RECENT NEWS

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has launched its three-year strategy to combat both new and re-emerging threats and to protect health security. The new document sets out UKHSA’s vision and goals for the next three years to prepare for and respond to health threats and build the capabilities and technologies to protect the country in the future.

Global Access Diagnostics (GADx), a social enterprise prioritising equitable access to diagnostics, has relaunched IT-Leish, a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for visceral leishmaniasis (VL).

Sheba Medical Centre, Israel’s largest medical facility, has announced the deployment of a new accelerated, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cancer diagnostics research platform to improve patient diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. The platform enables the integration of AI technology developed by Sheba in addition to solutions created by innovative digital health startups.

The August issue of Pathology in Practice has now been published and is available to read online.

Castle Biosciences, a company improving health through innovative tests that guide patient care, has announced a new study published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology showing how use of TissueCypher Barrett’s oesophagus test results can significantly improve management decisions for Barrett’s oesophagus (BE; pictured)) patients with low-grade dysplasia (LGD) to improve health outcomes.

With increasing demands on NHS pathology services and drive for greater quality patient care, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan, the need for effective training of laboratory staff has never been greater. Following the longstanding success of its Biomedical and Applied Biomedical Science programmes, the University of Sunderland is expanding its provision of bespoke training to meet future pathology workforce needs.

Metrion Biosciences, the specialist ion channel contract research and drug discovery company based in Cambridge, UK (pictured), has received notification from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) that it is now a member of the UK GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) Compliance Monitoring Programme, and is therefore able to offer GLP-compliant hERG ion channel screening services to the global life sciences community.

The IBMS Congress 2023 event, to be held at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham next month, has received comprehensive coverage over recent issues of Pathology in Practice. At Congress, a small part of the circulation and exhibition space is devoted regularly to a poster display prepared by members of the IBMS History Committee. This year’s History Committee poster exhibit traces the history of blood and its testing.

C2N Diagnostics says it further bolstered its role as a leader in advanced brain health diagnostics at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2023 in Amsterdam. The presentations included information on the company’s pipeline product, PrecivityAD2, along with other Precivity-related analytes that are setting a new standard in blood biomarker innovation and diagnostic performance.

High-level guidance, designed to build greater digital trust in artificial intelligence (AI) products used to diagnose or treat patients, ranging from medical devices to smartphone chatbots or in-home monitoring tools, has been published by the British Standards Institution (BSI).

Construction of a new regional pathology laboratory at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) has been completed, and – once operational – Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust says it will help ‘transform’ diagnostic services and testing across West Yorkshire.

The Serious Hazards of Trandsfusion (SHOT) scheme has announce that the NHS Blood and Transplant - Learning Zone SHOT modules are now live in the elearning for healthcare (elfh) Blood Transfusion Training programme (https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/blood-transfusion/) and the eIntegrity (https://www.eintegrity.org/healthcare-course/blood-transfusion/) version. They should be available in ESR shortly.

Global Access Diagnostics (GADx), a social enterprise prioritising equitable access to diagnostics, has announced the launch of IT-Leish, a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for visceral leishmaniasis (VL).

Gyros Protein Technologies, a provider of peptide synthesisers and reagents, and a pioneer in automated nanolitre-scale immunoassays, has announced the launch of its PurePep EasyClean (PEC) Auto Kit for the automated parallel purification of peptides, accelerating downstream processes for research, development, and production of simple to complex peptide drugs and therapies.

Illumina, a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, and Pillar Biosciences, the pioneer of Decision Medicine, have announced a strategic partnership to make Pillar's suite of oncology assays commercially available globally as part of the Illumina portfolio of oncology products.

Molecular diagnostics company Co-Diagnostics has announced grants awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be used to develop tuberculosis (TB) and human papillomavirus (HPV) tests on its Co-Dx PCR Home platform.

Revvity has announced that its Revvity Signals Software business has entered into a strategic relationship with Scitara – a leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for the scientific industry. Together, the companies will transform the way R&D teams work across the biotech, pharmaceutical and chemical industries with technology that accelerates digital transformation in the laboratory.

PathAI has announced the availability of AIM-HER2 Breast Cancer for research use by clinical laboratories, researchers, and drug developers. AIM-HER2 Breast Cancer delivers automated digital HER2 scoring and is the market’s first algorithm to use additive multiple instance learning (aMIL) heatmaps to visualise the slide features driving the algorithm’s predicted score.

Anbio has introduced a comprehensive RT-PCR solution that encompasses both pharmacogenomic and non-pharmacogenomic applications. The Anbio molecular diagnostic test menu spans multiple clinical applications including healthcare-associated infections, critical infectious disease, sexual health, virology, pharmacogenomics, and oncology.

Point-of-care diagnostics firm QuidelOrtho has entered into a software development partnership with BYG4lab, a leading provider of middleware and data management solutions for laboratories, that intends to accelerate QuidelOrtho’s efforts to expand and strengthen informatics offerings across its portfolio of diagnostics platforms.