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D-Gen Ltd (UK prion diagnostics company linked to the MRC Prion Unit) logo

D-Gen Ltd (UK prion diagnostics company linked to the MRC Prion Unit)

D-Gen Limited is a small private company registered in England, number 03670478, incorporated on 19 November 1998 and active on the Companies House register as of October 2026, with SIC code 72110 for biotechnology research and development. It took its present name in March 1999 after brief spells as Boardpaper Limited and Neurogene Limited. It is the commercial vehicle for prion intellectual property from John Collinge's group: it was launched as an academic spin-out from Imperial College in May 2000, shortly after the MRC Prion Unit was set up, and Collinge has been a director since 8 May 2000. Its visible footprint today is twofold. It holds or has held US patents on the beta-PrP antibody platform, on anti-PrP antibodies such as ICSM18 for prion inhibition and Alzheimer disease, and on the steel capture assay behind the MRC Prion Unit vCJD blood test. And it supplies the ICSM18 and ICSM35 antibodies that appear in MRC Prion Unit papers, which routinely declare it as a competing interest. Information only, not medical, legal or investment advice.

Key facts

  • Companies House lists D-GEN LIMITED, company 03670478, as an active private limited company incorporated on 19 November 1998, nature of business SIC 72110 (research and experimental development on biotechnology), with a shared service address in Stanmore, Middlesex as registered office; it was named Boardpaper Limited until 22 January 1999 and Neurogene Limited until 19 March 1999.
  • The company is current with its filings: accounts to 30 November 2025 were filed on 24 August 2026 under the small company total exemption, the latest confirmation statement is dated 15 January 2026, and the next accounts are due by 31 August 2027. The status field is therefore active, not dissolved.
  • The register shows 21 officers over the company's life, 2 active: John Collinge as director since 8 May 2000 and a second director, a professor, appointed 4 July 2017. The long serving company secretary and director left on 5 December 2024 and two other directors left on 21 July 2022; public register roles only.
  • No person with significant control is registered; since 19 November 2016 the company has filed a statement that it has no registrable person or legal entity, meaning no single holder controls more than a quarter of it. A search excerpt of a 2022 Infected Blood Inquiry witness statement says it is jointly owned by the MRC, UCL and the Wellcome Trust together with the founder scientists, and that its director receives no pay from it; the statement itself could not be read.
  • A UCL Prion Unit page, seen only as search excerpts, describes D-Gen as an academic spin-out launched from Imperial College in May 2000, with founders who continued their research at the MRC Prion Unit at UCL, and an aim to develop preventions, diagnostics and treatments for prion disease and other neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer disease. A 2001 news item called it a start-up formed for prion diagnostics and therapeutics.
  • In March 2001 D-Gen and Igen International announced joint development of a post-mortem BSE test for slaughterhouses on Igen's Origen platform, using reagents and a prototype from Collinge's group.
  • In August 2004 D-Gen launched its ICSM range of anti-PrP monoclonal antibodies for research, raised against a beta-sheet rich PrP form and reacting with human, cattle, mouse, sheep and hamster PrP; the release says ICSM35 with ICSM18 underpinned a cattle BSE test that scored 100 percent in a European Commission evaluation.
  • D-Gen still supplies these antibodies: a June 2026 PNAS paper from the MRC Prion Unit states that D-Gen supplied the ICSM35 and ICSM18 antibodies used, and describes D-Gen as an academic spin-out working on prion disease diagnosis, decontamination and therapeutics with Collinge as director and shareholder. A Europe PMC full text search finds 138 records mentioning D-Gen, nearly all MRC Prion Unit and National Prion Clinic papers from 2008 to 2026. Two authors of the 2015 Scientific Reports blood assay paper declared D-Gen shareholdings.
  • Patents: the beta-PrP antibody patent US6534036 (priority November 1998) was assigned by Imperial College Innovations to D-Gen in April 2001 and has expired; the prion inhibition patent US7550144 on ICSM18 and ICSM35 therapy was assigned from UCL to the MRC to D-Gen in February 2008 and expired in 2024; the steel capture prion assay patent US10288627 (priority 16 September 2010) is assigned to D-Gen and listed as lapsed for unpaid fees; of two Alzheimer patents on anti-PrP antibodies naming ICSM18 and its humanised form PRN100, US10316099 lapsed for fees and the continuation US10919971, granted 16 February 2021, is listed as active to about 2032. Patent status is as listed by Google Patents, not a legal opinion.
  • D-Gen was involved in UK discussions on a vCJD blood prevalence study: Infected Blood Inquiry files include a letter of 11 March 2015 from two senior blood safety and standards scientists to a D-Gen director, and a letter of 27 August 2015 from that director on a pathway to a prevalence study of vCJD in UK blood; search excerpts say a 2015 D-Gen letter proposed moving the assay to NHS Blood and Transplant under a material transfer agreement covering data, intellectual property and partnership with the MRC Prion Unit. Only titles and excerpts were seen.
  • PitchBook is reported in a search excerpt to list D-Gen as out of business from about 2019; this conflicts with the register and was not opened.

Timeline

  1. 1998Company incorporated as Boardpaper Limited.
  2. 1999Renamed from Neurogene Limited to D-Gen Limited.
  3. 2000Launched as an academic spin-out from Imperial College; John Collinge appointed director on 8 May 2000.
  4. 2001Igen International and D-Gen announce a post-mortem BSE test collaboration.
  5. 2001Imperial College Innovations assigns the beta-PrP patent family to D-Gen.
  6. 2004D-Gen launches the ICSM anti-PrP monoclonal antibody range.
  7. 2008Prion inhibition patent on ICSM18 and ICSM35 assigned from UCL via the MRC to D-Gen.
  8. 2010Priority date of the D-Gen steel capture prion assay patent behind the vCJD blood test.
  9. 2015Letter from two senior blood safety and standards scientists to a D-Gen director, filed with the Infected Blood Inquiry.
  10. 2015D-Gen letter on a pathway to a vCJD prevalence study in UK blood.
  11. 2016Statement filed that the company has no registrable person with significant control.
  12. 2019US patent 10288627 on the prion assay granted to D-Gen.
  13. 2021US patent 10919971 on anti-PrP antibodies for Alzheimer disease granted to D-Gen.
  14. 2024Long serving company secretary and director leaves.
  15. 2026PNAS paper from the MRC Prion Unit reports D-Gen as supplier of ICSM18 and ICSM35.
  16. 2026Accounts to 30 November 2025 filed; company remains active.
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