COVID- 19
entrepreneurial activity,” he says. “Cambridge has been the place to be in the UK for this kind of work for some time, and now increasingly it is seen as a hothouse globally, so I think it was natural that the UK and Cambridge specifically would be at the forefront of the response to Covid-19. “What we saw in the Ventilator Challenge was a willingness to collaborate. That was across the board and up and down the supply chain. I think there was a sense of needs must, we’re all in this together.” Ray Siems believes the thriving Cambridge ecosystem offers a breadth of skills that make it ready to respond at short notice in a crisis. “The crucial ingredient is that you get people across multiple disciplines coming together,” he says. “For us we had a cross between software engineering and medicine, and that meant that we had what we needed to put together a product and a service that could make a difference. You’ve seen that in manufacturing as well with some of the great initiatives there. “Specifically, we were lucky that the core team – myself, Evan and Wilson – have worked together across three countries over six years. We all have a different specialty and, because we know how to work well together, it means we can make a product quite quickly. And I think that’s why we’re able to do something in a relatively short space of time,” he reflects. “As an engineer, you’re often away from the coalface, so it has been great to work on these projects and see first-hand the difference they’ve made to people’s lives.” IMAGE The Cambridge Cluster has been hard at work during the pandemic. Avacta has developed a saliva test to indicate is a patient is infected in minutes as “diagnostic testing is critical to track the virus” according to commercial director David Wilson (pictured lef t)
“As stated by the World Health Organisation, diagnostic testing is critical to track the virus, understand epidemiology, inform case management and suppress transmission,” says David Wilson, Avacta’s commercial director for reagents and diagnostics. “With Covid-19 symptoms not easily distinguishable from the common cold or flu, rapid population screening paired with lab diagnostic testing is one of the most effective methods to control the spread of infection, enabling earlier quarantine and treatment. “Avacta’s focus is on immunoassays, and in particular immunoassays to test for the presence of viral antigen to indicate whether a person has the Covid-19 infection at that time, rather than for the antibodies that are formed in the body’s response to the infection,” he explains. Working with life science giant Cytiva, Avacta has developed a saliva test for Covid-19, which can indicate if a patient is infected in a matter of minutes. This is currently being clinically validated. The firm is also collaborating on a laboratory analysis
platform that uses Affimer reagents and would allow a single technician to process 1,000 Covid-19 swab or saliva samples a day, which could be handy in hospitals and clinics. David adds: “Using the same Affimer reagents that are incorporated into saliva test, Avacta has developed in-house a high-performance ELISA laboratory test to detect the Covid-19 virus. Avacta will make the ELISA test available as a kit so that researchers globally can use it in their own laboratories to support research into the coronavirus.”
A GLOBAL HOTHOUSE AND A THRIVING ECOSYSTEM
Douglas Bradshaw says it is no surprise that Cambridge companies have been at the forefront of the UK’s efforts to fight the tide of coronavirus, pinpointing the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’, which sees the city surrounded by a high concentration of cutting-edge tech and life science companies, as the key factor. “The access to molecular biology we have now is fuelling research and development and
Cambridge has been the place to be in the UK for this kind of work for some time, and now increasingly it is seen as a hothouse globally"
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