After spending much of the pandemic helping develop Covid-19 tests, the North East Innovation Lab is now turning its attention to groundbreaking projects which could speed up the diagnosis of devastating illnesses from cancers to sepsis.
Formerly part of the Integrated Covid Hub, the lab - based in the Newcastle Helix site - has fridges with 20,000 samples from Covid-19 patients along with a range of state-of-the-art technology. In recent weeks, researchers have been part of a team granted more than £200,000 to develop a new test for early-stage pancreatic cancer.
The lab is part of the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, but works with private and public sector organisations to "accelerate" the development of technology which could save our lives. Amanda Winter - diagnostic evaluation healthcare scientist - has been involved in establishing the lab, and she has played a key role in gaining the funding for the pancreatic cancer project.
That is a national collaboration also involving UCL, the Universities of Bristol, Surrey and the West of England, and the Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust. The team have been given £218,000 to use PCR technology - made famous during the Covid-19 pandemic - to develop a test which can detect pancreatic cancer tumour fragments.
Amanda said: "Our idea was aimed at helping with one of the biggest unmet needs. Pancreatic cancer is not always diagnosed particularly quickly and it can be quite difficult to spot.
"What we wanted to do was see if we could develop a diagnostic tool to pick up very small fragments of tumour. Traditionally this is extremely difficult to do, it's very much a needle in a haystack. It's about using a type of PCR test - now of course everyone knows about PCR - to test the DNA found in these tiny fragments.
“This is a really exciting project to be involved in which could have a far-reaching impact for patients with pancreatic cancer. This particular cancer usually presents at a late stage meaning treatment is limited and the cancer is often incurable. Developing a new diagnostic for early detection has potential to make the cancer more treatable and help save lives."
According to Cancer Research UK, just one in four people survive for more than a year after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Dr John Tyson heads up the North East Innovation Lab. He said: "Throughout the pandemic we have been evaluating how well Covid -19 tests work. We have had 15 to 20 different tests from different manufacturers for Covid and similar respiratory illnesses. Some can be quite early prototypes and might be in their early stages, others might be much further on in the process.
"It started out very much with Covid, but now for example Amanda [Winter] has been part of winning an award of money to test that could pick up early stage pancreatic cancer. We have also done some work on breast cancer testing. We have been working on tests that can even help predict how well you might respond to treatment.
"This all tarted in the depths of Covid - in January 2021 we were all here with absolutely nothing in the lab. The idea is that we are able to accelerate things here. I think we are making a massive difference."
The lab has also recently been given £20,000 to support its collaboration with the the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Newcastle In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operative and its work assisting with the development of diagnostic tests more generally.
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