Industrial Collaborations
One of the main goals of the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentres is to create a new type of University research institute positioned at the interface of the physical sciences and life sciences. Our mission is to enable our community to explore specific areas of interdisciplinary quantitative bioscience at the highest level, largely through the efforts of multidisciplinary research teams.
Major new collaboration with the international chemical firmSolvay SA to develop new materials for use in healthcare, sensors and as biocatalysts.
Nick Turner has had significant funding (~£3M) over the past few years for a project "Development of novel bioprocesses"
Nigel Scrutton and David Leys have a new collaboration for their project "Towards biologically produced hydrocarbons"
The Centre for Excellance in Biocatalysis, Biotransformations and Biocatalytic Manufacture (CoEBio3, Director Nick Turner) is designed to provide a world-class scientific environment in which the necessary research and development can be carried out to create new biocatalyst-based processes to meet the changing needs of industry in the next 10-20 years. The centre intends to supply the research, training and development services to enable the application of white biotechnology to produce chemical entities with a "genes to kilos" philosophy. Further details of CoEBio3 click here
Lonza has signifcant links with the MIB not only through its affiliate membership of CoEBio3, but also through funding of Farid Khan's research group (Molecular Biotechnology group) through their Lonza Innovation for Future Technologies scheme (LIFT). This project focuses on metagenomic and genomic approaches for organism/target protein identification, with the aim of creating cDNA libraries that express novel bioluminescent enzymes, proteins and biocatalysts.
Senexis and drugs for Alzheimer's Disease Prof Andrew Doig (co-founder of Senexis in 2002) continues his research collaboration and consultancy with Senexis working on drugs for Alzheimer's Disease with a recent CASE studentship researching "β-amyloid aggregation inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease"
Spin out companies - Conformetrix - Andrew Almonds' discovery of the flexible 3D molecular shapeof hyaluronanquickly led to a UKpatentand the all-important ‘proof of concept’ that their new methodology could be generalised to any small flexible molecules, such as antibiotics and hormones. In 2007, Almond and his colleague Dr Charles Blundell formed the spin-out company Conformetrix to exploit their technology, winning the Bionow Biomedical start-up of the year award for 2008. Andrew was runner up in the 2009 "BBSRC Innovator of the Year" competition.
For more details on how your company could become involved in research at the MIB please see the "working with us" page.
If you are interested in collaborating with the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, then please contact us