Who's at Helix? | Jurek Kozyra on faster diagnostics, drug development and growing Nanovery in Newcastle
You can browse our occupier directory and see the organisations that call Newcastle Helix home. But our Who's at Helix? series is about getting beyond the names and meeting the people behind them.
We want to understand what they're working on, the problems they're trying to solve, and what that work could mean in the real world.
Next up, we meet Jurek, founder of Nanovery.
Time matters
When asked about the projects exciting him most right now, Jurek starts with one that reflects Nanovery's original vision: developing faster diagnostic technologies.
Nanovery is working with the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh hospitals on a project exploring disease biomarkers in patients' blood.
Jurek shares a real-world example.
When a patient arrives at A&E following a paracetamol overdose, clinicians may need to quickly assess whether they are at risk of drug-induced liver injury.
Testing for a specific biomarker can take around two days. Using Nanovery's technology, the team has been able to achieve similar results in two to four hours.
For Jurek, it's an exciting example of how years of research could ultimately help clinicians access important information much faster.
When asked whether he would describe Nanovery's work as groundbreaking, his response was understated:
"It's hard to see when you spend so long pushing the boundaries."
After eight years of development, what excites him most is seeing the technology making an impact beyond the lab.
"It works. It works in the hands of customers. It works in the hands of clinicians."
That, for Jurek, is where years of research translate into real-world impact.