PetScreen to have Columbia headquarters

PetScreen was drawn to the move-in ready laboratory space.

By Daniel Everson

Published Feb. 23, 2009

The United Kingdom-based PetScreen Ltd. will be establishing its U.S. headquarters in Columbia during the next three months.

Jake Halliday, Life Science Business Incubator president at Monsanto Place, said he expects the company to finish moving into the incubator building by April or May. He said the incubator, which officially opened its doors Jan. 5, has been working with the company to reach an agreement for the past 14 months.

"Obviously, we're delighted that PetScreen has chosen Columbia," Halliday said.

PetScreen is a veterinary diagnostics company, Halliday said, that focuses on age-related diseases, such as cancer and joint problems, in dogs and cats. Halliday said it makes sense for a company such as PetScreen to come to North America because the U.S. features one of the largest pet population markets in the world.

"Any biotech company in Europe, once they've gotten themselves underway in Europe, looks to the U.S. at some point," Halliday said.

Halliday said PetScreen chose Columbia for three reasons. First, the company can build its relationship with MU.

"Most high-tech companies in biotechnology do take time to have a research relationship with a research university," Halliday said.

He said PetScreen was also drawn by the incubator's move-in ready laboratory space and by Columbia as a place to live.

PetScreen Technical Director Shahid Mian will be moving from the U.K. to Mid-Missouri to help establish operations at the new headquarters, Halliday said.

Mian was not available for immediate comment.

Carolyn Henry, an oncology professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is a part of MU's existing research relationship with PetScreen. She said she has been working with PetScreen since April 2007, and she had a role in bringing PetScreen to Columbia.

Henry said she met the company's founder Kevin Slater at a meeting in the U.K. There she talked with PetScreen about a lymphoma test they had developed that could identify cancer in dogs before the disease was clinically recognizable.

When PetScreen representatives visited the U.S. in search of potential sites for a U.S. headquarters, they made a side trip to Columbia to discuss research collaboration with Henry. Henry said they planned on establishing their new headquarters in New York.

"I suggested they might want to consider Columbia," Henry said, because of its central location, lower cost of living and opportunities for partnership with MU.

Henry said her research with PetScreen has involved the company's lymphoma test. She said she and her MU colleagues are evaluating the test's accuracy on samples from dogs with cancer.

Henry said another key attraction for PetScreen was the Gehrke Proteomics Center at the Bond Life Sciences Center.

Proteomics Center Associate Director Brian Mooney said the center focuses on protein analysis and identification. The center will help PetScreen with research on protein identification markers, Mooney said.

He said the center has not yet worked with PetScreen but is in discussions with them about future collaboration. Working with PetScreen will benefit the center economically, he said, since PetScreen will pay fees for the center's services.

Mooney also said the collaboration might allow the center to acquire new instrumentation.

Halliday discussed the economic benefits of PetScreen's arrival in Columbia.

"PetScreen will start with four jobs that weren't here before," he said.

He said the company expects to grow to about 32 jobs, most of them high-paying professional positions, over five years.

"And who knows after that?" Halliday said.