TECH TRENDS
TTP The millions of New Year diets and fitness regimes being undertaken earnestly around the world this month cannot mask the fact that we’re all getting older. In 2015, over-60s on the planet numbered some 901 million, a figure which, by 2050, is expected to have soared to 2.1 billion. With that in mind, Sam Hyde, managing director of TTP, believes the conundrum of the ageing population is going to occupy plenty of scientists as we move into 2020 and beyond. “Healthcare is one of our three key sectors, and the challenge around ageing population for a while, the global increase in life expectancy driven largely by better treatments for cardiovascular diseases; the mortality rate for these conditions has halved in the last decade, and other improvements followed as other disease areas came to the fore. “The new frontier is to ensure that other disease areas can have the same level of attention and benefit from the same effect, and key to this will be genetics. Not only does this allow us to go in and subtly fix things, it can also help give us a better understanding of the process of ageing. It’s a really interesting area, especially with the isn’t going away,” he says. “People have been talking about the ageing
emergence of new methods such as long read length sequencing.” TTP is working on a number of genetics projects, as well as using its expertise in other areas of life science, such as diagnostic testing. The company has been working on a project which would allow flu testing to take place remotely, away from the clinic, to try and ensure that patients who are infectious don’t have to visit their GP. Sam has been with TTP for 22 years, and joined from Ionica, the Cambridge firm that famously developed a wireless phone network which briefly looked set to revolutionise the sector before its abrupt demise in 1999. He maintains a professional interest in the telecoms sector, and says: “TTP has been involved in GSM, 3G and now 5G, which we’ll hear a lot more about in the next year. There’s an interesting challenge coming there around the opportunity for satellite-driven networks, and their convergence with traditional cell-tower terrestrial networks. Lots of people are playing around in space now because it’s getting easier and cheaper to get satellites up in the sky.” Alongside healthcare and telecoms, Melbourn-based TTP is also active in the industrial and consumer spaces. The company is one of the best-known names
People have been talking about the ageing population for a while, the global increase in life expectancy driven largely by better treatments for cardiovascular diseases; the mortality rate for these conditions has halved in the last decade"
in the Cambridge Cluster, and Sam says its blend of researchers and technologists is key to its success. He says: “We have a bunch of scientists and engineers doing what they love, who are passionate about technology and how it can create value. “Our role is to mix these people together. We’re not a massive firm with layers and layers of management, and I think this is one of the areas where Cambridge and the consultancies excel – we’ve got a great pool of people and we don’t over-manage them, we just try and create the perfect environment for collaboration.” ttp.com
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ISSUE 05
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