The DEVOTE programme is helping to bring cutting-edge genetic testing into everyday healthcare in Greater Manchester. By combining expertise from universities, hospitals, and businesses, it has already started improving patient care by making genetic testing a routine part of diagnosis and treatment. The next phase of DEVOTE will continue working with industry partners to develop and commercialise new genetic testing technologies. This will help bring medical breakthroughs to patients faster and support business growth in the region. The DEVOTE extension will work with four industry partners (Genedrive, EMQN, APIS Assay Ltd and Chromition) to expand on the excellent work already undertaken. These exemplar projects will: * Develop a rapid test capable of detecting high-risk genetic changes which are known to predispose to aminoglycoside induced hearing loss (AIHL). * Create software tools to allow genetic tests to communicate with the electronic healthcare record (EHR). * To create ultrarapid detection systems to help identify and treat infection * To improve methods by which genetic tests can be validated, promoting their use internationally. Locally, DEVOTE strengthens Greater Manchester's reputation as a hub for genetic innovation, attracting companies and investment. Nationally, it supports the UK's goals of turning research into real-world benefits and building a more proactive, prevention-focused NHS.

Chromition's 'Digital Rapid Autonomous Cancer Screening' (DRACS) project will transform the way breast cancer is diagnosed. DRACS enables earlier diagnosis of breast cancer for patients to commence treatment sooner for improved quality of life and survival. Breast cancer patients require expert pathologist visual microscopic-assessment of a tissue biopsy before treatment can commence. There is a global shortage of pathologists and only 3% of NHS-histology-departments have enough staff to meet demand that is growing by over 10% each year. DRACS will contribute to circumventing the predicted crisis in NHS pathology services by digitising pathology processes, increasing capacity and reducing the cost of diagnosing new breast cancer patients. DRACS utilises extraordinarily bright multicoloured Luminspheres (photoluminescent polymer nanoparticles) to simultaneously and selectively stain any cancer cells present in a single tissue biopsy or less invasive blood sample taken from the patient. A high-throughput digital analyser is used to detect any Luminspheres stained breast cancer cells. The data is then evaluated by software that quantifies the number and type of breast cancer cells, with greater speed and accuracy than human visual analysis, to support the clinician's diagnosis and selection of personalised treatment for the patient. DRACS is sufficiently sensitive to detect a single breast cancer cell in a blood sample and identify lowly expressed specific breast cancer-markers that can be missed by conventional diagnosis. Following this project, DRACS will be validated in the early-stage diagnosis and targeted treatment selection for other cancers.

A biomarker is a chemical or signal which can be measured from the human body to help to diagnose disease or predict future health states. Biomarkers are commonly used in healthcare to guide patient management, but there is a major translational bottleneck between the discovery of a clinically relevant biomarker and its implementation in routine practice to help patients. This is particularly true of genetic biomarkers, defined as changes in our genetic code which predispose to disease or predict treatment outcomes. Many of these are related to _pharmacogenetics_, the concept that changes in our genetic code influence our response to medicines. At present, genetic tests are too slow to guide prescribing in day-to-day practice. Traditional genetic tests take many weeks or months to come back, which is far too slow to be used in most clinical settings. However, new technologies have the potential to change this. The challenge for biotechnology companies is understanding how best to implement these technologies in a given clinical setting. This project will address this by developing a translational pipeline with collaboration between industry, Universities, and healthcare professionals to support the development and implementation of time critical genomic testing technologies (The DEVOTE Programme). This builds on Greater Manchester's world leading reputation in this space, empowering industry to focus on their core business of technology development, whilst academic and clinical partners work to ensure said technologies are cost effective, well placed in the market, and designed with patients in mind. DEVOTE will demonstrate its value through three exemplar projects. * Development of a rapid genetic bedside test to guide treatment for patients after stroke (Genedrive plc & EMQN). * Using new and emerging biomaterials to develop an ultra-rapid genetic test, capable of detecting genetic changes to guide antibiotic therapy (Chromition Ltd and Epinal). * Creation of a comprehensive pharmacogenetic testing panel with an informatic solution to ensure results are available to clinicians at the point of need (APIS Assay Technologies Ltd & EMQN). These varied projects will show the flexibility of the DEVOTE programme and the outputs will not only improve the health of the population, but will create valuable industrial assets, resulting in further investment across Greater Manchester. The DEVOTE programme will continue to engage with other industrial partners beyond the lifecycle of this award, with a view to drive innovation and the translation of technologies over the next decade.

Chromition's 'Digital Histopathology Screening Platform' (DHSP) will transform the way cancer is diagnosed in tissue biopsies taken from patients. The DHSP will enable the autonomous, rapid, economical diagnosis of cancer in tissue and provide a more detailed picture of disease status and enable stratification of patients for physicians to provide personalised and more effective treatments. Chromition's DHSP can be used to diagnose many types of cancer in tissue and this project will validate the DHSP to diagnose breast cancer and identify the optimal treatment for improved patient outcome.

The project will develop and validate a method for automatically analysing cellular patterns, labelled by immunohistochemistry. Currently, pathologists visually assess tissue samples in order to diagnose diseases such as cancer and provide a prognosis. Currently a maximum of three biomarkers can be analysed at one time. Analysing multiple biomarkers provides a more detailed picture of disease status and progression and enables physicians to provide personalised and more effective treatments. The method that will be developed and validated through this project will facilitate the analysis of multiple biomarkers in a shortened space of time by using innovative software to complete the analysis. Initial testing has shown the method to be successful. Further development through this project will result in a method which has been validated for the prognosis and diagnosis of cancer. The success of the project will enable a reduction in the economic cost of disease, eliminating human subjectivity, enabling rigorous cross-validation to minimise the chance of identifying erroneous patterns via more precise diagnosis and treatment selection, better patient outcome, and improved service efficiency via automation.

The global Light Emitting Diode (LED) market is forecast to reach $105.5 billion by 2019. Currently, the main applications for LEDs are energy efficient lighting and backlighting for displays used in smart phones, personal computers and televisions. State of the art LED technology relies on the use of rare earth minerals as a source of phosphor. China has large rare earth mineral reserves and the mining of these has had significant adverse environmental impact. The value and limited availability of these rare earth mineral reserves has resulted in the Chinese government limiting supply outside China by restricting international export, which has an adverse impact on price and availability. Chromition will develop Luminspheres™, which are nanometre sized phosphor materials, designed to replace current rare earth LED phosphors. Luminspheres™ are manufactured at low temperature in water from readily available carbon based precursors, and are brighter and smaller than incumbent LED phosphors, hence requiring significantly less material needing to be incorporated into an LED chip for the same light output.