Dermot's diary

Cheaper Next Generation Sequencing, single cell profiling, growth in food and veterinary testing and a need to talk about malaria and measles – as 2026 rolls around, Celtic Managing Director Dermot Cox unpacks his 2025/26 thoughts.

It's the end of the year, we're all plenty thankful for the break. What were some of 2025's Celtic highlights?

Interestingly, we're picking up significant growth in the fields of environmental and agricultural testing, for one thing. Really impressive growth in the use of qPCR for water testing for pathogens such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, and we've seen similar growth in food and veterinary testing. qPCR has of course been the gold standard in human infectious disease testing for many years and now we're seeing it being used in other fields. Celtic's extensive portfolio of qPCR tests mean we can cover all our customer's needs.

Looking ahead to 2026, what's going to be high on the order book list?

An exciting development actually. We' will soon be offering a more affordable solution for laboratories working with Next Generation Sequencing. NSG has been the hot topic in both molecular diagnostics and molecular pathology for the past couple of years but, with two dominant players in the market, pricing of both platforms and consumables has been a major barrier of entry for many laboratories. Watch our channels for details in early 2026. 

Globally, what are you keeping your eye on in terms of new research that will likely impact Celtic in the future?

Single cell profiling. Rather than looking at bulk tissue, scientists are moving to profiling single cells. That's particularly important in the fields of oncology, stem cell research and immunology. And we're endeavouring to ride the wave at Celtic; the Honeycomb range of products we carry are an important tool in this research.

We're at a worrying place in terms of disease prevention. What's happening with malaria and measles?

Emerging diseases – thanks to Covid -19 – have taken up all the oxygen of late and the debate around vaccines has led to a greater suspicion of these interventions. Meanwhile malaria and measles are still major health concerns, particularly in the African context. Vaccination coverage for measles for example, has either stalled or declined in many countries, so herd immunity hasn't been achieved. We're seeing over 100 000 deaths annually from a disease that is essentially preventable. Similarly, malaria still poses a major health risk; insecticide and drug resistances have seen an increase in the disease, with three quarters of deaths being in African children. The solution is monitoring, critical to controlling both. We're well equipped at Celtic to add to that monitoring effort, offering as we do numerous solutions for both these diseases.