RECENT NEWS

Professor Anthony Harnden has taken up the position as Chair of the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), from January 2025.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has unveiled the government’s Elective Reform Plan, which aims to end NHS backlogs by offering up to half a million more appointments each year thanks to greater access to Community Diagnostic Centres and new or expanded surgical hubs.

The Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) has announced Dr Sarah Pitt CSci FIBMS as its new President Elect, having taken office on 1 January to support Joanna Andrew in her second and final year as President.

The proportion of patients being diagnosed with cancer at an early stage in England has risen to its highest ever level, according to new NHS figures.

The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), a pioneering worldwide initiative seeking to cure Alzheimer’s disease and improve brain health, has announced it will work with Janssen Research & Development, a Johnson & Johnson company, and Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, two leading pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies, to advance the assay validation of blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease for global use in diverse populations.

As healthcare systems around the world deal with budgetary constraints, new analysis from Siemens Financial Services (SFS) shows healthcare delivery costs continue to rise faster than Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

A major UK patient trial of a new biomarker testing protocol for sepsis, led by University of Manchester researchers, has shown it is possible to safely stop antibiotic treatment earlier than current care.

StatLab Medical Products has continued its expansion with the acquisition of Especialidades Médicas Myr, a Spanish histology equipment manufacturer.

The government has announced £100 million of public-private investment to set up 20 research hubs, boosting clinical trials in the UK and helping new treatments reach patients more quickly.

In vitro diagnostics firm bioMérieux has announced that its BIOFIRE FILMARRAY Tropical Fever (TF) panel has received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Roche has announced the CE certification of the new cobas 6800/8800 systems 2.0. The update significantly enhances the efficiency of laboratories by optimising resources, reducing downtime, consolidating test menus, and increasing throughput.

Sakura Finetek Europe and MEDIPATH, a group of independent French pathologists, are to collaborate to enhance cancer diagnostics and improve conditions for cancer patients.

Digital pathology provider Indica Labs has announced that the Institute of Tissue Medicine and Pathology at the University of Bern, a leading university-based pathology institute in Switzerland, has selected HALO AP for the Institute’s first-in-country digital pathology deployment in the cloud powered by Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS).

Lunit, a provider of AI-powered solutions for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, has announced the publication of a new study detailing the development of its Universal Immunohistochemistry (uIHC) AI model.

A research team led by the University of Liverpool has developed an innovative new technique that can rapidly assess paracetamol levels from saliva.

AI biotech company Owkin has launched its latest report, ‘State of the Nation: Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Pathology and AI Solutions’, exploring the evolving landscape of digital pathology and AI in healthcare across the United States, United Kingdom, and France.

A specialist team created to rapidly boost the country’s ability to diagnose and test for new and emerging infectious disease threats has been launched by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), strengthening the UK’s pandemic preparedness and response.

The Medical Research Council is launching its first two Centres of Research Excellence, which will develop transformative new genomic therapeutics for currently untreatable diseases.

WASP Software, together with Warrington & Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has been shortlisted for the Best Technology Partnership of the Year category at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2025 for a transformation project that has resulted in paperless phlebotomy booking services.

A tiny, four-fingered ‘hand’ folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to infect them, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report in a new study.