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A dedicated specialist mathematical modelling unit in the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA, was set up — the Integrated Mathematical Oncology Unit (IMO) — through the movement of three staff with expertise in cancer modelling from the UoA's Mathematical Biology (MB) research group. Clinical practice has been changed and patient treatment improved through the work of IMO.
Modelling by members of the MB research group and the move of a former PDRA led to Cyclacel Ltd. and AstraZeneca obtaining a better understanding of the link between drug-dose and drug-efficacy in a class of cell-cycle-specific anti-tumour drugs called Aurora kinase inhibitors and has led to enhanced business performance.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides measurements for quantitative, non-invasive, diagnostic, repeatable monitoring of disease. MRI biomarkers research at the University of Manchester (UoM) spans cancer, lung disease, neurology and more. Our research has produced methods that are widely used by the pharmaceutical industry for drug development decision-making (including ≥ seven AstraZeneca development molecules, plus other pharma), leading to economic benefit, and for healthcare impact (e.g., influencing diagnostic MRI tools introduced by Philips and creating new tools via spin-outs). The methods have been delivered in part via an award-winning UoM spin-out SME, Bioxydyn (incorporated 2009; 2012 turnover £630K; employing 12 staff).
The investigators of this impact case study have utilised their expertise in materials engineering, theoretical/numerical modelling and product development to achieve significant economic, social and environmental impacts in a range of fields through developing a systematic methodology for innovative product design and optimisation. Through several industrial projects and collaborations, significant impacts have been witnessed including new products creating several million pounds in revenue annually for businesses in different sectors and green manufacturing technologies in repair and reclamation of components. All the described impacts were results of investigation in the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Research Centre (MEMARC) over the assessment period.
Through research carried out under an EPSRC Teaching Company (KTP) award, we assisted an SME, CellPath, to develop the capacity to manufacture a novel set of dyes (Ortho Stains) for use in the Papanicolaou cervical smear test and other histological procedures. The company, previously mainly known for manufacture and sales of laboratory plastics etc, rapidly become the UK market leader in cytology stains, with over 50% of the domestic market, and exports to Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the USA. As a result the company has increased turnover by 400% and the workforce has grown from 5 to 65 employees.
University of Nottingham (UoN) research into optimum plant populations and lodging in wheat has led to advances in agronomic practices for winter wheat in the UK, in particular changes in the way that seed rates are calculated (by number, rather than weight) to establish optimum plant populations. Most significantly, growers and agronomists now have an improved understanding of the crop characteristics that affect wheat lodging risk and have made changes to crop management to minimise the problem. This has led to reduced incidence of lodging in the UK, thereby protecting yield and quality of UK's most important arable crop.
The SAFT-VR family of thermodynamic models has made it possible to predict reliably the behaviour of the many complex and challenging fluids that are found across a range of industrial sectors, including oil & gas, chemicals (refrigerants, surfactants, polymers), energy (carbon capture solvents, carbon dioxide-rich streams) and pharmaceuticals.
The SAFT-VR models have had a wide impact on industrial practice. At BP, they have been used to design novel surfactants that have increased the lifetime of oil fields up to five-fold, avoiding maintenance interventions costing millions of dollars and increasing productivity by 50% (worth $2-3 million per year per well). At Borealis, they have been used to understand how to increase the productivity of the reactor in the flagship Borstar process by 30%. At ICI and Ineos/Mexichem, they have been used to design efficient processes for producing replacement refrigerants with much reduced reliance on extreme and expensive experiments involving hydrogen fluoride, a highly corrosive substance. Industrial demand for access to the predictive capabilities of SAFT-VR has been such that Imperial College has licensed the software in 2013 to a UK SME in order to distribute it worldwide to users.