ROADWATER based Singer Instruments, which plays a pivotal role in the battle to beat cancer, is about to open a £200,000 factory extension.

Imperial Cancer Research Fund director general Sir Paul Nurse will perform the opening ceremony next Friday, May 12.

The company's core business is the manufacture of machines which control the fine movement of items under a microscope.

A Singer micromanipulator can control movements that are tiny enough to enable scientists to dissect items a fraction the thickness of human hair.

The machines are used in many leading laboratories around the world, especially where scientists are conducting experiments on yeast cells as part of their efforts to understand cancer.

In many respecs, yeast cells mimic the performance of human cells and within the last ten years this has become an increasingly important area of research.

Singer Instruments employed two people when it moved to Roadwater from Reading in 1980 and it now has a staff of 15 - with further recruitments planned.

Managing director Carl Saunders-Singer said the company's success was due in part to the support given by Business Link Somerset: "Their consultants have helped us in areas like production organisation and internal communications," he said.

"I firmly believe it helps to have someone coming into your company from the outside on a regular basis to take a bird's eye view of your operation and give an independent assessment.

"Sometimes, when you are deeply involved in running a business, you can't see the wood for the trees."

Business Link Somerset's managing director Peter Harvey said: "Singer Instruments is a go-ahead business and we will continue to support them in their expansion plans."