Biomarkers
Measuring biomarkers to predict, diagnose, monitor and to identify how well the body responds to treatment for a disease.
While disease symptoms are subjective, biomarkers provide an objective, measurable way to characterise disease.
Biomarkers improve our understanding of drugs, disease, and drug-target interactions within patients, and are key to unlocking a better understanding of:
- Translating drugs from pre-clinical into a clinical setting
- Dose and schedule of treatment that is required to deliver patient benefit
- Morphology changes due to modulation of the target
- Biomarker-based patient selection
- Beneficial combination treatment options
We have established a unique suite of high-specification multi-omic technologies for biomarker discovery and validation, including advanced tissue analysis methods with high spatial resolution, positioned alongside expert bioinformatic analysis. We use the right techniques to address key questions about your projects, improve the validation of innovative projects to increase investability, and help to shape plans for in vivo and clinical testing.
Our Biomarker platform enables you to access complex specialist analytical methods for measuring large numbers of analytes from the same high-value samples. We also provide integrated data sets across different technologies to support your biomarker identification and validation, to progress your compound through the drug discovery process.
Our Biomarker team offers the drug discovery community targeted and bespoke solutions that use highly multiplexed measurement technologies. Combined with expert industry-experienced scientists, we present insightful answers to advance therapeutic opportunities through development. Whatever your challenge we will work with you to develop a bespoke solution.
Through our technical capabilities, expertise and drug discovery know-how, we champion UK innovators to reshape drug discovery for patient benefit.
Did You Know?
An overall drug development failure rate of over 96%, including a 90% failure rate during clinical development, highlights the extent of the challenge.
Clinical trials are expensive, with high attrition rates usually attributed to lack of efficacy, the wrong safety profile, incorrect strategy or poor pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) – an alternative dose-effect analysis used to measure drug concentration in a body compartment.
The rate of drug attrition can be reduced by better understanding the clinical questions and building testable and scientific evidence to transition between pre-clinical and clinical settings.
Biomarker analysis enables a deeper understanding of drugs and disease to ensure better translation into the clinic. To turn molecules into medicines, 5 key areas need to be understood:
- Identify the right clinical questions
- Develop the right biomarker strategy
- Design the right biological assay
- Support the right study design
- Validate using the right clinical samples
A huge number of biomarkers have been identified but very few have entered the clinic as diagnostic tools and many diseases are yet to adopt biomarkers to support and inform the translation of drugs into the clinic.
We can support researchers by identifying the ‘Line of Sight’ for each target through to the clinic and beyond.
- Translational research, identifying the right biomarkers for target engagement and proof of principle in the clinic
- Deep target analysis through the application of bioinformatics
- Identification of new targets in patient samples
- Access to the right human clinical samples to enable disease positioning and disease biology understanding
- Investigation of patient selection strategies, to understand patient subtypes, mechanism of resistance and potential combination options for each program
- Application of a unique suite of molecular biomarker technologies
- Understand current standard of care therapies to ensure approach is compared and differentiated
- Validation of potential diagnostic tools
Our translational capability is based on using the best technology to answer the key translational questions in drug development. We offer bespoke solutions and have a range of advanced multi-modal technologies along with access to high quality samples to validate drug discovery hypothesis and line of sight into the clinic.
We can provide strategic drug discovery and technology platform expertise for solid and liquid tissue across a range of diseases such as Oncology, Fibrosis and Neurodegeneration.
Gayle Marshall
Head of BiomarkersChallenges We Can Help With
Our expertise in biomarkers will allow you to:
Solid Tissue
Sector Challenge: Deeper understanding of drug and disease – Tissue
- Advancing Biomarker Discovery and validation through combining standard and emerging technologies
- Highly multiplexed readouts can be interrogated for a deeper understanding of drug and disease
- Hypothesis-free and hypothesis-driven biomarker analysis workflows to compare gold standard methods to emerging multiplexing platforms
Liquid Tissue
Sector Challenge: Deeper understanding of drug and disease – Liquid Tissue
- Liquid biopsies are just as valuable as they give a real time insight into the patient’s disease and response
- Opportunity to utilise longitudinally
- Additional multiplexed readouts can be interrogated/overlaid to support hypothesis observed
- Circulating factors can provide information on the heterogeneity of the disease along with early response or resistance biomarkers, often before clinical responses are observed
Through Collaborative R&D, we can:
- Enable drug discovery companies to incorporate relevant biomarkers into their programmes, allowing better decision making and greater success in the clinic
- Establish robust methods to analyse large numbers of analytes in small sample volumes with the highest sensitivity
- Provide integrated data sets across different ‘omics technologies and informatics analysis to provide expert interpretation of these studies
- Develop biomarkers from ’omics experiments into clinically relevant assays
Reshaping Medicines Discovery...
