Beta user program for Nanoparticle analyser

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The last three decades have seen the widespread adoption and industrialisation of nanoparticles serving applications in many technology sectors, including healthcare, energy production, manufacturing industry and agriculture. In the pharmaceutical sector, at the heart of this progress is the ability to fill otherwise inert particle materials with highly toxic anti-cancer drugs or genetic materials and/or functionalise the surface to both mask their presence from the human immune response and to better target the release of the "payload" at a particular organ, tumour or cellular component. These developments have led to a series of scientific breakthroughs in the field of advanced therapeutics by using nanocarriers to deliver drugs where it is needed in the body and reducing toxicity to healthy organ and tissues.However, manufacturing of such "advanced therapies" is challenging as it requires fine tools to scrutinise nanoparticles 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Oxford HighQ has developed a new technique providing the ability to characterise the composition of nanoparticles through their optical properties, more specifically their refractive indices. One could use this parameter to measure on a particle-by-particle basis the amount of therapeutic molecules loaded within/on a nanoparticle carrier. The limited footprint, ease-of-use and potential for this technique to be built in-line within a manufacturing process makes it particularly attractive to the pharmaceutical industry.This project will see the launch of an ambitious 12-month alpha- and beta-users programme, as well as providing the opportunity to develop and test novel upgraded sample-handling capabilities to meet customer demand. Working with experts in the nanomedicines field, we will focus on demonstrating the application of our unique capabilities against a wide variety of analytes and sample matrices, allowing us to unlock the true potential of Oxford HighQ's technology.