Alderley Park Lighthouse Laboratory processes 1 million samples

Medicines Discovery Catapult

The Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, which was launched to rapidly expand COVID-19 testing capacity, has processed more than 1 million test samples since opening.

The Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab is hosted by Medicines Discovery Catapult at Bruntwood SciTech’s Alderley Park in Cheshire and officially began testing in April.

Professor Sir John Bell GBE FRS, UK Life Sciences Champion, said:

“The Alderley Park Lighthouse has been crucial for our testing program. With it operating at this level we have a testing program that will help with any second wave. Their performance has been exemplary.”

Lord Bethell, Minister for Testing, said:

 “Alderley Park is showcasing the finest diagnostic science available to achieve the mass-throughput, fast-process COVID analysis, helping to save lives and protect the NHS. We are enormously grateful for the hard work of the team.”

Sir Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said:

“The speed at which the Alderley Park Lighthouse programme has been set up to operate at this scale is nothing short of remarkable. A huge credit to everyone involved.  The ability to accurately process thousands of tests a day, now over one million in total,  is crucial to reduce the impact of this devastating pandemic as part of a successful test-trace-isolate strategy.”