Multiscale Metrology Suite for Next-Generation Health Nanotechnologies
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Inst of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sci
Abstract
The bespoke Multiscale Metrology Suite, will combine powerful leading-edge detectors for measuring nanomaterial properties and transform the measurement of health nanotechnologies. We will build a modular system combining the latest in flow field fractionation technologies with mass spectrometry, Raman and light scattering detectors for the physical and chemical measurement of nanomaterial properties.
The requested equipment will enable world-leading researchers at the University of Strathclyde, other UK academic institutions, and industry to accelerate their research into new technologies for healthcare applications and remain competitive in the global race for delivering new innovations in health. Moreover, this equipment will generate new research avenues and partnership opportunities that will create a step-change in the physical and chemical analytical capability and infrastructure for UK health nanotechnology research.
This leading-edge suite will ultimately reduce the time and costs associated with delivering new diagnostics and drug treatments, improving quality of life and delivering much needed lifesaving drugs to patients. Strong partnerships with industry partners and government facilities will ensure that this national facility will remain globally-competitive and deliver innovations.
The requested equipment will enable world-leading researchers at the University of Strathclyde, other UK academic institutions, and industry to accelerate their research into new technologies for healthcare applications and remain competitive in the global race for delivering new innovations in health. Moreover, this equipment will generate new research avenues and partnership opportunities that will create a step-change in the physical and chemical analytical capability and infrastructure for UK health nanotechnology research.
This leading-edge suite will ultimately reduce the time and costs associated with delivering new diagnostics and drug treatments, improving quality of life and delivering much needed lifesaving drugs to patients. Strong partnerships with industry partners and government facilities will ensure that this national facility will remain globally-competitive and deliver innovations.
Organisations
- University of Strathclyde (Lead Research Organisation)
- AstraZeneca (United Kingdom) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE (Collaboration)
- LGC Ltd (Collaboration)
- Medicines Discovery Catapult (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (Collaboration)
- Malvern Panalytical (Collaboration)
- UK-CPI (dup'e) (Project Partner)
- Bridgepoint (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Abdullah MO
(2022)
Mitochondrial hyperfusion via metabolic sensing of regulatory amino acids.
in Cell reports
Alnoumas L
(2022)
Evaluation of the role of KPNA2 mutations in breast cancer prognosis using bioinformatics datasets.
in BMC cancer
Berardi D
(2022)
The Differential Metabolic Signature of Breast Cancer Cellular Response to Olaparib Treatment.
in Cancers
Cai Y
(2022)
Bile acid distributions, sex-specificity, and prognosis in colorectal cancer.
in Biology of sex differences
Daramy K
(2022)
The Application of Field-Flow Fractionation to the Analysis of Nanomedicines
in British Journal of Pharmacy
Daramy K
(2022)
Investigating the Impact of Shear Flow on Nanoparticle-Protein Interactions
in British Journal of Pharmacy
Malewicz NM
(2022)
Topical Capsaicin in Poly(lactic-co-glycolic)acid (PLGA) Nanoparticles Decreases Acute Itch and Heat Pain.
in International journal of molecular sciences
| Description | Beta testing status with Malvern Panalytical |
| Organisation | Malvern Panalytical |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I was approached by Malvern Panalytical to evaluate their latest nanoparticle tracking analysis equipment model within the facility. This would provide my laboratory with access to the leading technologies available prior to commercial release, as well as developing new leading protocols for the analysis of bionanomaterials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners within this collaboration issued me with an instrument to be housed within my laboratory. |
| Impact | This collaborative activity is still ongoing and will continue to lead to the generation of SOPs, workflows and evaluation of the latest nanoparticle tracking analysis technologies. The collaboration is multi-sector and multidisciplinary in nature, as it relies on working with the industry sector, and those with a specialism in physics, engineering and instrument development. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Collaboration with AstraZeneca |
| Organisation | AstraZeneca |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I have been collaborating with AstraZeneca pharmaceuticals to develop their technical capability in the manufacture and analysis of lipid nanoparticles for oligonucleotide drug delivery, which was sparked from the award of funding for this national facility. This collaboration led to funding being secured for a PhD scholarship to pursue research in this area. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners in this collaboration have been involved in the co-supervision of the studentship, providing opportunities for the student to receive secondment within the industry sector. They have also contributed to the strategic direction of associated research priorities. |
| Impact | This is a multidisciplinary project, working with chemists in chemical development, and analytical and formulation scientists based at AstraZeneca. Expected impacts from this project will be knowledge transfer and exchange, contributing to progression of the AstraZeneca drug development pipeline. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with GSK |
| Organisation | GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) |
| Department | GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I have been appointed as supervisor on three GSK PhD at work studentships, some of which require use of the facility. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner organization have an existing biopharmaceuticals agreement for PhD studentships with Strathclyde University. As a component of this agreement, some of the studentships have focused on engineering and optimizing next generation antibody-based therapeutics. An element of this work and existing plans have been based on use of the multiscale metrology suite. |
