Hancock ignored call to test all NHS staff, Covid inquiry hears
- The government ignored an early warning by two Nobel prize-winning scientists that all healthcare workers should be routinely tested for coronavirus in the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has heard.
- The advice came in a strongly-worded letter sent in April 2020 by the chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute, Sir Paul Nurse, and its research director, Sir Peter Ratcliffe, to the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
- NHS and care home staff were not offered Covid tests until November 2020 in England, unless they had symptoms of the disease.
US doctors rewrite DNA of infant with severe genetic disorder in medical first
- Doctors in the US have become the first to treat a baby with a customised gene-editing therapy after diagnosing the child with a severe genetic disorder that kills about half of those affected in early infancy.
- International researchers have hailed the feat as a medical milestone, saying it demonstrates the potential for treating an array of devastating genetic diseases by rewriting faulty DNA soon after affected children are born.
- Specialists at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania started work as soon as the boy was diagnosed and completed the complex design, manufacture and safety testing of the personalised therapy within six months.
Ready for action! New UK Biobank headquarters ‘tops out’
- A new purpose built, larger, faster and more efficient headquarters for the UK Biobank, part of a £127.6 million investment from UKRI, has now ‘topped out’.
- UK Biobank will occupy three floors of the cutting-edge 131,000 square foot new building.
- When complete, it will include laboratory space and a latest-generation robotic freezer that stores and retrieves UK Biobank’s 20 million biological samples four times faster than before, revolutionising the pace of scientific discovery.
- RevDx is a compact, easy-to-use, all-in-one diagnostic device capable of delivering essential haematology test results within minutes using only a small drop of blood.
- Built for use in a wide range of clinical environment, from primary care to remote and low-resource settings, RevDx empowers clinicians with rapid, accurate insights to support immediate decision-making, enhance patient outcomes, and streamline clinical workflows.
- By decentralising diagnostics, RevDx helps reduce laboratory dependency and enables early intervention, especially critical for managing conditions such as anaemia, infections, and blood disorders
Elizabeth Holmes’s partner reportedly raises millions for blood-testing startup
- Elizabeth Holmes’s romantic partner – the father of her children – reportedly has raised millions of dollars to start up a new blood-testing company that is strikingly similar to the one that landed the Theranos founder in federal prison.
- The fundraising comes as Billy Evans, an heir to a hotel fortune, is pitching his new company, Haemanthus, to potential investors, according to the New York Times. Evans’s pitch: a health-testing company that can make diagnoses from users’ blood, urine and saliva.
- Haemanthus’ pitch and those made by the Holmes-helmed Theranos share a few significant similarities.
- Lydia Martin, Associate Director, APCO Worldwide, has written a piece for POCT Innovators examining the need for a rollout of POCT testing across the NHS.
