Submitted by Simone Castello on Mon, 29/11/2021 - 17:33
This month’s IRC Cancer in Sight blog is written by Dr Ronan Daly, Associate Professor in Science and Technology of Manufacturing, based at the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge, who leads this theme for the IRC programme.
The blog, which is titled ‘Ahead of the game – the role of design for manufacturing on the path from laboratory to clinic’, sets out the critical importance of manufacturing research and thinking ahead in the development journey of the IRC technologies. Dr Daly writes: “In short, design for manufacturing is just as important as design for both patient and surgeon. If a technology cannot be designed for manufacturing, it is not going to reach patients.”
Dr Daly explains why applying manufacturing research is particularly significant in the design and development of early-stage technologies, and how the manufacturing team is helping researchers understand the challenges associated with delivering the technology to their target – thinking ahead to identify risks and tackle them as soon as possible. Taking the example of the IRC electrophoretic delivery devices under development, Dr Daly highlights the manufacturing questions that need to be asked when considering scaling up a technology: “How can it be scaled up? How easy is it to make? How repeatable is the design? We also need to know how to measure if a device is working as predicted and test it in a way that is as similar to the in-use phase as possible.”
The hope of incorporating this manufacturing cross-cutting theme is that the journey from laboratory to clinic is shortened. Dr Daly writes: “While the journey from lab to clinic takes time, the IRC’s approach is quite revolutionary. Traditionally all the technology development and proof of concept happens before consideration of any manufacturing questions. The IRC is applying these questions throughout the entire lab-to-clinic journey – and tackling some of them in advance. We hope our approach will help to shorten the journey time and deliver benefits to the patient sooner.”
- Read the full Cancer in Sight blog by Dr Ronan Daly here
