A UK-India-Cardiff partnership for immunity testing

Two companies in the UK and India led by a Cardiff University graduate and a former Research Fellow have signed a strategic partnership in their quest to provide expert immunology products and services worldwide.

ImmunoServ, based in Cardiff and ImmunitasBio, of Bangalore, India, formalised their partnership on St David’s Day (1 March).

Their respective leaders, alumnus Dr James Hindley (BSc 2006, PhD 2011), CEO of ImmunoServ, and Dr Sivasankar Baalasubramanian, CEO and Founder of ImmunitasBio, met whilst at Cardiff University School of Medicine in 2006.

Dr Hindley said: “To tackle global problems in healthcare, we believe global collaboration is essential. Our strategic partnership strengthens our commitment to cooperate together. The COVID pandemic reminded us that global problems require global solutions. Scientists, governments and businesses across the world shared information and cooperated to support efforts everywhere.”

Both companies worked together during the pandemic, supporting vaccine research and providing immunity testing in their respective countries. Beyond COVID, ImmunoServ and ImmunitasBio are collaborating to develop and commercialise immunity tests for other infectious diseases such as influenza, as well as cancer and autoimmunity.

Dr Baalasubramanian said: “The healthcare market already has liver function tests, kidney function tests, but we are developing immune function tests - predictive health tests that can provide actionable insights into many diseases.”

The two doctors remained good friends after leaving Cardiff University and started an entrepreneurial journey together in 2014 when they founded InBio India, a sister company of UK based Indoor Biotechnologies (now InBio UK).

After exiting this allergy-focused business in 2020, the two entrepreneurs are now working together to bring immunity testing to the world.