Part of a fresh drive to boost the country's ability to diagnose and test for new and emerging infectious disease threats.
A specialist team created to rapidly boost the country's ability to diagnose and test for new and emerging infectious disease threats has been announced by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) today, strengthening the UK's pandemic preparedness and response.
UKHSA Chief Executive Professor Dame Jenny Harries officially launched the team, titled the Diagnostic Accelerator, at a speech at the Faculty of Public Health today.
The Accelerator will improve the speed at which new and existing types of tests such as lateral flow tests (LFDs), molecular point of care tests and polymerase chain reaction tests (PCRs), can be made ready at rapid scale for a wider range of different pathogens.
Work is already underway to identify gaps in the UK's diagnostic capabilities for notable pathogens within prioritised viral and bacterial families.
UKHSA will be creating new partnerships with industry, academia, non-government organisations (NGOs) and other government bodies to prioritise the development of tests for pathogens with the greatest pandemic and epidemic potential, ensuring we have accurate diagnostic tests ready for infectious diseases that pose the greatest risk.
Currently, while UKHSA has developed its own in-house tests for a number of different pathogens including avian influenza and mpox, there is a lack of commercially available tests on the UK market that would allow testing to be ramped up to the levels needed for epidemic and pandemic scenarios for many infectious diseases.
Dame Professor Jenny Harries, UKHSA Chief Executive, said:
We are working constantly to ensure the right defences are in place for when the UK faces the next pandemic threat. Having world leading testing and diagnostic infrastructure in place is a critical part of this.
The Diagnostic Accelerator will help keep us at the forefront of innovation and ensure that the UK is a step ahead when it comes to tackling a wide range of pandemic and epidemic threats.
Dr Isabel Oliver, UKHSA Chief Scientific Officer, said:
The Diagnostic Accelerator is a vital part of our pandemic and epidemic preparedness, ensuring we have the diagnostic capabilities and tests ready to go when new infectious diseases begin to threaten the safety of the country.
As part of this, we will work with industry and other partners to ensure that diagnostic tests are rapidly available, to help us tackle the spread of disease faster and more effectively.
We saw during the COVID-19 pandemic how important testing was for controlling and slowing the spread of the disease, and by focusing on speeding up the rollout of diagnostics and testing we can ensure we have a running start when dealing with the next threat to the UK's health.
The work of the Diagnostic Accelerator also forms a crucial role in the UK's contribution to the global 100 Days Mission, launched in 2021 under the UK G7 presidency with the ambitious aim of deploying an effective vaccine within 100 days of identifying a new pandemic threat. The 100 Days Mission encompasses the development of a vaccine as well as the availability of therapeutic medication and diagnostic tests.
Through the Diagnostic Accelerator, work that UKHSA will undertake includes:
Pathogen X
Conducting extensive surveys of diagnostics available for a wide range of pathogens with pandemic and epidemic potential, to help determine which tests would be a starting point to adapt for new, potentially unknown, pathogens.
Sample collection kits for high consequence infectious diseases
Using chemical inactivation to make samples safe at their point of collection. The Accelerator team will evaluate different solutions for the range of molecular analysis methods required for diagnosis, pathogen evolution and surveillance. This will remove bottlenecks in current sample processing pathways, whilst reducing risk to staff collecting and processing diagnostic samples.
Mpox
Rapidly evaluating mpox LFDs and clinical performance to determine whether these easy-to-use tests could be used by the public in the event of a wider outbreak.
Kevin Fenton, President of the Faculty of Public Health, said:
With public health teams across the UK working unceasingly to protect our health, the Diagnostic Accelerator represents an important new asset to help keep us safe from communicable diseases.
Diagnostic tests are critical for effective disease surveillance, pandemic preparedness and outbreak response, and the rapid and accurate testing which will be supported by the Accelerator are pivotal for public health management and clinical care.
We welcome this boost to our testing capabilities as we continue our critical work to prepare for the next pandemic.
The team's priorities will also include assessing how new science and technologies can be applied to testing, including digital technologies.
