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New jobs beckon at science firm

A DNA research firm has laid out plans to more than triple its workforce to 75 over the next two years as it helps its rapidly-growing list of clients combat food poisoning.

Geneius, based on Newcastle University’s campus, launched in 2008 to market its revolutionary DNA-based approaches for the testing of food, drinks and environmental samples for microbial contaminants.

The company services mainstream suppliers of foods and drinks to major high street retailers with testing for bacteria, fungi or mould and can identify contaminants such as Listeria and Salmonella rapidly and precisely.

It has quickly grown its workforce to 20 and is planning to open satellite offices in the South East and the Midlands, while in the longer term it hopes to establish a presence in India and Canada.

Having now become one of only a handful of businesses in the UK to to to gain approval from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to service food testing using DNA-based research it is on track to grow its workforce to 75 by 2012.

Managing director, Prof. Jerry Barnes said: “This is a major step forward for the company.

“UKAS accreditation for our unique testing service shows that we have developed, documented and implemented a comprehensive and robust set of operating procedures, which comply with the stringent quality standards preferred by all major suppliers to the principle supermarkets.

“We are now poised to develop the business and increase our market share. “We are already undertaking work for a number of major brands and many others are scheduled to come on board in the first half of this year. These companies appreciate the competitive edge the Geneius rapID® testing service gives them.”

One of the brands the company already works with is Innocent Drinks. Its head of fruit, Sam Simister said: “Since meeting the team at Geneius two years ago, our plan has been to explore potential benefits from using this cutting edge technology.

“Through DNA fingerprinting we now have a faster and more accurate way in which to screen and understand our fruits. Identifying the bad bugs that can cause us a problem gives us growing confidence in the consistency of our drinks.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .