Currently there are limited Point-of-Care (PoC)-applicable sample processing methods needed to recover infectious disease targets from clinical samples prior to molecular diagnostic testing. This means analysis is restricted to centralised laboratory facilities and this significantly impacts time to result and subsequent treatment, and cost to the healthcare provider. Many field portable molecular testing systems fail to achieve PoC use as the upstream sample preparation workflows needed to support the them are overly complex, equipment intensive and costly - precluding their deployment in decentralised settings. This project will be technology enabling and will capitalise on our existing derisked workflow that will initially improve sensitivity of our existing test for MTB in decentralised non-laboratory settings by an order of approximately 100-fold. This will enable diagnosis of patients with low levels of bacterial infection and also permit stratification for receipt of appropriate anti-infective treatments. This technology has the opportunity to change the way blood borne viral diagnostics are conducted in decentralised settings in resource limited countries, providing improved patient care and more timely therapy, and ultimately positively impacting on global health challenges in infectious diseases. It seeks to integrate existing technologies to realise a true PoC TB workflow for decentralised use in low-income countries with highest disease burden. The project outcome will be a low cost, sample preparation consumable device that overcomes the traditional user complexity, biosafety and equipment barriers needed for successful PoC application. The device will enable decentralised testing of TB in sputum but will also be broadly applicable for a range of other clinical sample types and infectious disease agents, and in established healthcare settings in developed countries.

Disease associated with White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) and Early Mortality Synrdome (EMS) together cause over $3bn annual losses to the global farmed shrimp industry. Current losses from these pathogens alone far exceed all shrimp products imported to the EU each year. Accurate detection and management of disease is central to poverty alleviation in producer nations and food security in net importing countries. A recent UKTI funded workshop on Disease in Aquaculture highlighted how so-called 'decentralised' testing (i.e. on farm) and reporting of data via smartphones has potential to dramatically improve health status of aquatic farms in Asia. Here, we will validate and apply a cutting edge UK-based technology (Genedrive) and a novel smartphone app to collect and transmit disease data from remote farms to centralised reference laboratories. By bringing together UK experts in diagnosis, pathology and epidemiology of WSD, with industry specialists, the aim is to drastically improve detection and management of economically damaging diseases in global aquaculture. We will contribute to poverty alleviation and food security agendas using UK-based technologies and expertise.

To provide the contract research division with a novel, commercially relevant model of EGFR inhibitor-induced human skin rash.

In vitro product testing is a vital part of product development for topical applications and devices and this project seeks to establish a powerful non-animal approach as a new method for providing a greater understanding of percutaneous absorption of topical formulations in pre-clinical studies. This project aims to develop label free imaging of drugs by mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) and stimulated Raman spectroscopy (SRS) in human living skin equivalents (HSLEs). We propose to undertake the first comparison of each of these techniques for imaging of drugs and to gather data to allow a robust evaluation of the penetration profiles of pharmaceutical compounds in human and pig ex vivo skin, and in an HLSE. In addition, we will introduce significant novelty and new metrology to support the application of the HLSEs and spectroscopic imaging to provide reliable and transferable protocols. The ultimate aim of this project is to support the 3Rs via the delivery of a non-animal model and novel chemical imaging protocols which are validated for topical formulation testing to allow reliable predictions of safety and efficacy in clinical studies.

Epistem, a UK company with expertise in delivering dermatological testing services and ScandiDerma, a Norwegian company with expertise in developing new dermatological ingredients from biomass, aims to develop a new in vitro human living skin equivalent model for testing inflammatory responses. This is a novel method that will add to the field of dermatological testing as a whole and help create more activity in extracting high value compounds from biomass.

To optimise, validate and commercialise new pre-clinical assays for cutaneous wound repair which will result in a new contract research service offering.