Stephen Abbs Email & Phone Number

Experienced Laboratory Director with over 25 years of running NHS clinical diagnostic genetics laboratories, at Guys Hospital London, and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. I have applied the experience gained from running a laboratory and working in the NHS to recent roles: (1) Scientific Director at Inagene Diagnostics UK Ltd, a UK start-up branch of an international pharmacogenomics company, working to implement pharmacogenomic testing in clinical practice through establishing collaborative pilots with NHS clinicians, pharmacists, and genomics laboratories. Initially introducing testing for pain and mental health medication.(2) Genomics Consultant at Clinisys, working on configuring and bringing a new Genomics Laboratory Information Management System to UK Genomics laboratories;(3) Specialist Advisor at Care Quality Commission, advising and assisting with inspections on quality issues in Medical Laboratories.Skilled in all aspects relating to clinical genomic testing and reporting in healthcare. Experience has been gained as a scientific director in a pharmacogenomics company, directing NHS clinical genomics laboratories, and working in various national roles assessing and advising on quality assurance. My mission is to facilitate high quality, affordable, efficient and equitable clinical genomic service for all patients. Recently I have concentrated on implementing pharmacogenomics into healthcare pathways through industry partnering with clinicians, laboratories and clinical pharmacists. My particular interest in quality improvement and quality assessment comes from a number of roles. I am co-chair of the Association of Clinical Genomic Science Quality Sub Committee, and previously chaired the UK Genomics Quality Assessment (GENQA) Specialist Advisory Group for Molecular Genetics for many years, providing leadership on external quality assessment (EQA) schemes, to assess proficiency and raise the standards of diagnostic laboratories offering molecular genetic diagnostic testing worldwide. I have also been a member and former chair of the GENQA Special Advisory Group on Next Generation Sequencing, which provides a technical EQA for laboratories using NGS platforms in research or diagnosis.During the severe phase of the pandemic I worked as a Scientific Advisor at the Department of Health and Social Care in the national Covid-19 Laboratory Validation team. Our team advised and validated the national testing laboratories to perform SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing compliant with ISO 15189 quality standards.