LSTM’s Research Centre for Drugs and Diagnostics (RCDD) was launched today at a business breakfast meeting at Ness Gardens in Neston, UK. The meeting was organised by LSTM, the British Parasitology Society, Bionow and Liverpool’s Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and was attended by representatives of a number of SMEs.
LSTM’s Professor Steve Ward gave an introduction to the RCDD, highlighting the skills, expertise and state of the art facilities within LSTM. He gave an overview of the successes of LSTM in delivering translational projects through long-standing partnerships with a number of pharma companies and SMEs and explained ways of collaborating with new organisation to develop therapeutics and diagnostics and to access funding streams through these partnerships.
Dr Lisa Baldwin from the Local Enterprise Partnership gave and overview of how LEP can facilitate SME engagement and Dr Emily Adams from LSTM presented a number of case studies of diagnostics development including the development of new diagnostic tools for use in resource-poor areas of the world.
Another case study was presented by LSTM Professor Richard Pleass, highlighting his work on the development of HexaguardTM which is an exciting potential new recombinant substitute for purified immunoglobulin G (IVIG) with is currently used in a wide range of autoimmune diseases.
The session chair, Dr Giancarlo Biagini, explained “LSTM has a long standing history of industry engagement in translational medicine, it is our objective that the new Research Centre for Drugs and Diagnostics will facilitate and catalyse future partnerships with SMEs and larger organisations towards the development of better novel therapies and diagnostics for global health”