A guide to sourcing biosamples
Medicines Discovery Catapult and the BioIndustry Association stated in their 2018 State of the Discovery Nation Report, that: “… over 80% of SMEs surveyed agreed that access to biosamples is hugely important for commercial development” and “… as many as 80% found accessing UK samples unexpectedly difficult…” A major recommendation of this report was that […]
The many ways charities can boost innovation in medical research
Among the wealth and diversity of stakeholders that bring science out of the laboratories and closer to patients, charities are usually regarded as the hands-off funders of research. However, an increasing number of biomedical research charities have been taking a more proactive and involved role in boosting innovation in the therapeutic areas they support. Action […]
New methods to improve the translation of biomedical science towards clinical trial success
It is now over ten years since John Ioannidis published his essay on ‘Why most published findings are false’. This paper presented statistical arguments to remind the research community that a finding is less likely to be true if: 1) study size is small, 2) effect size is small, 3) a protocol is not pre-determined […]
A patient’s perspective on using samples and data for research
What factors encourage patients to donate clinical samples and data for research? I think there are several factors that encourage patients to donate samples. Data is a slightly separate issue, but together they come down to the three things we already know from surveys about why patients participate in research: Firstly we want to benefit […]
Building an ecosystem to support data-driven health startups
The UK is in an excellent position to establish a world-leading position in the field of data-driven health. Technologies such as machine learning, computer vision, and neural networks will accelerate drug discovery by measuring and characterising target engagement, validating targets in translatable cell models, improving our understanding of drugs, disease and drug-target interactions within patients. […]
Writing a winning grant application
Bidding for grants and funding can be a very frustrating, tiresome and demoralising process. Hours can be wasted putting pen to paper, just so your dreams can be shattered months later after “so-called” experts and faceless bureaucrats tear your hard work apart. Of course, this is all part of the democratic process required to justify […]
On-demand sampling
The majority of biobank samples are collected as surgical excess, diagnostic remnants or post mortem tissue. While all of these sources are extremely valuable, they each have limitations. Surgical excess and diagnostic samples come from diseased patients, often cancer donors, and the closest to a ‘normal’ sample is adjacent tissue – that is, tissue obtained […]
Virtual Biobanks
Virtual biobanks do not store samples but provide a single point of access to a range of biospecimens using networks of ethical sources. They source tissues to client specifications – thereby streamlining the procurement of tissue to the benefit of all parties. Real and virtual biobanks have a two-way relationship that works to the advantage […]
The rise of Biobanks
High quality human tissue samples have become the gold standard for biomedical research, and reliable access to such material is a critical resource for many companies. In addition, the rapid growth of translational research and personalised medicine has further increased demand for human biological samples. Biobanking has been identified as a key area to accelerate […]