€3.16 million project to boost European life sciences
Life science businesses will be given the chance to learn about plans to improve personalised healthcare as part of a €3.16 million project at an Interreg North-West Europe event hosted by the University of Leicester.
CoDex4SMEs is a three-year, €3.16 million project, part-funded by Interreg North-West Europe to encourage greater co-operation in the region. The main project partner for the UK is the University of Leicester. Medilink Midlands is supporting the University of Leicester as a sub-partner. CoDex4SMEs will create a support network to help life science businesses develop and adopt companion diagnostics. The CoDex4SMEs roadshow event will introduce national partners and companies to the project.
The project is designed to help life-science businesses improve their use of companion diagnostics. It is a three-year programme which will run across seven countries, with nine project partners and two sub-partners. CoDex4SMEs has already launched in Germany and France and the October 11 event will mark the start of the programme in the UK.
Companion diagnostics are medical devices which provide information about each patient, alongside treatment. This helps to determine how effective treatment will be and allows for greater use of personalised medicine. Companion diagnostics allow tests to be conducted which can determine the molecular causes of a disease, before treatment has started. So far, the development of companion diagnostics has been time-consuming and costly and is only used in the context of very few treatments.
Medilink Midlands is a collaboration between Medilink East and West Midlands that aims to help stimulate the growth of the Midlands as a prosperous community for life sciences.
SMEs who become involved in the project will have access to:
- Sample access services
- Biomarker validation services
- Knowledge transfer of biomarkers and biobanking
- Knowledge ecosystems from eleven partners across seven countries
- A transnational roadshow to venture and large pharma companies
and
- Business model and expert access services for business growth and scaling
The event will include talks from speakers including:
- Professor Tim Coats, from the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Leicester
- Professor Gerry McCann, from the Department of Cardiac Imaging at the University of Leicester
- Dr Julian Barwell, honorary professor of Genetic Medicine at the University of Leicester
- Peter Rose, managing director at Maetrics
Dr Carl Edwards, University of Leicester and UK project lead for the CoDex4SMEs programme, said: “CoDex4SMEs will boost the development of SME products in the field of Companion Diagnostics. The USA are already far ahead in this field and there is a need to improve innovative capabilities and raise international competitiveness. CoDex4SMEs will address this challenge head-on."
Dr Darren Clark, director of Medilink Midlands, added: “Companion diagnostics have the potential to determine the causes of a disease before treatment begins. This helps give the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time.
“Life science businesses can’t afford to miss out on learning more about this development and making it a part of their operations going forward. That’s why Medilink Midlands is working with the University of Leicester to deliver on this initiative. By working together, we can help companies across the Midlands deliver an improved level of personalised healthcare.”
The event will be hosted by the University of Leicester and supported by Medilink Midlands – and will take place on Thursday, October 11, from 09:30am until 14:30pm at Stamford Court at the University of Leicester.