An Assay Hub is a central system or platform that focuses on creating, refining, and validating laboratory tests, known as assays, to reliably measure the information we obtain from the immune system.

An example of an assay is a test that measures the amount and types of antibodies a person produces to fight an infection, or to test how effectively a person’s immune cells can identify and destroy cancer cells.

These tests help researchers understand what’s happening with the immune system, turning scientific discoveries into practical tools that can help doctors diagnose disease earlier, predict how it might progress and choose the most effective treatment.

Assay Development Hub Lead Dr Damian Maseda describes the hub as a bridge between research and the clinic.

“Its role is to ensure laboratory discoveries are robust, reproducible and ready to inform real-world healthcare applications.”

In practice, creating an assay involves developing or adapting a laboratory test that can accurately measure what immune cells are doing. Immune cells act as sensors, and capture and retain information throughout a person’s life that reflects their health history. Refining an assay means fine-tuning that test so it produces reliable results across different samples, settings and patient groups.

Originally from Spain, Dr Maseda has built a global career spanning research institutes, biotechnology startups and clinical research programs across Europe and the United States. He is passionate about translating complex science into meaningful health outcomes.

“From a certain perspective, the immune system is involved in almost every disease process in some way, whether that’s infection, cancer, autoimmune disease, transplantation, allergy, heart disease, or even tissue repair and recovery”.

“For some diseases, the immune system is the primary driver, for example, autoimmunity, cancer, or allergy. For others, it plays a supporting but still important role.”

Think of the Digital Hub as the Snow Centre’s information and thinking engine.

It brings together complex research and patient data, including assay data generated through the Assay Hub, in a secure environment. This enables scientists, clinicians and data experts to identify patterns, answer important questions, explore potential new treatments and better understand how patients may respond to care.

As Digital Hub Lead, Associate Professor Ashley Ng explains: “At the heart of our work is patients.

“What drives us is to try and improve patients’ outcomes or experience with disease.

“Our Digital Hub is where information about participants in the Snow Centre of Immune Health comes in, that allows our clinicians and researchers, to work together to understand disease, refine diagnoses and develop new ways to understand how patients may respond to treatments for immune disorders.”

A/Prof Ng is a clinician-researcher and blood cancer specialist whose career spans patient care, clinical trials, research and health informatics. He says maintaining a foot in both medicine and research allows him to bridge the gap between discovery and impact.