The University of Strathclyde is going to be the location for a newly commissioned nationwide facility for testing pioneering nanotechnologies for healthcare applications.
Image Credit: University of Strathclyde
The EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) has awarded £853,000 to the University to create the Multiscale Metrology Suite (MMS) for Next-Generation Health Nanotechnologies.
Through this facility, researchers from across the United Kingdom will have access to top-notch international technology for the study of materials, aiding future discoveries of diagnostics and therapies. It will be a first-of-its-kind facility in the United Kingdom, allowing joint chemical and physical analysis of original nanotechnologies.
The combined investment by the EPSRC and Strathclyde is worth over £1.6 million.
Nanotechnology for health is a rapidly growing sector, as seen with vaccines developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased use of nanotechnologies in cancer diagnostics and therapies.
Dr. Zahra Rattray, Project’s Principal Investigator and Chancellor’s Research Fellow and Lecturer in Translational Pharmaceutics, Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde
“Before new medicines enter the clinical arena, early testing of their performance and properties is critical. This investment in the MMS gives us a unique capability to be at the forefront of analytical sciences and uncover a lot more about the design and performance of these therapies,” Dr. Rattray added.
We are excited about the new opportunities the MMS will create with the proposal partners—the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, the Medicines Discovery Catapult, and the Centre for Process Innovation — as well as the wider UK and international nanotechnology communities, in addressing the challenges faced in nanomedicine design.
Dr. Zahra Rattray, Project’s Principal Investigator and Chancellor’s Research Fellow and Lecturer in Translational Pharmaceutics, Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde
According to Professor Peter Simpson, “At MDC, we have identified that in the UK there are technology, infrastructure, and expertise gaps that make it difficult for innovators to rapidly progress complex medicines towards validation and clinical evaluation, and we are committed to helping address this gap.”
So I am pleased to see this metrology suite being created. The facilities will enable improved analysis of physicochemical quality attributes for a diverse portfolio of new approaches to healthcare development.
Professor Peter Simpson, Chief Scientific Officer, Medicines Discovery Catapult
The study of nanotechnologies for healthcare applications is at present a difficult and complicated process, necessitating the use of numerous technologies, which frequently leads to interruptions in the creation of new medicines or failure of products at advanced clinical trial periods.
As a modular suite integrating the newest detection technologies in a single location, MMS will eliminate the existing boundaries in the study of new nanotechnologies by allowing numerous analyses to be carried out on the same sample.
The data produced from these measurements will enable scientists to enhance their understanding of what properties trigger the performance and safety of new nanotechnology-based medicines. It will also offer a setting in which nanotechnology scientists from industry sectors and academia can access the facility, testing new models and creating new workflows.
The research is associated with Strathclyde’s HealthTech cluster, one of the University’s six clusters of research proficiency and innovation application.
The cluster banks on interdisciplinary know-how in life sciences, engineering, health, and social sciences, with industry-facing subjects in Digital Health, Medical Diagnostics and Wearables, and Advanced Rehabilitation, as well as a supporting focus on Machine Learning, Healthcare AI, Data Science and Data Analytics.