Development of human tissue processing facilities to support research into composite biomarkers for disease detection

学术和商业部门之间的合作将对医疗保健的未来至关重要。我们越来越倾向于使用结合了许多不同测量和测试结果的软件工具。这创造了一个个体患者的疾病的全面、总体的图景。这些复杂的工具为医疗保健专业人员做出临床和治疗决策提供了宝贵的支持和信息。为了开发这些工具，学术界和商界之间的合作是必要的，因为它们依赖于在了解疾病方面的尖端学术研究，以及它们作为受监管产品转化到临床上。我们将借调牛津大学肿瘤学系活体组织设施(LTF)的经理到透视有限公司。LTF是一个专门的实验室设施，用于处理和分析人类组织样本(例如血液样本、肿瘤活检样本)，以支持研究。在使用复杂的磁共振成像(MRI)技术来检测疾病标志物方面，Perspectus是世界领先的公司。我们所做的工作将开发和调整LTF，使其能够为Perspectal所用，并适合他们的研究需求。这将主要涉及程序和进程的改变，因此我们将能够利用现有的长期信托基金来实现这一目标。其结果将是一个对这两个机构都合适和可访问的设施。利用这一设施，Perspectus将致力于将人体组织数据与他们的尖端成像技术、遗传信息和病理数据相结合，创建复杂和创新的新软件工具。第二名受训人员将为Perspectus带来如何处理和分析人体组织以及如何装备实验室以使其适合这项工作的知识。他们还将获得在商业领域进行研究的宝贵经验，并将这些知识带回大学。在这里，他们将利用这些知识来改进LTF，以便它对其他可能想要使用它的公司更具吸引力。借调人员还将学习如何寻找机会将长期信托基金提供的服务商业化。这将为长期信托基金创造收入，并使其能够成长并扩展为更大、更有影响力的研究项目。这将有助于促进学术界和商界之间的更多合作，并导致医疗保健研究的更快进展。

Collaboration between the academic and commercial sectors will be vital for the future of healthcare. Increasingly we are moving towards using software tools that combine the results of many different measurements and tests. This creates a comprehensive, overall picture of disease in an individual patient. These sophisticated tools provide valuable support and information for healthcare professionals to make clinical and treatment decisions. Collaboration between the academic and commercial sectors is necessary to develop these tools as they rely on both cutting-edge academic research in the understanding of disease, and their translation to the clinic as regulated products.We will second the manager of the Live Tissue Facility (LTF) in the Department of Oncology, University of Oxford to Perspectum Ltd. The LTF is a dedicated laboratory facility for processing and analysing human tissue samples (e.g. blood samples, tumour biopsy specimens) to support research. Perspectum are world leaders in using sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to detect markers of disease.The work that we do will develop and adapt the LTF to make it accessible to Perspectum and suitable for their research needs. This will mostly involve changes in procedures and processes and so we will be able to use existing LTF funds to achieve this. The result will be a facility that is suitable and accessible for both institutions. Using this facility Perspectum will work towards combining human tissue data with their cutting-edge imaging technology, genetic information and pathology data to create sophisticated and innovative new software tools.The secondee will bring knowledge to Perspectum of how to process and analyse human tissue and how to equip a laboratory so that it is suitable for this work. They will also gain valuable experience of doing research in the commercial sector and take this knowledge back to the University. Here, they will use the knowledge to improve the LTF so that it is more attractive to other companies that may want to use it. The secondee will also learn to identify opportunities to commercialise the services provided by the LTF. This will generate income for the LTF and allow it to grow and expand into bigger and more impactful research projects. This will help generate more collaborations between the academic and commercial sectors and lead to faster advances in health care research.