It's ambitious, it's achievable
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By tapping into MDC’s unique drug development expertise and facilities, we are confident we will accelerate the preclinical development of our drug delivery system and its commercialisation.
Dr Anna Perdrix Rosell
Co-founder and Managing Director, Sixfold Bioscience
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For early-stage SMEs in this space, I thoroughly recommend engaging with MDC who have the end-to-end knowledge in complex medicines, can support your in-house team and provide access to key equipment that start-ups may not have.
Professor Helen McCarthy
Chief Executive Officer, pHion Therapeutics
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Working with MDC has provided expertise and intellectual input. It has also enabled access to a wider network of companies providing specialist services.
Dr David Templeton
Technical Director, N4 Pharma
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It has been great to access the Artificial Intelligence expertise at Medicines Discovery Catapult, the team have taken an innovative approach that adds value to our product and will benefit our customers. Our collaboration was easy to establish and worked extremely well.
Phil Jones
CSO, BioAscent
Our Experts
Gayle Marshall
Head of Biomarkers
Gayle Marshall
Head of Biomarkers
Gayle has more than 20 years of experience, in biomarker and omics research.
Leading a large, multi-skilled translational science laboratory team, within a global Pharma department supporting biomarker strategies across 14 drug discovery programs covering more than 20 clinical studies, through to leading a large multi-disciplinary team within MDC. Gayle directs multi-biomarker analysis and assay development, supporting diagnostic development initiatives, and delivering key pre-clinical and clinical biomarker data.
Gayle is currently working at Medicines Discovery Catapult as Head of Biomarkers, supporting SMEs, academics and drug discovery researchers to identify the right biomarkers and clinical approach for their drug or asset development.
Dr Kevin Randall
Lead Scientist
Dr Kevin Randall
Lead Scientist
After graduating from Manchester University with a degree in Biochemistry Kevin spent 6 years working in a clinical histopathology laboratory at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, where he achieved State Registration as a Biomedical Scientist.
In 1997, shortly after gaining a Masters degree in Biomedical Sciences from Nottingham Trent University, he moved to AstraZeneca at Alderley Park to join Safety Assessment. During his 17 years at AZ Kevin lead a small team developing, validating and applying tissue-based assays in drug discovery, preclinical safety assessment and translational medicine.
After leaving AZ, Kevin spent 4 years with Hematogenix, a Chicago-based CRO, establishing and managing their European CAP/CLIA accredited histology/molecular pathology facility.
In February 2019 Kevin joined Medicines Discovery Catapult and has built a Molecular Pathology capability in support of in-house projects and providing access to state-of-the-art molecular pathology facilities and expertise for UK-based biotech, pharma and CROs.
Kevin has extensive experience in histology, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridisation, image analysis and electron microscopy, and has authored/co-authored many peer-reviewed publications.
Dr Philippa Hart
Lead Scientist
Dr Philippa Hart
Lead Scientist
Philippa’s interest in MS imaging began during her PhD studies with the application of MALDI in the group of Prof. Malcolm Clench.
Philippa has over 13 years of experience in the field gained in both academia and industry, including roles at both Shimadzu and Waters. During this time she gained experience in clinical applications of MALDI MS and expanded her knowledge of MSI to the application of DESI.
At MDC, Philippa is driving and leveraging the use of MS surface analysis in drug discovery. Her main focus is to apply MSI in combination with other analytical techniques, to help MDC clients and collaborators in their research, through increased understanding of biodistribution, biomarker studies and beyond.
Dr Bruno Bellina
Lead Scientist
Dr Bruno Bellina
Lead Scientist
Dr Bruno Bellina obtained his PhD in Molecular Spectroscopy from the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1. He then moved for a year to the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (US) where he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in Molecular Physics.
