News
The BPU acts as a portal for education, CPD/training and commercial awareness events within the School of Chemistry. We have a vibrant programme of external speakers and events and welcome suggestions for future events. If you are interested in leading or participating in a seminar or lecture programme please contact Trevor for more details.
Chemistry Innovation Laboratory Launch
The launch event for the Chemistry Innovation Laboratory (CIL) project took place on the evening of Thursday 3rd March at BioCity Nottingham. A summary of the project and its aims, describing how the grant, part funded by the European Union (ERDF), will enable local small and medium chemistry using businesses to interact more easily and productively with the University, was presented by Prof Steve Howdle and Dr Trevor Farren. Andrew Parker, a representative from Molecular Profiles, a local SME and regular collaborator with the University, also gave a presentation on their positive experiences of working together with the School of Chemistry. The presentations were followed by networking and canapés. The event was attended by 33 delegates from various local companies and overall was a great success.
For more information on how the CIL project could help your business and contact details, please visit www.nottingham.ac.uk/CIL.
GlaxoSmithKline in pioneering collaboration with The University of Nottingham
A new facility focused on the development of ‘green chemistry’ technology is part of a pioneering new partnership between GlaxoSmithKline and The University of Nottingham, announced on November 29 2010.
The new research and development facility will help to train the next generation of scientists at Nottingham, in joint discovery work between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the University's School of Chemistry.
Students will engage in research projects as part of their undergraduate programmes, with a particular focus on the development of innovative green chemistry methodology, which encourages the use of cleaner and safer chemical processes to produce better, purer products.
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The laboratory facility will both support academic teaching and encourage related research and development in key areas of chemistry that address issues such as sustainability, energy and healthcare. The proposal will go through proof-of-concept in 2011, for construction at the University’s Jubilee Campus.
The building will also aim to be climate-neutral, serving as a prototype for similar projects elsewhere in the world.
Conventional research and development laboratory facilities have a high demand for energy, producing an average of 2,800 tonnes of CO2 per year. However the new facility, with capacity for around 60 researchers, will aim to be climate-neutral over its lifespan through the following aspects of its design and use:
• It will generate energy, which over time will pay back the embodied carbon in its structure and fabric. This means the building needs to be constructed using materials and techniques that minimise CO2 emissions throughout the building’s lifecycle;
• It will support and facilitate new ways of working. In the pharmaceutical industry, science is typically carried out by multi-disciplinary teams using automated laboratory research; techniques that require less time ‘at the bench’, where data and instrumentation are managed at the desktop;
• It will be quick to build, with a much shorter construction period when compared to a traditional new build;
• It will be flexible so it can be adapted to meet changing needs;
• It will enable students to learn in an environment which duplicates the way science is carried out in the pharmaceutical industry.
Andrew Witty, Chief Executive Officer of GSK, said: “GSK is delighted to be entering into this new partnership with Nottingham. Nottingham is one of the best universities in the UK for medicinal chemistry and by working together we hope to develop this further, especially in the area of ‘green chemistry’. Setting ourselves the goal of developing a Climate-Neutral Lab is an important part of this agenda.”
Professor David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Nottingham, said: “I am delighted and excited at the prospect of our partnership with GSK delivering genuinely transformational outcomes. It will shape the future of drug discovery, through its impact on the way scientists train and work, the translation of new discoveries to application and by transforming the environment within which such fundamentally important work takes place.”
The announcement comes less than two months after the launch of an innovative training partnership run as a collaboration between GSK and the University’s School of Chemistry.
The GSK Medicinal Chemistry module gives Nottingham undergraduates first-hand experience of drug discovery, and is intended to introduce chemistry students to the medicinal chemistry skills the pharmaceutical industry requires, while also enhancing knowledge transfer between industry and academia.
The module is the first collaboration of its kind between a pharmaceutical company and a university, and builds on strong historical links between the School of Chemistry and GSK over many years, with GSK a keen recruiter of Nottingham chemistry graduates.
