History

Biocompatibles and PC Technology trace their beginnings to the 1970s and the work of Professor Dennis Chapman (1927-1999) at the Royal Free Hospital in London, England. Professor Chapman and his colleagues were responsible for groundbreaking research in the area of biocompatibility – the ability of a material to interface within the body without provoking an adverse biological response. They identified phosphorylcholine (PC), a substance present in the human cell membrane, as one of the primary natural materials responsible for biocompatibility.

In 1984, Professor Chapman founded Biocompatibles, which patented PC Technology in order to develop it for commercial applications in the healthcare industry. In 2002, the Company expanded its development to a new field of research based upon embolisation therapy, a minmally invasive threatment for tumours or vascular malformations based upon compressible PVA embolic micrspheres.

Biocompatibles has been publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange since 1995 (LSE:BII).

Professor Dennis Chapman

Professor Dennis ChapmanProfessor Dennis Chapman, CChem FRSC, FRS, was an academic chemist and founder of Biocompatibles. He employed the biophysical tools of chemistry to tackle the monumentally complex structure and dynamics of biological membranes.

Dennis initially studied chemistry at London and Liverpool Universities, England, and was subsequently employed as a senior scientist and assistant manager in the detergent division of Unilever in the mid-1950s. He returned to academia in 1960, conducting research in molecular biology, and in particular lipids and phospholipids, at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, England. Afterwards, he rejoined Unilever as head of their newly established general research division in 1963.

In 1966, he was appointed a Professor associate at Sheffield University, England and then joined the Department of Chemistry at Chelsea College, University of London, England, as a research fellow in 1976. The following year, Dennis moved to the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine as Professor of biophysical chemistry, where his research and identification of phosphorylcholine (PC), a substance present in the human cell membrane that allows blood to flow without clotting, led him to found Biocompatibles.

He retired as a director of the Company in July 1998; but he maintained close links with the Company until his death in 1999.

His legacy is celebrated annually by the award of the Chapman Medal by the Institute of Materials in London for distinguished research in the field of bio-medical materials.

 

Company

Advanced Search