Following this, he joined the institute of biotechnology in Manchester (UK), as a post-doctoral and then as a senior experimental officer, where he led a project coupling an ion mobility mass spectrometer with laser spectroscopy. Bruno also managed research activities and facilities for the collaborative mass spectrometry centre, MBCCMS. His research at MDC now focuses on delivering innovative instrumentation in the drug discovery field with a focus on native mass spectrometry and ion mobility techniques.
Dr Michael Eyres
Lead Scientist
Dr Michael Eyres
Lead Scientist
Michael joined Medicines Discovery Catapult as an intern at the start of 2019 at the end of his PhD in Oncology at Oxford University.
Michael stayed at MDC to volunteer at the Lighthouse COVID test labs at the start of the pandemic and then joined MDC as a senior scientist in spatial biomarkers. Now he applies spatial proteomic and transcriptomic techniques on a wide range of tissues and diseases.
Eleanor Platt
Molecular Scientist
Eleanor Platt
Molecular Scientist
Eleanor Platt is a Molecular Scientist within the Biomarkers team at Medicines Discovery Catapult.
Eleanor undertook a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Bath and completed her M.Phil. in Molecular Cancer Studies at the University of Manchester, with a focus on the role of glucocorticoid receptor in small cell lung cancer cell apoptosis.
She was offered the opportunity to work within the pharmacokinetics laboratory in a large CRO, processing and testing patient biological samples. She subsequently worked within the R&D Department at a leading molecular diagnostics company for five years, developing PCR-based diagnostics to better direct treatment of patients with cancer and infectious diseases.
Eleanor’s current research interests focus on ageing and age-related diseases, particularly expression of age-related biomarkers in plasma and the mechanisms through which bisphosphonates such as Zoledronate may reduce the rate of ageing, as well as the incidence of cancers and cardiovascular disease.
Dr Lucy Frost
Senior Scientist
Dr Lucy Frost
Senior Scientist
Following a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Warwick, Lucy joined Medicines Discovery Catapult in April 2021 as a Postdoctoral Scientist.
Lucy has a key role in the biomarkers team to develop bioinformatic tools and pipelines for the visualisation and interpretation of transcriptomic data. Lucy combines knowledge in molecular biology with bioinformatic techniques to interrogate large data sets and translate them into valuable biological information. Developing advanced data processing tools and techniques is essential for maximising the informational output of biological data to improve biomarker identification and advance therapeutic strategies against disease.
Dr Maike Langini
Senior Scientist
Dr Maike Langini
Senior Scientist
M.Sc. Maike Langini obtained her Master’s degree in Bio- and Pharmaceutical Analysis at the Fresenius university of applied sciences in Idstein (Germany). She is finishing her PhD in chemistry at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Germany) with Prof Kai Stühler in the Molecular Proteomics Laboratory. Previous research focused on lncRNA based perturbations of protein signatures in brain tumours, secretome analysis in cancer cell lines, tumour tissue proteomics and phospho-proteomics. Currently, Maike is working at Medicines Discovery Catapult with a focus on applying mass spectrometry-based proteomics in the field of drug discovery.
Dr Andrzej Rutkowski
Lead Scientist
Dr Andrzej Rutkowski
Lead Scientist
While in academia, Andrzej worked in different scientific fields, from oncofoetal antigens to herpes viruses. His projects revolved around changes in gene expression, which is where he developed an array of skills transferrable to biomarker research.
While in AstraZeneca, he developed and multiplexed droplet digital PCR assays and used them to monitor cancer-related mutations in liquid biopsies from patients in early-phase clinical trials.
In 2018, he started the position of senior scientist in biomarkers at Medicines Discovery Catapult, where he introduced super-sensitive molecular biology techniques, including droplet digital PCR from Bio-Rad and Simoa from Quanterix. During the pandemic, he was seconded as Assay Innovation and Evaluation Lead to the ISO15189-accredited Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, which delivered COVID-19 diagnostics. This two-year placement allowed Andrzej to better understand diagnostics from the scientific and regulatory sides.
Furnished with these skills and experience, he was appointed lead scientist in Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) biomarkers in MDC, leading the development of a framework for carrying out exploratory analyses on clinical samples in compliance with GCLP guidelines.
