NEWS
New UK network for healthtech leadership
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded £5 million for an NIHR HealthTech Research Centre Network, hosted by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, from 1 September 2024. The Network will provide coordination and leadership for the NIHR HealthTech Research Centres (HRCs), supporting the development, evaluation and adoption of innovative health and care technology. The HealthTech Research Centres were
awarded almost £42 million NIHR funding from April this year to drive life-changing research into health and care technologies. The 14 HRCs work with companies to develop, evaluate and validate health and care technology to enable people to better monitor their health, diagnose ill health soon and improve the management of conditions. The HRCs are located in leading
NHS organisations across England. They support the development of innovations that address the nation’s most pressing health and care challenges including cancer, mental health, neurodegeneration and dementia, respiratory disease and cardiovascular conditions.
The Network will work closely with the 14 HRCs to provide: strategic collaboration with the health and care research system; coordination and leadership of cross-HRC initiatives; and proactive support for industry to work with the HRCs. Professor Wendy Tindale, Director of the NIHR HRC Network and of the NIHR HRC in Long Term Conditions, said: “It’s a huge privilege to be the lead for the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre Network. Working in partnership with all 14 HRCs will be key to delivering the Network’s ambitions in transforming UK HealthTech into a thriving ecosystem of industry, academia, NHS and stakeholders, collaborating to bring innovative health technologies more rapidly to patients. The range and synergistic experience of the HRCs is vast and there is a real opportunity for this new Network to create a step change in impact.”
The Network will extend across England with a senior leadership team drawn from NHS Trusts in Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford and Devon.
10
Launch Diagnostics celebrates new office premises
Launch Diagnostics recently celebrated its new office premises in Dartford with an official opening ceremony. It comes at a time of growth for the company which has also recently established a new subsidiary based in Germany.
Guest of honour at the event was Helen Dent, CEO of the British In Vitro Diagnostic Association (BIVDA). Helen is pictured (far left) along with (left to right), Cathy Fiatte, Director General of Launch Diagnostics France SAS, and Joint Managing Directors of Launch Diagnostics Ian Jones and Anne McGurk.
The company’s new base is situated in
in Crossways Business Park, Dartford and includes quiet rooms, soft relaxation areas and offers Launch’s suppliers and customers the chance to experience its state-of-the- art training and demo suite highlighting its innovative precision diagnostic platforms. The Managing Directors commented: “In 2024 Launch Diagnostics celebrated its 34th anniversary as a major independent distributor within the specialist diagnostics
industry. To be successful over three decades we must maintain the ability to adapt and grow as a business. To facilitate this growth, we are proud to announce the official opening of our new modern facilities which reflect our investment and commitment to a modern, efficient, sustainable workplace environment. “Launch Diagnostics will continue to develop our level of expertise within the diagnostics industry whilst maintaining our commitment to deliver high quality tests, precision equipment and optimal patient care.”
Array-based solution for blood research
Thermo Fisher Scientific has introduced the Applied Biosystems Axiom BloodGenomiX array and software, a first-of-its-kind solution for more precise blood genotyping in clinical research.
The new array detects most extended
and rare blood groups, tissue (HLA) and platelet (HPA) types in a single, high- throughput assay, supporting future advancements in donor blood matching for extended phenotypes.
Blood typing is a critical medical service used to match blood and tissue types ahead of transfusions and transplants. If a patient receives incompatible blood, they can form antibodies that can increase the risk of a severe, even life-threatening, reaction to future transfusions. This risk increases significantly for people who receive frequent transfusions, such as patients undergoing chemotherapy and people with inherited blood disorders such as sickle cell disease. While testing for the four main blood types (A, B, AB, and O) and determining if the blood is Rh positive or negative is common practice, there are many more blood group systems, including some extremely rare blood types.
Therefore, research is critical to bring extended blood typing into strategies to mitigate potential risks of haemolytic transfusion reactions in the future. “Adoption of DNA-based blood typing will pave the way for large-scale genomics research and the future establishment of international standards to improve the safety and efficacy of blood transfusion for millions of patients,” said Willem H Ouwehand, Blood transfusion Genomics Consortium chair and Professor of Experimental Haematology at the University of Cambridge and NHS Blood and Transplant in England. For more information, please visit
thermofisher.com/extendedbloodtyping and read the white paper, “Genotyping for extended and rare blood types.”
JUNE 2024
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM
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