The latest Business updates from the science industry


by Heather Hobbs 10 Years of Scientific Achievement at Diamond


from undergraduates and graduates, secondary school students, to members of the public.


Synchrotron light has helped develop or improve many everyday commodities, including food manufacturing to consumer products, revolutionary drugs, surgical tools, computers to mobile phones. For example, recently technological advancement at Diamond has aided the design of a new synthetic vaccine to protect against the foot and mouth disease virus and to target the virus that causes polio. Diamond has also supported progress in a number of other fi elds, including green energy solutions, advanced engineering and nanotechnology.


HRH The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh pause by the Diamond model while former CEO Gerd Materlik (left) and Sir David Cooksey, Chairman (right) explain how the machine works.


The 19th October marked 10 years since Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, offi cially opened Diamond Light Source, the UK’s synchrotron science facility based at Harwell, Oxfordshire and as part of its anniversary celebrations, the public were invited to fi nd out more about the exciting past decade of research and innovation.


Inside Diamond open day events offer the chance for visitors to see inside the particle accelerator and experimental laboratories, meet some of the scientists that use Diamond and ask them about the work they do - everything from viral proteins to engine parts and ancient texts.


For the past 10 years Diamond has exceeded expectations, with 2017 marking the publication of 6,000 peer reviewed journal articles, employees now topping 600, academic and industrial user visits now exceeding 9,000 a year and over 60,000 visitors ranging


Professor Andrew Harrison, current CEO at Diamond, commented: “With these achievements in mind, all I can say is that I am humbled and proud to be at the head of such a great project and of the dedication of our current and former staff, contractors and user community from academia and industry.


“Let us not forget we are here as the result of the vision (that the) UK Government and the Wellcome Trust had (when investing) 15 years ago. We are all looking forward to an even brighter future! By 2020, Diamond will have 33 operational beamlines, which together with complementary facilities, will provide a truly integrated facility for virtually every fi eld of science. I am confi dent Diamond will remain at the forefront of scientifi c research in the UK, Europe and globally.”


At the offi cial opening of Diamond 10 years ago, the Royal Party toured the synchrotron machine – an incredible feat of science and engineering measuring over half a kilometre in circumference and covering an area over three times the footprint of Buckingham Palace. During the visit, they were shown how the powerful light is produced and exploited, along with the range of science to which Diamond had already started to contribute. The Queen and The Duke met many of the staff, scientists, engineers and technicians from Diamond who helped create this world class scientifi c facility


Aerial view of Diamond Light Source today in the Oxfordshire countryside in just fi ve short years.


Professor Gerd Materlik, former CEO of Diamond, said at the time, “We feel extremely honoured by the royal visit, which not only marks our offi cial opening, but also pays tribute to all those involved with the design, construction and now operation of Diamond.


From the very beginning, we have placed great emphasis on the importance of community collaboration. Early in 2007, we welcomed our fi rst academic users from universities across the UK and in July an open day, attended by over 4,000 people, allowed us to share with the local community in Oxfordshire the wide range of science that has started here - from research into the structure of medicine to the mapping of chemical composition of meteorites.”


To fi nd out more about Inside Diamond events visit www.diamond.ac.uk 44219pr@reply-direct.com


Citizen Science to Help Crick with Data Analysis


Researchers at the Crick have recently launched a biomedical project, Etch a Cell, which is using citizen science to identify features of interest in order to construct 3D models of the area under study. Individual and collaborative research using advanced EM microscopes available at the Crick, generates a huge number of images of molecules, cells and tissues which can be used to help understand cancer, infectious diseases (including HIV, tuberculosis, malaria), the immune system, the brain and nervous system, diabetes and more. To extract meaning from the image data produced, the Crick is appealing to individuals to help segment, or to draw around the cell features of interest.


In this project, the feature of interest is the nuclear envelope, the barrier that seperates the genetic information (DNA) inside the nucleus from the chemicals and reactions going on in the rest of the cell. By segmenting many images it is possible to create a 3D model of the nuclear envelope, allowing healthy and diseased cells to be studied in great detail.


Dr Martin Jones, a researcher at The Crick explained “Our project, Etch a Cell is designed to allow citizen scientists to draw segmentations directly onto our images in the Zooniverse web interface. The fi rst task we have set is to mark the nuclear envelope that separates the nucleus from the rest of the cell – a vital structure where defects can cause serious problems. These segmentations


are extremely useful in their own right for helping us understand the structures, but citizen science offers something beyond the already lofty goal of matching the output of an expert. By allowing several people to annotate each image, we can see how the lines vary from user to user. This variability gives insight into the certainty that a given pixel or region belongs to a particular object, information that simply isn’t available from a single line drawn by one person. Difference between experts is not unheard of unfortunately!”


“We are now busily capturing images that we plan to upload to Etch a Cell to allow us to analyse data from a range of experiments. Differences in cell type, sub-cellular organelle, microscope, sample preparation and other factors mean the images can look different across experiments, so analysing cells from a range of different conditions will allow us to build an atlas of information about sub-cellular structure. The results from Etch a Cell will mean that whenever new data arrives, we can quickly extract information that will help us work towards treatments and cures for many different diseases.


For further information visit: https://blog.zooniverse. org/2017/06/21/the-universe-inside-our-cells/


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LM Facility


Managers Meeting 2018: London


The next Facility Managers Meeting aimed at people running or working in light microscopy facilities will be held at the Francis Crick Institute on 4th-5th January 2018.


With numbers of attendees having grown 10 fold since the fi rst meeting in 2006 as more and more facilities have opened, we now represent one of the best organised facility groupings in the UK, if not indeed the world.


The meeting will bring more on the latest developments in UK Bioimaging and how we can feed in to wider international groups that are starting up. Discussions will centre on some of the basic elements (funding, impact measures) of running a core facility, as well as the latest technological and application developments that effect ourselves and our users.


Scientifi c Organiser: Kurt Anderson, The Francis Crick Institute For details visit www.rms.org.uk


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