Responding to the COVID crisis
Prior to Marc h 2020, I was leading the way in Lancashire and South Cumbria, facilitating the implementation of Geno mics Medicine in routine clinical practice. Suddenly it became clear from events in Wuhan China, and subsequent confirmed cases in the UK, that the clinical laboratories in England would be called upon to mount a herculean response to an emerging global infection caused by coronavirus, aka SARS-CoV-2. With my molecular skills and experience, I knew that this would undoubtedly involve me. The call to action in a lockdown My usual human Genomic activities were immediately stood down. Laboratories and resources were repurposed, and new instruments were procured. A round-the-clock testing service involving many platforms was set up in a matter of days, to extract, amplify and detect specific sequences of this coronavirus genome, rapidly diagnosing patients with COVID disease on a huge scale. A new 'normal' Many Healthcare Scientists like myself from collaborating