Dr Shannon Beattie receives Women in Innovation Award

GenoME CEO Shannon Beattie was recognised as 1 of 39 women across the UK by a Women In Innovation Award from InnovateUK.

Earlier detection of ovarian cancer would make a crucial difference in treating the disease,” said Beattie, the chief operating officer of GenoME Diagnostics, a spin-out company from Queen’s University Belfast. “It would allow doctors to treat tumours when they are small and have not spread to other parts of the body. That makes it much easier to eradicate them.

GenoME Diagnostics’ project has involved isolating a number of biomarkers that can potentially be detected in a patient’s blood. If a woman is found to be carrying a particular set of these biomarkers, this could indicate if she is in the early stages of ovarian cancer, said Beattie.

The 39 female entrepreneurs, who come from all nations and regions of the UK, will each be awarded £50,000 to help them scale up their ideas and get them into production.

Read the full article here – Belfast researcher wins £50,000 prize to aid early detection of ovarian cancer (The Guardian)