The University of Glasgow, in collaboration with the NHS and Scottish tech companies, will lead a £3.37m project to transform bowel cancer screening in the UK by developing a precision diagnostic tool that uses artificial intelligence to predict which patients will develop future polyps and tumours. The INCISE* project – made possible with £2.3m of government funding provided through UK Research and Innovation’s...

Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced that VAR2 Pharmaceuticals has been selected as the European winner of its 2020 Advance Biotech Grant Program. Copenhagen, Denmark-based biotechnology company VAR2 Pharmaceuticals was chosen for its development of a promising novel cancer treatment that has the potential to treat multiple types of human solid tumors....

Illumina, Inc. is enhancing its capabilities to analyze and interpret the data produced by its sequencing systems with the acquisition of BlueBee, a cloud-based software company that provides genomics analysis solutions for research and clinical customers. Based in the Netherlands, BlueBee has developed a regulatory compliant, secure cloud platform that simplifies access to data and tools....

Waldner Laboreinrichtungen has teamed up with service provider Ecolog and container supplier McLabor to install a first mobile COVID-19 testing laboratory in Luxembourg, which is now able to start making an important contribution in the fight against the coronavirus. The intention is to test the population for COVID-19 every two weeks across 17 testing stations starting immediately....

Point-of-care (POC) testing with screen-printed electrodes allows rapid testing of populations for viral outbreaks – at affordable costs, without the need for trained specialists and/or complicated equipment. A free white paper from Metrohm puts a focus on the viability of electrochemical testing citing a number of recent studies on the possibility of POC testing for viruses of various kinds....

The UK-Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC), a group of UK scientists and expert medical manufacturers led by Abingdon Health, has reached “design freeze” for its Covid-19 antibody test. The UK-RTC was set up in April 2020 to develop and manufacture millions of Covid-19 antibody tests to determine if someone’s immune system has responded to infection from Covid-19....

Postnova Analytics have published an informative new white paper that details how multi-detector Asymmetrical Field Flow Fractionation (AF4) and Electrical AF4 (EAF4) techniques are transforming the separation and characterization of viruses and antibodies. Viruses are the scientific story of 2020 with the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic thrusting them to the forefront of almost every person’s consciousness around the world....

Freeman Technology, a Micromeritics company and the global leader in powder characterisation technology, has released a new eBook focusing on the application of powder flow testing in Additive Manufacturing (AM). Powders used for AM, or 3D printing, range from metals and polymers through to pharmaceutical formulations....

PrecisionLife’s unique AI platform has found 68 genes associated with risk of developing severe COVID-19 after analysis of the genomes of 929 patients from the UK Biobank who had a severe response to SARS-CoV-2. Prior to an effective and widely available vaccine, PrecisionLife’s insights may help to identify patients who are at greatest risk of developing the most severe forms of COVID-19....

A radical new way of thinking about soil has finally solved the mystery of why adding organic material like manure improves flood and drought resilience, climate control and crop yields - universal ‘ecosystem services’ that are widely recognised as worth billions to the global economy. Founded on more than 50 years’ worth of data from a unique field experiment, researchers have demonstrated...

A Professor in Northumbria University’s Department of Applied Sciences has won a top national award from The Royal Society of Chemistry. John R. Dean, a Professor of Analytical and Environmental Sciences, was nominated for the Inspirational Member Award by his peers for his dedication to the planning, coordination and ongoing development of the national Schools’ Analyst Competition, which is held across the UK and Republic of Ireland...

As experts in haematology HORIBA UK Ltd, Medical announces that the Company has published a white paper entitled, ‘COVID-19 screening, prognosis and severity assessment with biomarkers for management of patients’. Written in collaboration with academic partners, the paper provides a review of routinely measured biomarkers that can provide additional information to help in the assessment of the severity of COVID-19 infection; therefore, supporting clinical decision making for risk stratification and patient management....

Beckman Coulter has announced that its Access SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Beckman Coulter has already shipped tests to more than 400 hospitals, clinics and diagnostics laboratories in the U.S., and has begun distribution of the new antibody test globally to countries that accept the FDA EUA and CE Mark. The company is able to deliver more than 30 million tests a month...

NanoImaging Services, Inc. (NIS), specialists in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with a vision to make cryoEM workflows accessible to all, has announced the opening of a new facility in Boston. NIS is expanding with new services and locations to support its growing customer base requiring cryoEM for drug discovery and vaccine development applications. COVID-19 projects are receiving prioritization....

After the postponement to the fall, there are now increasing signs for a success of analytica in October. The number of exhibitors has currently almost reached the level of the previous event. Most recently, the Bavarian State Government has cleared the way for analytica: From September 01 onwards, trade fairs may again be held in Bavaria. To this end, the government has adopted a protection and hygiene concept, which analytica is now implementing....

INTEGRA Biosciences is giving you the chance to win a VACUSAFE Aspiration System for your lab. This compact, all-in-one laboratory vacuum pump enables safe and efficient collection and containment of biological liquid waste, meeting stringent biosafety level guidelines (BSL-1 to -3). Easy to use and operate, it combines a vacuum pump, collection bottle, overflow protection and hydrophobic filter...

A new CE-IVD marked diagnostic test for microsatellite instability (MSI) in solid tumours, the OncoMate™ MSI Dx Analysis System (OncoMate™ MSI) by Promega, offers UK clinicians a new option for testing for Lynch Syndrome....

Abingdon Health is pleased to announce further expansion at its York headquarters in the UK, following further investment in state-of-the-art lateral flow automation. This will provide a significant increase in its manufacturing footprint, resulting in Europe’s largest capacity for rapid test manufacturing. This news comes weeks after the UK Government announced Abingdon Health as one of the leading members of the UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC)....

AI VIVO, a company combining systems pharmacology and artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate drug discovery, has announced that its platform correctly identified dexamethasone as having high potential for the treatment of COVID-19 in April 2020. This demonstrates the ability of AI VIVO’s platform to systematically and correctly identify candidates with the highest chance of therapeutic success.