RECENT NEWS

John (Ian) Cowie, an IBMS Fellow and managing director of Point Of Care Testing, attended a reception for Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellows at Buckingham Palace, hosted by Her Majesty the Queen on 18 March. Ian went on his Fellowship in 1976 to the USA to investigate the running of clinical pharmacology laboratories.

Michael Wren MBE FIBMS has been appointed by Council as the Institute’s new Honorary Librarian for a period of three years.The Honorary Librarian maintains the Institute’s Mercer Collection, a library housed at 12 Coldbath Square containing more than 1500 titles, including many rare first editions.

Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics is tackling challenges faced by point-of-care (POC) coordinators in the laboratory with an innovative ecosystem approach. The Ecosystem solution was launched recently as an integrated component of the RAPIDComm data management system, an informatics solution that centrally manages Siemens in vitro diagnostics analysers and operators.

The successful development of a new platform technology for the rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnosis of influenza and other respiratory conditions has widespread potential for the detection of a wide range of other infectious diseases.

UK-based molecular diagnostics company Biofortuna has appointed a new chairman to lead the next phase of growth. Life sciences expert Ian Johnson will take on the role at Biofortuna, with previous chairman Mark Hurley remaining on the board as a non-executive director.

Beckman Coulter has a new leadership team in place for 2015, with the recent appointment of the new general manager, Anthony Doyle, and Ibti Rashid (pictured) as senior marketing manager, diagnostics.

The purpose of Biomedical Laboratory Science (BLS) Day is to increase the awareness of the role that biomedical scientists play in providing healthcare, as they have an important role in diagnosis, quality development and assurance, treatment, research, development, and public health. International Biomedical Laboratory Science Day, to be held this year on 15 April, gives the profession the opportunity to promote and celebrate its successes and achievements.

Malvern Instruments offers an application note that examines the use its NanoSight nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) technology in the study of extracellular vesicles (exosomes), where ensuring the stability of sample preparations is essential to more detailed research work. Measuring exosome stability with nanoparticle tracking analysis describes the use of this technology for size and concentration measurements of exosomes stored at 4oC and at room temperature for up to five days.

Engaging in unprotected sex with multiple partners increases the risk of contracting multiple strains of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Once inside a host, these strains can recombine into a new variant of the virus. One such recombinant variant observed in patients in Cuba appears to be much more aggressive than other known forms of HIV. Patients progress to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) within three years of infection – so rapidly that they may not even realise they are infected.

myHCPC is a new application (app) delivering the latest information, guidance and news updates from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) straight to a mobile device.

The successful development of new platform technology for the rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnosis of influenza and other respiratory conditions has widespread potential for the detection of a wide range of infectious diseases. Supported by Innovate UK’s Biomedical Catalyst Fund, OJ Bio has now successfully completed the prototype development of a new wireless POC diagnosis system that accurately and quickly identifies the presence of various disease types in a range of patient samples.

A specialist school in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle has joined forces with a Wirral business to prepare its students for the business roles of tomorrow. Liverpool Life Sciences UTC has collaborated with Pro-Lab Diagnostics to enhance its students’ skills and work-related learning experience while improving their employability within the science and healthcare sectors.

Royal Philips will support oncology researchers' efforts to analyse pathology samples by offering advanced image analysis algorithms from Indica Labs as part of its Digital Pathology Solutions offerings. The collaboration will allow pathology researchers to apply intelligent algorithms to digitised pathology slides, which may enhance their ability to detect, process and extract information from tissue samples than currently possible using a conventional microscope.

Irish scientists are developing a new €25 blood test for bowel cancer, which could save thousands of lives by spotting the disease at the earliest possible opportunity. The simple check will pick up antibodies in the blood, produced as the body reacts to the onset of bowel cancer.

A North East hospital is putting the finishing touches to a new £12 million laboratory that will bring world-class testing facilities to the North of England. Once completed The Pathology Centre will be a new, state-of-the-art facility operating at the cutting edge of pathology testing services in the UK.

Wyatt Technology has highlighted an article which outlines the benefits of quantifying protein-protein interactions (PPI) using automated dynamic light scattering (DLS) in high-throughput screening (HTS) mode to identify promising candidates for drug-like properties.

Binding Site has been chosen as an important diagnostic partner in the Black Swan ‘cure myeloma’ research initiative, sponsored by the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF). The initiative will coordinate an international collaboration led by an elite team of world experts in the field of multiple myeloma. This expert panel has identified the tools needed to confirm the various drug regimens that will achieve a path to a cure, including the use of Binding Site’s Freelite and Hevylite tests.

The sale and use of legal highs has been described in Parliament as a “national emergency”. For legal high users who end up in hospital or on treatment programmes, it is important to be able to measure these new substances in patient samples.

When Royal Oldham Hospital, the hub laboratory within the Pennine Acute Hospital, tendered for replacement haematology instrumentation, it was clear that an innovative solution would be required to meet its full automation requirements within a very confined location. The XN Haematology solution from Sysmex is renowned for its high-quality results, high throughput and small footprint, but with a requirement for fully automated ESR testing, and full EDTA solution, fitting a square peg into a round hole was going to be challenging.

Hologic has announced a five-year contract for its ThinPrep Pap tests and processing equipment with Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. With this agreement, Royal Derby Hospital will be the largest ThinPrep processing laboratory in the UK, with an estimated 150,000 samples processed annually.