Dr Kerry Shea
Lead Scientist
Dr Kerry Shea
Lead Scientist
Graduating with a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Sheffield, Kerry completed an AstraZeneca-funded Ph.D. from the Randall Centre for Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King’s College London, examining protein/protein interactions during cell migration.
Subsequently moving into industry, she has worked in large pharma, small biotech and CRO organisations and has significant experience in all aspects of small molecule drug discovery, primarily within the neuroscience, oncology and anti-infectives disease areas. Initially focussing on cell assay development and screening at the DNA damage response biotech, KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, she later progressed to leading drug discovery projects and managing their progress through the portfolio.
Later moving to AstraZeneca she continued to work in oncology drug discovery (DNA damage response, growth factors and metabolism). Following experience within the varied fields of anti-infectives and neuroscience, she moved to Medicines Discovery Catapult in 2017 and has worked within both the Biomarkers and Cell Model Analysis and Validation groups. Her interests are within the field of neuroinflammation, identifying biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease and building and profiling iPSC microglia cell models and assays that are more predictive of human disease.
Dr Irma Berrueta Razo
Senior Scientist
Dr Irma Berrueta Razo
Senior Scientist
Irma completed a PhD at the University of Manchester studying molecular imaging on mouse brain samples using the TOF-SIMS technique.
Prior to joining MDC, Irma worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Manchester. During this time, Irma developed methods for applying Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) to a range of samples using cutting-edge techniques to answer biological questions. Irma has experience with imaging biological tissues using techniques such as DESI, MALDI and TOF-SIMS.
Irma’s current interest is the analysis of complex biological systems using MSI in multi-disciplinary projects and applying new methods and technologies.
Timothy Rudd
Senior Scientist, Next Generation Sequencing
Timothy Rudd
Senior Scientist, Next Generation Sequencing
Timothy is an expert in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology and library preparation methods; his experience developed through 5 years within genomics service and scientific positions, utilising instruments from several leading genomics companies, including Illumina, 10X Genomics and MGI tech.
After completing an epigenetics Honours project within Professor Stan Gronthos’ Mesenchymal Stem Cell Laboratory (South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, SAHMRI), Timothy worked in the SAHMRI Genomics Core Facility before it evolved into the South Australian Genomics Centre, playing a pivotal role in the new centre’s establishment. His mastery of library preparation methods (including RNAseq, WGS, WGA, WGBS/EMseq and 16S), single cell platforms and sequencing instruments served clients in academia, industry, and the clinic.
Currently, Timothy is building Medicines Discovery Catapult’s NGS offerings and utilising his expertise in SME genomics projects.
Regine Anderson
Senior Scientist, Biological Samples
Regine Anderson
Senior Scientist, Biological Samples
After completing a Master’s Degree in Advanced Biomedical Sciences at De Montfort University, Regine began working as a biobank tissue co-ordinator for Nottingham University Hospitals, managing donor consent and tissue preservation.
She later joined the University Hospitals of Leicester as part of a team enlisted to manage an Emergency Department ‘hot’ lab, performing urgent biochemistry and haematology tests.
Regine later obtained state registration from the IBMS and worked as a Biomedical Scientist validating and authorising haematology test results, within a multidisciplinary Fast-Track laboratory.
After some time, Regine accepted a role as a Specialist Biomedical Scientist within the Point-of-Care Testing department and was heavily involved in validating new devices and other governance activities.
Regine left the Midlands to join the Biomarkers team at Medicine’s Discovery Catapult (MDC) in March 2022 where her main focus is sourcing human samples to support the various discovery projects. Regine also sits on MDC’s Internal Ethics Committee to assist with compliance to HTA regulations.
Regine’s path to research was untraditional, but an emphasis on quality control has been a common theme throughout her career. Regine now calls on that experience as she works to ensure that MDC and the science community they serve, have better access to the highest quality samples for research.
Dr Robert Pedley
Molecular Scientist - Biomarkers
Dr Robert Pedley
Molecular Scientist - Biomarkers
Dr Tara Bowen
Scientist
Dr Tara Bowen
Scientist
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If you are involved with medicines discovery in the UK in any way, we can almost certainly assist you.