CellAura, to develop reagents for Tag-lite™ GPCR technology platform for Cisbio Bioassays
CellAura, a spin out company from the University of Nottingham, formed from a collaboration between Professor Mike George, School of Chemistry, Dr Barrie Kellam, School of Pharmacy and Professor Steve Hill from the Institute of Cell Signalling, today announced a development partnership with Cisbio Bioassays. Under the terms of the agreement, CellAura, the leading producer of fluorescence reagents for drug discovery and life sciences research, will provide pharmacologically validated reagents to Cisbio Bioassays that will be applied to Cisbio Bioassays’ Tag-lite™ range of non-radioactive assays for cellular studies.
Commenting on the collaboration, CellAura CEO Dai Hayward said: ”Maximising cellular information is increasingly seen as the key to successful drug discovery. CellAura combines world-renowned expertise from the University of Nottingham in the fields of synthetic chemistry and molecular pharmacology to produce high quality fluorescent receptor ligands as key components in drug candidate screening assays and imaging techniques. This new partnership with Cisbio Bioassays, which is one of the leaders in bioassays for cell surface receptor and functional studies, recognizes our rapid progress and is a major milestone.”
CellAura will develop a number of reagents for Cisbio Bioassays’ Tag-lite™ range. Tag-lite, part of Cisbio Bioassays’ comprehensive HTRF cellular platform, provides a homogeneous, non-radioactive and cost-effective alternative for the study of cell surface receptor dimerization and ligand binding.
François Degorce, head of marketing for Cisbio Bioassays added: “GPCR and more generally cell surface receptor investigation are currently among the hottest topics in drug discovery. To enhance our Tag-lite platform addressing this area, we seek out partnerships with the best experts in their respective fields, and are pleased to collaborate with CellAura for the development of non-radioactive fluorescent ligands.”
CellAura will also retain rights for the reagents developed for use in their own range of assays for certain markets.
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Another Successful UNICAS Symposium
The second half day UNICAS Symposium was held on 30 April at the Sutton Bonington Campus. Once again the symposium attracted a fair amount interest, nearly 60 people from 10 Schools/Departments were at the meeting. The symposium began with introductory remarks by Professor Mike George, the Chair of UNICAS Steering Committee, who talked about UNICAS progress and achievement since the first symposium last November; he also set out the future vision of UNICAS. This was followed by a number of very exciting presentations including given members of the University from a wide variety of departments. The presentations were followed by a brief session whereby members of the audience were invited to present to the meeting a 2-minute description of an ‘analytical problem’ they may have come across in their own research. The meeting was concluded by an informal networking session and a tour of the analytical facilities at the Food Science & Proteomics Laboratories at Sutton Bonington.
Once again the feedback received from participants was very positive and constructive. Dr Hany Elsheikha from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science described UNICAS and the Symposium as a ‘Brilliant Idea’ and he added: ‘I managed to see some colleagues whom I never been able to contact before’. Dr Kim Hardie from the School of Molecular Medical Sciences said: ‘I enjoyed the meeting. I liked the simplistic approach used by the presenters to explain their techniques and facilities since I am not familiar with them. I also thought the spontaneous pleas for help at the end were fun and useful’.
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Critical Pharmaceuticals Secures £1.5M from Wellcome Trust to Develop hGH Nasal Spray
Critcal Pharmaceuticals, a spin-out company from Nottingham University School of Chemistry, has secured a £1.5m translation award from the Wellcome Trust to develop a nasal spray of Human Growth Hormone (hGH) using its proprietary CriticalSorb™ technology as an alternative to injection. Critical Pharmaceuticals was founded by Professor Steve Howdle in 2002 based on his world leading research into supercritical fluids. They develop proprietary drug delivery technologies for the sustained release and nasal delivery of proteins and peptides and labile or insoluble small molecules. hGH therapies are primarily used to treat children with hGH deficiency to aid growth as well as in other growth related disorders. It is also been tested for use with other diseases such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
Lisbeth Illum, Chief Executive Officer of Critical Pharmaceuticals said the hGH market represented a major opportunity for Critical: “This project addresses a large unmet medical need. Biologics continue to grow in importance, representing 30% of new drugs. However, 98% of these are administered by frequent injection, which can cause problems with patient compliance. Human growth hormone is a prime example. Current therapies require daily injections and are strongly disliked by patients and their carers. We believe Critical Pharmaceuticals’ CriticalSorb™ technology has the potential to enable the non-invasive delivery of not just human growth hormone but many other biological drugs with at least equivalent efficacy.” CriticalSorb™ is an absorption promoter that has been shown to enable the delivery of biological drugs in preclinical studies with exceptional bioavailabilities. The Wellcome Trust investment will support the development of a nasal hGH product through a proof of concept study in human volunteers and determine the long term nasal tolerability of CriticalSorb™.
