Our ethos and what makes us unique
We provide a service for the processing of biological samples to the highest standards, but we go beyond. Our staff manage the entire process from sample reception to shipping and liaise with your sponsors, clinical teams and couriers. We take pride in offering flexibility and can tailor processing in any way to meet your requirements. We also provide ethics application support, as well as experimental design or best practice for sample collection, tailored to each project and goal.
Whilst providing flexibility when required, our ethos is to harmonise sample processing to facilitate interdisciplinary research across different diseases by removing variability caused by handling samples in slightly different ways across multiple labs. This leads to more robust and standardised datasets that can be truly interrogated to identify biomarkers in pathways common to different diseases.
Downstream analysis and other ways we can help you
In addition to advice and sample processing, we provide temporary biobanking until shipping and can provide downstream analysis such as:
- Multiplex cytokine quantification
- Cytological profiling
- Viral assays
- qPCR quantification of pathogens
- PCR analysis
- Immunohistochemistry/Immunofluorescence assays
- Spatial transcriptomics with Xenium Analyser (10x Genomics)
We can also provide:
- Assistance with study design and documentation
- Bench space for clinicians needing a lab or for engineers to test medical devices
- Bespoke physiologically relevant cell culture models to complement basic research.
- Quotes for funding applications
- Support with data generation to complete manuscripts
- Support to generate pilot data for grant applications
Research and assay development at the CDDU
Our staff have a strong research background, and our Research & Development wing is developing new assays and diagnostic tools to complement clinical sample processing. Current R&D focuses on:
- Development of quantitative PCR assays for the detection of sepsis and viremia
- Next generation sequencing of rhinovirus from clinical isolates to determine species and strains
- Development of a TCID50 assay for the quantification of rhinovirus titres in clinical isolates
- Bespoke antibody testing
Translational research support for users of our facility.
We created a more physiologically relevant cell culture model with fully differentiated human bronchial epithelial cells at air liquid interface used for a SARS COV-2 infection study where we also performed the immunostaining and imaging. https://
We collaborated with the University of Southampton to develop a method to isolate viable single cells from highly sensitive clumpy mucoid airway cells for single cell sequencing applications https://
If we haven’t convinced you to try us out…, see what our facility users say…..
The CDDU provided indispensable support, guidance, and insights during the planning phase, IRAS, application, and have made it possible for us to embark on our study. Without the CDDU, we are unlikely to have succeeded in organising this study, involving all three hospitals at King’s to explore the mechanisms responsible for symptoms in fibromyalgia and POTS. Prof. David Andersson (Professor of Neuroscience).
The CDDU team have been incredibly helpful. They understand the unpredictable nature of clinical research patient visits and consistently accommodate late or unscheduled samples. Their communication is clear, reliable and friendly. Their contribution has been essential to the success of our study. Jessica Cordle (Clinical Research Nurse – Team Lead, Gastrointestinal Medicine and Surgery, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust).
More testimonials can be found on our website https://