NORTH-EAST businesses are being urged to get behind a scientific breakthrough that could save thousands of lives.

A team of scientists from Durham University yesterday unveiled a way of harnessing light to speed up the diagnosis of diseases such as cancer.

Now they need financial backing to ensure their invention can be developed in the North-East.

Team leader Professor Andy Monkman believes the discovery could lead to "photonic" medical diagnostic machines being installed in doctor's surgeries around the world.

Apart from identifying patients who may be at higher risk of developing life-threatening diseases, the technique can also give early warning that a particular drug is unlikely to work with an individual patient.

Scientists believe it could revolutionise the diagnosis of mutations in patients' DNA.

The invention is based on a breakthrough by US scientists, who established that light could be used to identify defective links in the human genetic chain.

But the Durham team is the first to develop a practical way of applying this theory.

It combines lasers with an advanced form of plastic called luminescent polymers.

The polymers - which are similar to the material used in mobile phone displays - are good at conducting electricity.

It is this property that allows them to be used as a kind of "optical litmus test" to detect a damaged or defective gene in a human DNA sample.

Once the scientists know the defect they are looking for, they can design a polymer that will seek out and bind to the target area.

If the polymer finds the rogue gene it will light up when a special laser beam is applied.

Prof Monkman, an applied physicist who is director of the multi-disciplinary Durham Institute, said: "We are entering a whole new field of bio-photonics.

"If we can develop a diagnostic system based on light and optics, it may be possible to do the scanning in the doctor's surgery. You wouldn't have to send samples away to be evaluated in a hospital."

The Durham scientists have demonstrated that their approach works by using polymers to identify changes to a patient's DNA caused by a particular chemotherapy drug used on leukaemia patients.

When the laser was played on to a sample containing the defect, the polymer illuminated the faulty DNA segment.

This is useful in telling doctors that a drug is no longer working with that patient.

Now the scientists, whose work has been funded by One NorthEast, are looking for local businesses to back their invention.

"This was developed in the North-East and we are hopefully going to keep it in the North-East," said Prof Monkman.