Richard Seabrook, Head of Business Development, Technology Transfer Division, at the Wellcome Trust added: “Technologies for non-injectable administration of complex drugs like human growth hormone are desperately needed. We are very pleased to be funding this application of CriticalSorb™ which may avoid patient discomfort and improve eventual outcomes for this patient population. We look forward to Critical’s results.”
Steve Howdle also added “The Wellcome Trust translational award is a tremendous step forward for the company – not only does it provide very important funds to develop our new nasal technology, but also it provides very strong validation that the company will produce innovative new products that will, in the near future, be of significant benefit for a wide range of patients in the UK and beyond”
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BPU Brokers Licence Deal for Novel Biological Tagging System
The School of Chemistry and Avidity LLC of Aurora, Colorado, USA have recently completed a licence deal to work together to commercialise a novel biological tagging tool arising from research carried out by Prof. Neil Thomas and his team. They have produced novel biotin derivatives for protein labelling and detection technologies. These compounds will be used in conjunction with Avidity’s AviTag™ technology which is already licensed to many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. This allows for any protein to be attached to almost any surface or label and has a myriad of medical and industrial applications. We expect Prof. Thomas’s compounds to contribute much towards this high profile work. Moving forward with Avidity is very exciting for us and we anticipate that the licence and resulting collaboration will advance these technologies well into the future.
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Chemistry Spin-out Wins Prize for Innovation
Promethean Particles, a spin-out from the School of Chemistry who specialise in nanoparticle synthesis based upon the novel research of Dr. Ed Lester, has been awarded the Lord Stafford award for Innovation Achieved 2009. The winning team include Prof. Barry Stickings (Special Professor with the School of Chemistry) and Dr. Sandy Gordon, ex-BSF and Business Development Manager for Promethean.
Promethean has capped a tremendous first year in business by successfully commercialising technology that will see it play a crucial role in the development of new products, such as transparent sunscreen and green power generation. Over 250 people packed into the Epic Centre in Lincolnshire to see Promethean Particles (supported by University of Nottingham) receive the award. Judges were particularly impressed at the firm’s ability to take complex technology and transform it into a commercial opportunity capable of creating jobs and also developing new revenue streams for the University.
Lord Stafford, who first launched the initiative in Staffordshire in 1997, was delighted with the quality of this year’s competition. “The Awards are the only ones in the UK dedicated to celebrating innovative collaborations between businesses and Universities and Nottingham has certainly secured the plaudits this year. “"…… and Promethean have shown what can be achieved when they combine their own skills and expertise with those of academia to secure commercial gains for both parties.”
He continued: “The winners will receive a £5000 cheque and a trophy from Ceramic Decals, not to mention promotional videos that will help them when marketing their products and services going forward.”
Commenting on the award Dr. Ed Lester said: “This is a big plus for our business and, being a relatively new organisation in an international marketplace, it will give us the added credibility when securing new work and partnerships.
The Awards are backed by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda), Manufacturing Advisory Service and the East Midlands Universities Association. & Co.
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The Periodic Table of Videos at Catalyst
An exhibit featuring the Periodic Table of Videos has recently been launched at the Catalyst Museum in Widnes. The Periodic Table of Videos is a series of videos for every element in the periodic table which have been produced by Prof. Martyn Poliakoff, Brady Haran and Dr. Pete Licence and feature many members of the School of Chemistry. They can be found at www.periodicvideos.com. Catalyst is the only science discovery centre in the UK to have Chemistry as its main theme and we are very pleased to have been able to set up a permanent exhibit in one of their galleries. The exhibit was kindly sponsored by the chemical and pharmaceutical group Solvay and we look forward to its success in helping make Science, and particularly Chemistry, exciting and accessible to all ages.
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- Date
- 13/06/2012
- Location:
- X1 Chemistry