Abode Recruitment

Source Bioscience, the Nottingham-based life sciences research and testing firm, has clinched a deal with healthcare giant Roche to offer a new type of cancer test in the UK.
The company will bring in a test that analyses whether breast cancer sufferers will respond to the well-known drug Tamoxifen.
It is the latest in a series of deals that will expand the range and type of testing the company carries out at its advanced Nottingham Business Park laboratories.
Source Bioscience, formerly known as Medical Solutions, carries out both health and research-based testing and also rents out caccer-test machines to health trusts.
It changed its name earlier this year to reflect the increasing range of life sciences work that the company is carrying out for researchers, pharmaceutical companies and the NHS.
The company has made a series of acquisitions that could help drive significant growth in the areas that involve DNA sequencing and genetic research.
The latest deal will see it use a test known as the Roche AmpliChip, which provides information about specific genes that provide evidence of responses to different kinds of treatment.
Initially, it will be used to help establish how well patients with breast cancer respond to the drug Tamoxifen, a widely used treatment for the disease.
This will help doctors decide the most appropriate therapy for patients.
Chief executive Dr Nick Ash said: “Source BioScience, in partnership with Roche, was the first reference laboratory in the UK to offer companion diagnostic testing for breast cancer patients to determine whether Herceptin may be an appropriate therapy.
“The addition of the Roche AmpliChip test enhances our service offering in molecular diagnostics and broadens our portfolio of companion diagnostics for cancer.
“The AmpliChip test can be used to ensure that patients receiving, or being considered for, Tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer and who may carry genetic variants associated with low or absent ability to metabolise the drug, can have their treatment pathway managed more effectively.
“This will have a positive impact on the patient’s response to their treatment regime, clinical outcome and cost effectiveness of the therapy.”
Tamoxifen treatment may be appropriate for around 30,000 newly diagnosed breast cancer cases in the UK each year and around 500,000 women are currently being treated with Tamoxifen in the USA.
Dr Ash says the test looks at genes which can also provide evidence of responses to treatment for other diseases.
He said: “While we anticipate initial applications will be associated with Tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer, the genes are important in the metabolism, and therefore effectiveness, of a range of therapies for conditions and diseases other than cancer.
“The introduction of the Roche AmpliChip to our portfolio is another step in our strategy to broaden our molecular diagnostic service offering.
“It is evidence of our plans to leverage our expertise in genomic analyses and laboratory services for the increased penetration of our molecular diagnostic services into the NHS.”