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Fluorescence lifetime research since 1993 in Strathclyde's Photophysics Group led by Prof. David Birch contributed to the success of the University spin-out company IBH (Imhof, Birch, Hallam), and its successful merger with the £1Bn multinational company Horiba. The Strathclyde research has helped Horiba to be, since 2008, the market-leading supplier of fluorescence spectrometers, which comprise steady-state, lifetime and hybrid instruments. The commercial success of the company has led to economic benefits and employment. Through production of an improved spectrometry product range, the Strathclyde research has also facilitated multidisciplinary molecular and materials research globally, across Industry, Government and University sectors, bringing benefits to diverse disciplines such as life sciences, healthcare, chemistry, and nanotechnology.
Research in solid state lasers and non-linear optics in the Department of Physics has led to the creation of innovative laser companies in Glasgow serving global scientific and industrial markets. World-leading products have opened up applications in biomedical imaging, security, defence, pollution monitoring, material processing and fundamental spectroscopy. The companies Coherent Scotland Ltd and M Squared Lasers Ltd can trace a direct link to the research in the Department of Physics and are the central theme of this case study. Since 2008, these two companies have created an estimated 600 person years of employment and £135M of sales from products underpinned by research undertaken at Strathclyde. The wider cluster of companies, researching, designing and developing laser products, including Thales Optronics and more recently the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics, which has a close working relationship with the University, has made Glasgow one of the leading European centres for innovative laser manufacture.
Aurox Ltd is an Oxfordshire spin-out company formed in 2004 by Prof Mark Neil (at Imperial since August 2002) with former colleagues from Oxford University. Its main product line consists of wide field optical sectioning fluorescence microscopes based on the principle of structured illumination and detection using patterned disks. The microscopes use conventional (lower cost) light sources and do not require a scanning system which sets them apart from competitors. Research at Imperial has impacted on the design of disk patterns for optimising performance and has played a critical role in bringing these microscopes to market. Aurox's systems are supplied to and marketed by Carl Zeiss (as VivaTome™) and Andor Technology (as Revolution DSD™) for application in the biomedical sciences, generating successful sales over the period 2008-2012 and enabling Aurox to embark on a second-generation development programme. Since 2008 Aurox have sold more than 150 units with market value in excess of £3M. The majority of this £3M in sales have been since 2010 when an optimisation step which was developed and devised at Imperial College was incorporated into the Aurox products.
danceroom Spectroscopy (dS) is a cutting-edge, interactive public engagement project that allows people to literally step into an interactive molecular dynamics simulation. It has its origins in fundamental research carried out to understand ultrafast chemical dynamics in liquids. On a large scale, dS impact has arisen from its deployment in premier cultural settings in the UK and internationally, eg the London 2012 Olympics, London's Barbican Arts Centre, Ars Electronica (Austria), ZKM (Germany), and the World Science Festival (New York City). Statistics indicate well over 60,000 people have so far experienced dS, with audiences spanning ages from 3 to 73, and attracting those with a variety of interests including science, technology, art and education. Within the cultural and media sectors, dS has received several awards and substantial press attention, all of which has proven beneficial to several non-academic collaborators and partner institutions. The substantial momentum and opportunities available from dS are also being commercially exploited through a spin-out company called Interactive Scientific Ltd.
The sale of Genapta Ltd. to a North American Instrument manufacturer was successfully completed in December 2008, with the release of the holdback payments and associated validation of its technology, as well as the transfer of know-how to the purchaser. The funds from the sale also benefitted the shareholders, including Cambridge Enterprise Ltd which was able to reinvest funds in new University spin-outs. Genapta was co-founded by David Richards, with product development between 2001 and 2008 of a fluorescence assay system for biochemical screening informed by his expertise in fluorescence detection, resulting from his research during this period.
Researchers at Imperial College London have established a spin-out company called Ionscope Ltd which develops and sells Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopes (SICM). This is a novel technology that can (i) characterise live cells and their derivatives non-destructively during differentiation and development, (ii) correlate biophysical features at unprecedented resolution with detailed transcriptional information on a single cell level, and (iii) steer cell fate by mechanical stimulus. Other high magnification techniques interfere with or kill living cells, whereas SICM is benign, allowing living cells to be studied over long periods, making it a highly desirable technology for all groups working within biomedical research. The technique has application in the study of living processes at nano-scale, which to date has included neurons, heart muscle, kidney, sperm and stem cells. Ionscope Ltd sales since 2009 have totalled [text removed for publication], with the company registering a 20% increase in its revenue over the past 5 years.
The commercialisation of Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) and the associated novel fabrication processes developed at the University of Glasgow has provided Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd (CSTG) with a new foundry product supplying quantum cascade lasers for gas sensing, safety and security, and military applications. This resulted in 40% turnover growth from 2010-2012 and the company is now recognised as a global leader in QCLs and their fabrication. Based on University of Glasgow research, the company has created a manufacturing toolbox for the production of a wide variety of QCL chip designs. CSTG has also achieved a world first, manufacturing QCLs for systems that detect explosives at a safe distance and can counter heat-seeking missile attacks on aircraft.
Midaz Lasers Ltd is a spin-out laser company formed by academic founders, Professor Michael Damzen (Director and Chief Technology Officer, CTO) and Dr Ara Minassian (Chief Scientific Officer, CSO), in 2006 as the vehicle for commercial exploitation of patented laser technology [4] arising from Prof Damzen's research group in the Physics Department at Imperial College London.
Midaz has designed and assembled multiple engineered laser and amplifier products, incorporating this patented technology, and has sold units to industrial customers in Europe, N. America and Asia since 2010. The primary market and beneficiary for Midaz laser technology is the industrial laser manufacturing sector and the benefit of the technology is to create laser industrial tools for higher throughput and lower cost manufacturing, including in the semiconductor industry for production of consumer electronics. In July 2012, Midaz was successfully sold to world-leading laser company, Coherent Lasers Ltd, for $3.8 Million.
Pioneering research at Essex developed an innovative mathematical method for determining the chlorophyll fluorescence parameter Fo', as well as novel LED lighting technology and a multi-plant imaging system. This instrument is marketed by Technologica. Originally an Essex spinout, the company has sold 42 units across Europe, Asia and South America since 2006, recording its highest ever profits over the past three years (totalling ~£115k). Essex's mathematical method for determining Fo' is also used by other manufacturers, who have since developed their own imaging systems. This research has helped to establish chlorophyll fluorescence imaging as a mainstream screening tool, now used globally to inform a range of crop production and handling strategies.
Work since 1993 at Imperial College has led to a novel generic approach to Separation Science called: Label Free Intrinsic Imaging (LFII) — with applications in high throughput proteomics, metabolomics, analytical chemistry, health care diagnostics and genomics. LFII was commercialised by Imperial spin-out deltaDOT Ltd in Nov 2000. Sales of LFII products by deltaDOT have been made to various sectors including pharmaceutical, analytical and diagnostic companies. The average annual turnover of deltaDOT Ltd in the REF period was >£600k per annum and the net worth and total assets in 2012 were £569,595 and £808,027, respectively. The deltaDOT technology has been adopted by the US multi-million dollar DARPA-funded [Defense Advanced Research Project Agency] rapid-vaccine development programme. In 2009 an affiliate company, deltaDOT QSTP-LLC, was formed in Qatar, developing a world-class proteomics research and testing facility in Doha also entirely based on the LFII technology. Since its formation deltaDOT QSTP-LLC has generated total revenues of >$10M.