Meet the scientists: Dr Fiona Leslie, the scientist behind the development of the advanced FMT assay

• How did you come to work on this assay?

I am lucky to be part of a team of experts and driven scientists that keep challenging each other to advance innovation within the industry. I have been working on the FMT assay from the beginning of the in-house development and optimisation of assay conditions right up to the initial product launch and then second launch of the advanced High-throughput High-sensitivity FMT assay with the new imaging suite.

During the development of the advanced assay I was able to build upon some of my previous experience of extracellular matrix and fluorescence microscopy. It was exciting to use these skills and expand into the world of high-content imaging in order to generate an assay which could be used for drug development in the context of fibrotic lung disease.

• What was exciting about working on the new FMT assay?

Getting up to speed with our new microscope, the ImageXpress® HTai, and the new possibilities this brings in terms of imaging and analysis was very exciting.

This new technology has enabled greater flexibility for our assay, whilst expanding the scope of what we can image and how we quantify it. We are still figuring out about all the capabilities that this cutting edge equipment provides us, so it will be exciting to see the new possibilities and goals it can help us to achieve in the future.

• What was the most challenging thing about working on this assay?

Developing an assay, let alone improving one to push the boundaries of our capabilities and technology,  is never an easy task!  One of the challenges of working on this assay has been to ensure that our established and validated FMT assay could be transitioned from the equipment we were using previously. We had to ensure that the assay would meet the same quality criteria as before and provide robust and more data for our customers. The process involved refining some of our current protocols and developing new image-analysis pipelines that give us and our customers the level of confidence in the data that they require to make decisions.

• What will you take from this project?

We have learned so much from the project both in terms of understanding our model and also the new equipment. These aspects are really important and can then be built upon in the future to expand how we use our current models and potentially for the design of new assays to meet customer needs.