Our Mission
Our mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to safer chemicals without vertebrate animal testing, by helping our customers to better understand the root causes of exposure-related harm and to report that knowledge to the chemical regulators.
Our Core Values
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Our integrity and reliability are the keystones of our science. We’ve earned an international reputation and built networks in chemical safety science with both the regulators and the regulated.
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We combine state-of-the-art NAM technologies with specialised data science to accelerate and increase certainty in chemical safety assessments. We link our science to policy and legislation, developing best practice and reporting guidelines for NAMs, including with the OECD chemical safety programme.
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We are proud to promote the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement of animal testing), and equally proud to promote safety-by-design.
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We uniquely co-produce solutions with our customers to solve their problems. We can deliver bespoke R&D and bespoke training to educate on the now and near-future of chemical safety using NAMs.
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Every member of our team commits to a group effort. We promote all stakeholders being seated at the table to progress NAMs for chemical safety. If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself - Henry Ford.
Our Story
Mark Viant and John Colbourne are both Professors at the University of Birmingham, leading active research laboratories that specialise in advanced molecular technologies for understanding how chemicals can cause toxicity.
We founded Michabo Health Science in 2018 as a trading division within University of Birmingham Enterprise Limited. Its goal was to demonstrate that the same technologies that have revolutionised healthcare can be used to provide precise information on chemical safety, so to facilitate a more rapid and cost-effective regulatory approval of chemicals without animal testing.
To better support our expanding customer base at intersecting research innovations with specific chemical safety challenges, Michabo Health Science Limited was incorporated in 2020 and became a spin-out company from the University of Birmingham in 2021.
Our Company Name
Our company name refers to a well-known myth among the Algonquins in Canada (where John is from) who recognise Michabo as the Great Hare that rebuilds the earth after a great flood. In the modern world, we equate the flood of ancient legends to the “flood” of synthetic chemicals. We believe that our company can help to protect humans and the environment from harmful chemicals while simultaneously accelerating the pace of chemical risk assessment, giving our industry customers a modern, cost-effective method to innovate chemicals responsibly.