| Impact | 1) The first studentship which commenced in 2021, received an award for the best presentation at the annual RSC Joint Pharmaceutical Analysis Group awards. https://www.jpag.org/?p=news 2) At present, I am involved as a Theme lead for drafting a BBSRC prosperity partnership proposal- this proposal will design next-generation antibody-drug conjugates in partnership with GSK and we have been invited to submit a full proposal to BBSRC by the end of March 2023. The final outcome for this application will be known by autumn 2023. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with Helen Mulvana in Strathclyde Biomedical Engineering |
| Organisation | University of Strathclyde |
| Department | Department of Biomedical Engineering |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I was approached to contribute to a Cancer Research UK project considering the design of functionalized nano and micro bubbles for improving the resolution and contrast of ultrasound imaging for early detection of cancer. My team's contribution were to provide access to the facility and train the associated postdoctoral researcher on the use of equipment within the multiscale metrology suite, assist in sample preparation and method development for analysis of prototype materials, and perform these analyses for >10 sample types. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The collaborator paid for accessing the equipment and included our contributions in subsequent conference abstracts submissions (Optical and acoustic characterisation of multimodal contrast agents for colorectal cancer lymph node detection submitted to the European Molecular Imaging Meeting 2023- https://e-smi.eu/meetings/emim/emim-2023/). This brought a new and added dimension to the range of measurements conducted through the facility. |
| Impact | This collaboration is still within early stages of its delivery and will lead to publications of research findings. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration in which I am working with physicists and biomedical engineers to work on functionalized nano and micro bubbles for image-guided cancer diagnostics. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Collaboration with the Laboratory of Government Chemist |
| Organisation | LGC Ltd |
| Country | Global |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Add |
| Collaborator Contribution | Add |
| Impact | Add |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Partnership with the Medicines Discovery Catapult |
| Organisation | Medicines Discovery Catapult |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | At the point of award of funding for this EPSRC facility, I was invited to give a talk on complex medicines and their bioanalysis. I gave a webinar in June 2021, which was recorded and subsequently key points were summarized in a report published by the medicines discovery catapult. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The MDC as partners are involved in the Strategic Advisory Board and governance of the multiscale metrology suite facility. |
| Impact | Please see above- contribution to the webinar on complex medicines and connectivity with other investigators within the UK ecosystem i.e. SEDA pharmaceutical development services and researchers at the University of Liverpool. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Coverage of the facility in Nanotechnology World Association newsletter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Website covering the news of the facility following the Strathclyde press release |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.nanotechnologyworld.org/othernews/strathclyde-to-establish-nanotechnologies-facility |
| Description | Magazine coverage of the facility |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Media coverage following the Strathclyde press release on the facility, leading to increased growth in interest |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/strathclyde-to-establish-nanotechnologies-facility |
| Description | Meet the Researcher 2023- Medical Research Scotland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Presented a poster and handson activity about the drug development pipelines for nanomedicines and the science of measurement (the facility equipment) to secondary aged school pupils aged between 15-17 (>200 participants). A component of this was discussing associated disciplines and careers. 2 PhD candidates and 1 Research Technical Professional affiliated with the lab were involved in the delivery of these activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.myworldofwork.co.uk/marketplace/opportunities/2072-meet-the-researcher-showcase----thurs... |
| Description | Patient group three part storytelling workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The overall aim of the project was to promote dialogue and awareness between the stakeholders (patients, clinicians and scientists) involved in the care of patients diagnosed with breast cancer. The event was promoted on social media platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook), and printed and sent to patients attending the NHS Lanarkshire clinic as an invitation letter. Both these routes for promoting the event were used to ensure that patients not traditionally targeted for public engagement events, would be invited to participate in this workshop series, addressing issues relating to regional disparities in public engagement activities. Workshop 1- An introduction to storytelling (Aug 2nd 2022, 5-8 pm) Workshop 2- Bringing your story to life (Aug 18th 2022, 10-3 pm) Workshop 3- Open mic evening (Sep 4th 2022, 4:30-7:30 pm) Across the three workshop sessions, >20 patient participants attended (6 patients attending all three sessions), and 6 scientist participants. This multidisciplinary project included co-creation of workshop formats to include the use of different aides (e.g. object memory and prompt cards) to develop patient narratives from their lived experiences. All scientist and clinician participants were involved and engaged in developing their own narratives and perspectives on breast cancer. Outputs from the workshop, following participant consent were captured and recorded in multiple media formats including audio recordings, digital images, digital artwork and hardcopy stories from patients, which will be used to produce legacy content for patients with breast cancer and the wider community. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/news/2022/strathclyderesearcherstoraiseawarenessofbreastcanc... |
| Description | Press release from Azo Nano |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The press release issued from Strathclyde was subsequently disseminated and shared through other online newsletters. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=38173 |
| Description | Press release on facility |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Press release on the award and development of the facility. This led to follow on interviews from sector organizations, which reported increased interest in the facility. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/news/2021/uk-widefacilitytotestforfuturehealthnanotechnologi... |