE demand). These solutions can be applied to newly manufactured wind turbines in the factory, consortium partners say, but they can partly also be retrofitted to existing offshore wind farms. With both options available, implementation of the technologies in offshore wind farms can be done from 2023. The consortium was established in 2020 to test new research on blade tip improvements under the three-year, 10-month TIADE project, with partial funding from the ‘Topsector Energiesubsidie’ of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.