£14 Million for Innovation Centres


Scottish education Secretary Michael Russell has announced £14 million capital investment in Scotland’s Innovation Centres. The investment will further improve the links between education and industry, building on £110 million already committed to the sector. Developed in partnership with the Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Innovation Centres are collaborations between universities, businesses and others to enhance innovation in and across Scotland’s key economic sectors.


The Education Secretary said: “The Innovation Centre collaborations already in place will help develop the skills that Scottish business needs to succeed in the global marketplace in a range of sectors. By


using Scotland’s exceptional research base, we are able to respond nimbly to opportunities for potential growth.


“This is an exciting time for the centres, which are developing practical solutions to challenges faced by industry. Today’s announcement of £14 million for capital investment will build on the £110 million already committed. I am also meeting with the new chairs of the Centres to hear about their latest developments and the fresh opportunities being explored. The potential of these partnerships is incredible – bringing together the research excellence within our universities and the entrepreneurship within our business sector to deliver real social and economic benefits.”


Wild Angus’ Fundraisers Boost for Ninewells Cancer Campaign


Walking pals ‘Wild Angus’ have celebrated the climax of a year’s fundraising by handing over a cheque for £14,125 plus £2,965 worth of Gift Aid to Ninewells Cancer Campaign. This far surpassed their target of £10,000 and places ‘Wild Angus’ top of the fundraising league for the University of Dundee’s registered cancer research charity.


Carol Pope, organiser, said “We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to all our generous and long suffering friends who have supported us in so many ways over the year. These include walking 500 miles, diving into the icy waters of the Tay, baking hundreds of cakes, staging a massive fashion show, organising a huge range of events and putting their hands in their pockets again and again. You are the people who have made this happen and we are enormously grateful.


“We were particularly touched by 10 year old Joanne Lees of Letham who donated all her birthday presents. Let’s hope the money will now help those at the forefront of cancer research in Dundee to develop improved treatments and even cures.”


‘Wild Angus’ are Carol and Peter Pope, Bob and Sheila Fraser, Sandy and Moira Yule, Alison MacDougall and Alice Lamb. They are pictured presenting the cheque to Lady Fiona Fraser of the Ninewells Cancer Campaign.


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Nottingham 3D Printing Research Specialist wins International Award


An academic from The University of Nottingham who specialises in manufacturing technology, has won a prestigious international award in recognition of his work in 3D printing. Dr Adam Clare won the title of International Outstanding Young Researcher for the significant contribution he has made to smart material processing, particularly with regards to additive manufacturing (3D printing).


Smart materials are those which are responsive to environmental stimuli which may either change their properties, their structure or their functions. These may include shape memory materials and piezoelectrics which have wide ranging applications from biomedical implants through to microelectronics.


Dr Clare said: “I am honoured to have received this award. It is also a tribute to the great work of all of the people involved in the 3D printing group in Nottingham. This is a very exciting time to be involved in 3D printing and I’m looking forward to undertaking


further research in the future to further develop our understanding of the potential of this technology. Since Nottingham hosts the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing, we are well placed in this vibrant research community.”


Dr Clare was presented with his award at the Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium which took place at the University of Texas in Austin earlier this summer and celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.


Dr David Bourell, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at The University of Texas, and Chair of the SFFS organising committee, said: “The judges felt that in addition to Adam’s exceptional research work in the area of additive manufacturing, he has also demonstrated significant leadership potential as a member of the 3D printing group at The University of Nottingham. It is very encouraging to see that there are talented


Dr Adam Clare


young academics, such as Adam, working in the area of freeform and additive manufacturing, who will help to push the boundaries of research and innovation in this field in the future.”


31426pr@reply-direct.com Oxford Nanopore Announces £35 Million Fundraising


Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd, the UK-based technology company specialising in nanopore-based electronic molecular analysis systems, has raised £35 million ($59 million) in new funding through a private placement of ordinary shares. Both new and existing investors in the UK, US and mainland Europe subscribed to the fundraising. New investors include The CF Woodford Equity Income Fund managed by Woodford Investment Management LLP.


Funds will be used to further develop the Company’s commercial and manufacturing infrastructure that has been serving early customers through the Company’s MinION Access Programme (MAP); this


includes scaling up of production and logistics and expansion of customer support and application development functions. In addition the funds will support the Company’s significant R&D operation including its pipeline of scalable nanopore-sensing products to address all parts of the market. Oxford Nanopore is committed to the development and protection of its leading intellectual property portfolio.


Gordon Sanghera, Chief Executive, said: “These additional funds will allow us both to accelerate and to scale the adoption of our MinION™ devices. Our access program for MinION is progressing as expected, and we now need to broaden our product portfolio and deepen our


commercial activity. We can now make devices tailored to specific high value sequencing applications and, importantly, ultra-high-throughput devices designed for large scale whole genome sequencing (WGS). We can also make variations of the core technology designed for completely novel sensing applications beyond nucleic acids.”


This transaction brings the total funds raised by Oxford Nanopore since its foundation in 2005 to £180 million.


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Mr Russell recently visited staff at the Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre in Inchinnan, which develops state-of-the-art support for pharmaceutical research and disease management.


Dr Mark Beggs, Chief Operating Officer of the Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre, said: “This additional investment is extremely welcome and will further help in the development of our approach to the treatment of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, inflammation, multiple sclerosis and neurology.”


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Amsbio-Trevigen Prize for Cancer Conference Best Poster


Amsbio, a regular sponsor of the annual Beatson International Cancer Conference, has announced the winner of the Amsbio-Trevigen prize for the best poster as Katarzyna Grzes - a PhD researcher specialising in cell signalling and immunology at the University of Dundee.


Miss Grzes was named as winner for the best presented and most interesting poster for her work entitled ‘Metabolic regulation in PTEN null T lymphoma / leukemia’.


As one of Cancer Research UK’s core-funded institutes, the Beatson Institute (www.beatson. gla.ac.uk/) carries out a program of world-class science directed at understanding key aspects of cancer cell behaviour and try to translate these discoveries into new therapies and diagnostic/prognostic tools to help cancer patients. The Institute benefits from close interactions with the University of Glasgow, including strong links with the University’s Institute of Cancer Sciences.


Katarzyna Grzes winner of the AMSBIO_Trevigen Poster Prize


Amsbio is a rapidly growing company focused on the supply and development of products and technology for cancer research with emphasise on apoptosis, DNA damage and repair, and cancer cell function and behaviour.


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