QuantuMDx CMO Prof Sir John Burn Appointed To NHS Board Of Directors

30 June 2014, Newcastle upon Tyne UK QuantuMDx is delighted to announce that Chief Medical Officer Prof Sir John Burn has been appointed as a non-executive director of NHS England. Sir John is a senior clinical geneticist and academic based in Newcastle upon Tyne, with a passion and vision for bringing innovative technologies into mainstream use.

Sir John’s position as non-executive director of NHS England will take effect from 1 July 2014 for a period of 4 years. He, Noel Gordon and David Roberts join an existing group of six non-executive directors. He holds the NHS Endowed Chair in Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University and as well as being a distinguished academic and clinician, Sir John is also a clinical entrepreneur with two start-ups under his belt as well as a co-founder of QuantuMDx Group. He is also an accomplished drummer.

Among many notable non-clinical achievements Sir John conceived and helped to bring to fruition the Millennium Landmark International Centre for Life in Newcastle where scientists from academia, the NHS and SMEs work side by side and the public can enjoy the interactive science museum as well as enjoy a glass of wine al fresco in the vibrant bars and clubs co-located. QuantuMDx relocated its HQ from London to Newcastle in 2011 and has since enjoyed rapid growth in the City that is now billed as the UK’s Silicon Valley.

QuantuMDx CEO Elaine Warburton OBE said “We are absolutely thrilled for John. This appointment is so well deserved. As one of the NHS’s most loyal supporters he will bring to the Board years of clinical experience mixed in with his innate ability to readily translate the complexities of modern medicine into ‘layman’s language’ at a time when the NHS is embracing great change including adopting new technologies and services. With John’s appointment along with the new CEO Simon Stevens and Chairman Sir Malcolm Grant, I have no doubt that NHS England is in good hands”.

About QuantuMDx Group

QuantuMDx Group is one of the most exciting biotechs to emerge from the UK and is developing a low cost, simple-to-use, handheld laboratory for 15-minute diagnosis of disease at the patient’s side, for commercialisation in 2015. The robust device, which reads and sequences DNA and converts it into binary code using a tiny computer chip, is ideally suited to help address the humanitarian health burden by offering molecular diagnostics at a fraction of the price of traditional testing.

Rapidly & accurately detecting and monitoring emerging drug resistance of infectious diseases such as malaria, TB and HIV will enable health professionals to immediately prescribe the most effective drug against that disease. Once the device has passed regulatory approval, it will be available in developed countries for infectious disease testing and rapid cancer profiling and, in time, be available over-the-counter at pharmacies.

Headquartered at The International Centre for Life in Newcastle, UK QuantuMDx has subsidiaries in the USA (Chattanooga) and Asia (A*Star’s Genome Institute of Singapore). QuantuMDx has received numerous awards for innovation and is the recipient of a number of large grants from The UK’s Technology Strategy Board (TB diagnostic), The Biomedical Catalyst Fund (tumour profiler), NHS NIHR’s Invention for Innovation Program (DNA sequencer) and the European Union (“NanoMal” malaria diagnostic).

www.quantumdx.com

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