#IDIBELLseminars: Genome engineering technologies applied to standardisation

The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC, an agency of the Department of Health and Social Care, UK) is the world’s major producer of World Health Organization international standards, which help ensure accurate patient diagnosis and the quality of biological medicines worldwide. The section of Precision Medicine has an expanding role in the production of reference materials for genomic diagnostics and has to-date produced ten WHO international reference panels. We are using genome engineering technologies to generate candidate materials that will be subjected to extensive characterisation before becoming international standards. Main interests are EGFR variants (for solid and liquid biopsies), immune-oncology and bioinformatic approaches to oncogenomic.

Hosted by Angel Raya

Leandro Lo Cascio is a Group Leader of Genome Engineering in the Precision Medicine section of NIBSC/MHRA, where lead a team using CRISPR-based approach to help the standardisation and harmonisation of diagnostics onco-targets. Leandro obtained a PhD in Medical Sciences from Imperial College where he investigated osteoarthritis using inducible transgenic mouse models. He worked as Postdoc at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, in the lab of Dr. Kouske Yusa focusing on CRISPR libraries and synthetic lethality approaches to identify new cancer targets. Leandro joined NIBSC/MHRA as Senior scientist in 2017 setting up a CRISPR facility to generate cell models. Leandro is a passionate runner and had a 10 years long rowing career.