University of Edinburgh invests £1.2 mn in NMR and mass spectroscopy

An impressive £1.2 million (€1.5 million) has been invested by the University of Edinburgh in some of the world’s most advanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectroscopy instrumentation to further its acclaimed research in molecular science.

The investment, funded by Core Capability EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) and the University of Edinburgh, will support the installation of NMR and mass spectroscopy instrumentation, providing the chemical sciences industry with one of the most advanced facilities in Europe, capable of handling an array of molecular constituents, across a broad spectrum of chemical and proteomic sampling.

The new instrumentation promises greatly improved efficiencies — higher sensitivity, shorter measurement times, higher throughput, better accuracy and superior characterisation — says the university. Ingenza, a biocatalyst and bioprocess development company, serving the pharmaceutical, food, fine chemical and biofuel industries, believes that the new NMR spectroscopy capabilities “will provide an almost instantaneous turnover of samples, which is a huge benefit to research efforts.”

Professor Eleanor Campbell, head of the school of chemistry, University of Edinburgh, said: “This latest investment in NMR and mass spectroscopy further enhances our capability to support the chemical sciences and pharma communities. We now provide full access to the latest analytical instruments and expertise, and I'm confident we’ll see fruitful national and global collaboration, given the University of Edinburgh’s historic legacy as a centre of excellence in this field.”

Edinburgh Research and Innovation (ERI) Ltd, the commercialisation arm of the University of Edinburgh, will look to develop commercial opportunities for instrumentation.

Stuart Duncan, ERI’s business development executive at the school of chemistry, commented: “This investment builds on our excellent track record in making our world-class research base available to the wider chemical sciences community and on our ongoing collaboration and equipment-sharing with the University of St Andrews who have made a similar scale investment in complementary equipment. It will be of interest to many different businesses that need access to these important analytical techniques.”

NMR is a sophisticated analytical technology that is used by many disciplines of scientific research, medicine and industry. It delivers structural determination and identification of a range of materials including small organic/inorganic molecules, steroids, antibiotics, carbohydrates, lipids, polypeptides, proteins, nucleic acids and complex mixtures.

Mass spectrometry is also a powerful analytical tool that can help to answer a wide range of biological and chemical questions. For example, the identification and characterisation of proteins — of interest to researchers involved in the discovery of new therapeutic targets and to the biopharmaceutical industry for the characterisation of new potential products.

The new NMR and mass spectroscopy facilities will be showcased at an official ‘industry day open ceremony’ event being held by the school of chemistry on Thursday 1 May. Details can be found at http://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/news-events/events/nmr-and-mass-spectrometry-opening-ceremony.

Edinburgh Research and Innovation, www.research-innovation.ed.ac.uk.