Log in
First commercialised in 1996, Quadrupole Orthogonal Acceleration Time of Flight (Q-TOF) Mass Spectrometry (MS) has become the most important of the enabling technologies for structural characterisation in `omics research including Proteomics, Metabolomics, Glycomics and Lipidomics. Prior to this revolutionary development, mass spectrometric methods lacked the sensitivity and resolution needed for unambiguous structural characterisation at the femtomole (10- 15M) level. Today, research is both enabled and accelerated by the use of many thousands of Q-TOF instruments in medical research, cancer research, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, forensics and chemical industry laboratories worldwide. As a consequence of this innovation, which resulted from the research and consultancy advice of Professor Howard Morris, industry has invested in R&D, and highly skilled (mainly British) jobs have been created as well as protected.
Particulate Matter is now recognised as the air pollutant with the greatest public health impact, estimated to cost up to £8.5-20.2 billion per annum (in 2005).Roy Harrison has engaged closely with UK policy-makers for decades. This impact case study focuses specifically on the take-up of PM mass-closure techniques developed by Harrison's group into a UK policy-making tool called Pollution Climate Mapping (PCM). Work by the Harrison group forms the basis of the component dealing with airborne particles in the PCM model used by Defra. The work described in this case study has economic impact in the form of costs avoided by the UK national, devolved and local governments (reallocation of public budgets away from expensive air pollution monitoring and avoidance of EU financial penalties), public policy impact in the form of cost-effective delivery of air pollution mapping, and environmental impact in the form of traceable inclusion of research in government policies for air quality improvement.
The Planetary and Space Sciences (PSS) research group at The Open University has designed, built and deployed space flight instrumentation that is at the core of several iconic ESA (European Space Agency) missions. Following on from that work, the OU team has led and supported UK academia-industry consortia tendering to undertake ESA funded projects preparing for future missions. The work undertaken by these consortia has influenced ESA policy and practice, and helped enterprises in the UK Space Sector to attract significant funding, win contracts to supply ESA with goods and services, and move into new areas of business.
Q-Technologies Limited is an award winning company spun out from the University of Liverpool (UoL). The company mission is to bring to market the novel, patented technology developed through research undertaken by Taylor and colleagues in the Mass Spectrometry (MS) research group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics from 1995. Impact is economic resulting from formation of a profitable business, currently employing 7 people, and via IP assignment generating £1.2M in 2013. Impact is also environmental via the realisation of a novel sensor with unparalleled monitoring capabilities providing improved water quality monitoring.
Carol Robinson's research at the University of Oxford in the mid-1990s led directly to her proposing a new type of mass spectrometer to enable more detailed analyses of larger molecular assemblies than previously possible. The design is marketed worldwide by Micromass UK Ltd (part of Waters Corporation), generating a new area of research within industry and academia in which intact protein complexes can be analysed by mass spectrometry and the chemistry of small molecules and drugs bound to them investigated, thus contributing to the search for novel pharmaceuticals. Since 2008, Waters' successful commercialisation of the new technology has led to sales worth many millions of dollars.
A novel technique named Selected Ion Flow Tube-Mass Spectrometry, SIFT-MS, has been researched and developed by Professor David Smith and Professor Patrik Spanel at the Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM), Keele University. This technique allows real time, on-line analysis of trace gases in air and exhaled breath. This development stems from basic research into the reactivity of ions in the gas phase, in which Smith & Spanel are recognised international experts, combined with a complete understanding of the engineering and technical requirements of successful analytical instrumentation. SIFT-MS instruments have been developed initially from large laboratory devices to the current, transportable commercial instruments that are produced by two independent manufacturers and sold worldwide. They are used in various fields of research, including immediate analysis of exhaled breath and urine headspace for clinical diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring, cell biology, and in environmental and food sciences. They have important practical use in the safety of customs workers in container ports and in prospecting for oil and gas. SIFT-MS instruments manufactured in the UK have been exported to Austria, Czech Republic, China and the USA.
Mathematically-based image processing techniques developed at the University of Cambridge have helped bring about a revolution in the ability to extract quantitative measurements from laboratory experiments in fluids. Techniques and software tools developed from this research and incorporated into commercial software are now used in engineering, physics and mathematics research laboratories around the world on projects ranging from fundamental research to ones with strong industrial connections.
Research led by Dr Brian Singer on techniques for analysing artists' materials has helped museum and gallery conservators develop treatments through a sound knowledge of the materials present. Publications by conservators (2008-11) reference the research and, in relation to high-profile works by Munch, cite changes in practice that have enhanced the continuing availability of this artist's oeuvre. The same research has supported the estate of Francis Bacon, assisting its authentication committee to define authenticity and date of unattributed works for inclusion in Bacon's catalogue raisonné. Singer's research and methods have ultimately benefited the wider public, ensuring engagement with 20th Century art in the long term.
Biocatalysts provide unique activities that facilitate chemical transformations that are simply not possible using abiotic methods. Northumbria University researchers with expertise in enzymes and biocatalysis have provided biocatalysis services to the pharmaceutical, fine chemical, food and biofuels industries through our business facing innovation unit Nzomics. This has generated significant contract research, collaboration and licence agreements to companies, including the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and the services-led company Almac. Biocatalysts produced as a result of Northumbria University research and technology transfer are sold worldwide and benefit business through their use in research and development activities, such as the production of intermediates in drug synthesis.
King's College London (KCL), operating a state-of-the-art Drug Control Centre (DCC) in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), delivered the anti-doping analysis at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This operation, undertaken in their World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) accredited laboratories, was characterised by unprecedented scale, speed and accuracy. It succeeded in protecting the health of athletes and the integrity of the Games. KCL was chosen to undertake the 24/7 anti-doping operation based on its cutting-edge bio-analytical research in drug control. Although a number of athletes were disqualified in the pre-Games testing, the deterrent effect of the KCL work was evidenced by the few doping cases during the Games itself. Using the new biomarker test developed by the DCC at KCL in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Southampton, the team identified for the first time the administration of recombinant human growth hormone (hGH) in two athletes. The findings of the KCL-led operation are already being used to develop similar testing facilities for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and have opened up the science of drug-testing to schools through the "Scientists in Sport" initiative.