I worked on PCR test methodologies back in the late 90s, in the early days of the technology, when I helped to develop novel techniques for amplifying GC-rich DNA sequences for which PCR did not work at the time.
Previously an arcane scientific art, everybody heard of PCR tests during the Covid-19 “pandemic” when this method was used in to attempt to detect the presence of the prevalent coronavirus strain in swab samples from human subjects.
In fact, I personally did almost all of the lab work for that 1990s PCR research; over the course of a year I performed multiple experiments, including the final procedures that identified and proved the required formula. Ultimately, we successfully developed and published a new method that was capable of achieving PCR for these problematic genetic markers. I was working at the Centre For Preventive Medicine facility of the Animal Health Trust at their prestigious Lanwades Park site, which they sold for millions in 2016. I lived in two of the historic buildings shown in the featured photos of the estate, and worked in others. A small handful of around five resident personnel had the entire Lanwades Park estate to themselves on weekends and evenings, a real privilege which I thoroughly enjoyed as a young undergraduate!
After university, I was invited to work at Roche, the pharmaceutical corporation, where (alongside various other projects) I worked on the first ever flu drug: Tamiflu® doing global Phase 4 clinical trials at headquarters level as well as monitoring certain trial locations in the UK. The molecule had not yet been given a brand name, so we referred to it in-house as “the neuraminidase inhibitor” or by its chemical name, oseltamivir phosphate. While at Roche I worked on other clinical trials, and on regulatory compliance at HQ level including overseeing an official inspection by the Japanese Ministry of Health. Drawn increasingly into tech, I also developed a new computer system for flagging drugs in our inventory that were soon due for re-test under the Clinical Trial Exception scheme (which we called “CTX”) naming my system “CREWS” (an acronym for CTX-Retest Early Warning System). For the Tamiflu project I flew out to Palo Alto to Roche’s US HQ and worked in their offices on the business park which later became Google’s HQ.
I have so many anecdotes to share from my former life in biotech, perhaps I will have time to share more of them here in the future…