The North East Innovation Lab is celebrating its three year milestones since the team was brought together to accelerate the development of diagnostics.
Located in state-of-art facilities in the Biosphere, part of the life science quarter Newcastle Helix, the lab has a team of nine scientists.
The team offers responsive specialist services to meet all the requirements for test developers who are now subject to more stringent regulations when bringing tests to market.
Head of the lab Dr John Tyson said he was delighted to reach the three-year milestone: “It’s a major milestone for us as we adapt to the end of the pandemic and challenges in the market, but it’s an exciting time and there’s lots of opportunities for innovation to make an impact on the challenges that healthcare faces.”
Part of Newcastle Hospitals, the lab is working with diagnostic developers to bring new and improved tests to market for long term conditions and to allow people to monitor their own health.
The team has begun expanding its portfolio and focusing its expertise in developing diagnostic tests for patients with autoimmune disease and inflammatory conditions.
Dr Tyson added: “We’re using our expertise to help our clients bring new and improved devices to market to identify common chronic diseases, so they can be better managed, which makes a huge difference to people’s lives.”
Healthcare workers use diagnostic tests in 70% of the decisions that they make for patients for diagnosis and treatment, and the innovation lab is focused on accelerating the development of these tests to make them faster, more accurate and cost-effective and importantly to widen people’s access to them.
Dr Tyson said: “A large part of innovation is widening access which is as important as bringing out something brand new, we want to enable as many people as possible to access diagnostic tests, which are a vital part of healthcare.”
Dr Tyson highlighted the collaboration at the centre of the lab’s work and thanked partners and clients including Diagnostics North East, a network of organisations supporting the development, evaluation and adoption of diagnostics and Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria for their support.
To find out more visit the website or watch this short film video.
