73 Overcoming challenges
Although the principles behind air springs remain the same, each project poses its own unique and often unanticipated challenges. To get an onerous specifi cation accepted is not a straightforward process, as it requires demonstrating the solution is up to the task. The contractor therefore needed Mason to work closely with them, liaising with the acoustic consultant and writing letters of qualifi cation to ensure the design was accepted.
‘‘Experience of working on projects like these pays off. One signifi cant challenge was the large pit in the fl oor that was required,’’ recalled Steve Hart, Director at Mason UK. To provide stability, the air springs were supported on top of columns, therefore necessitating a pit in the fl oor. While this was fi ne in theory, the system had to work from an architectural point of view too. One constraint was the depth of the pit. Mason’s engineers worked with the contractor to devise an optimal solution. ‘‘Working around this constraint, we calculated the depth necessary to provide suffi cient vibration isolation, while still offering a solution that worked architecturally within the existing building,’’ Steve explained.
Some constraints are not always apparent from the outset. It was also necessary to shield the electron microscope from electromagnetic sources, which would also interfere with the functioning of the equipment. The inertia base therefore had to integrate with the continuous electromagnetic shielding lining the entire room. ‘‘Unfortunately, we weren’t made aware of this constraint at the beginning, but we managed to work around it with some additional coordination on site during the installation phase.’’
Stainless steel was used where possible, because of the reduced magnetic signature. Extra effort was made to ensure that where anchorage to the structure was necessary, there was no risk of generating additional pathways for conductivity.
The system in action
The electron microscope sits atop a large inertia base which is raised by the Mason system of air springs. The large base provides an exceptionally high mass and stiff foundation, in addition to the exacting passive vibration isolation measures provided by the springs. The block itself weighs approximately 10,500 kg, with the additional weight of the microscope resulting in a total mass of 14,000 kg.
The system is actuated by a remote control box, which controls the pressure to the air springs. Once pressurised, the springs lift the inertia base and microscope from its supports. When in operation, this effectively removes any transmission path for sources of vibration, as vibrations must now pass through the air springs. The low resonant response of the air springs ensures the equipment can be safely operated without any impact from the nearby trainline.
The system has proved even more successful than anticipated. According to Dr Thomas Davies, Experimental Offi cer with the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University,
The Cardiff Innovation Campus
‘‘the fi nal design exceeded expectations and delivered a measured level of VC-H/I. After a smooth installation, Mason continued to work with us to fi ne-tune the properties of the block to minimise cross-talk and maximise performance, and this has resulted in a world-class, state-of-the-art ultra-quiet electron microscopy suite.’’
Adam is somewhat reluctant to draw too much attention to these performance results. ‘‘VC-E level is an extremely challenging criterion to achieve. VC-F and VC-G levels are appropriate for extremely quiet research spaces, but as these levels are often not possible to achieve in practice they are not typically recommended for use as a design criterion, but only for evaluation.’’ So successful was the performance of the air springs, Adam and his colleagues were wary of publicising the details, less it would falsely raise expectations for others.
However, the team were naturally proud of their involvement on the project. ‘‘As far as I am aware, we’re the only company in the UK that can do this sort of engineering,’’ continued Adam. ‘‘Working on these types of projects, where you have to face some pretty novel design constraints, is always challenging. When a high level of isolation is specifi ed, there is a correspondingly higher demand to qualify your design.’’
Following the successful completion of the air springs system - including the positive reports from the scientists operating the equipment - Mason UK has been invited to tender for further works on this vibration sensitive project.
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New Oxford collaboration to accelerate UK’s capability against Pandemic threat, Structure-based Drug Discovery and Vaccine design
A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been reached by the University of Oxford and Diamond Light Source that will facilitate collaboration in the fi eld of pandemic preparedness and promote efforts to address multiple aspects of anti-viral drug discovery.
Richard Cornall, Nuffi eld Professor of Clinical Medicine and Head of Department of the Nuffi eld Department of Medicine (NDM) at the University of Oxford said: “Over the years we have had many research collaborations with Diamond including its Electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC). This has been reinforced by a number of high-level joint appointments and secondments of principal investigators between Diamond and NDM. This agreement recognises that our strengths continue to be highly complementary and that by working together we will have the best chance of developing life-saving ways to prevent and treat our most signifi cant pandemic threats.”
Professor Sir Dave Stuart, Life Sciences Director at Diamond and Joint Head of Structural Biology at University of Oxford added: “This new agreement will enable us to identify collaborative research opportunities for joint research and development both of mutual or individual interest and to coherently address multiple aspects of therapy development from anti-viral drug discovery to vaccine design.”
The partnership intends to develop its strength in the following project areas:
• Structure-based drug discovery and development of immuno-therapeutics. Both facilities will look for ways to bring their assets and partnerships to bear on a joint cross disciplinary platform to develop novel class-specifi c anti-viral drugs and immuno therapeutics. One major shared goal is rapid generation of small molecule and protein hits, refi nement to potent leads and in vitro assessment. They may also identify ways to use their shared resources to create a pipeline comprising structure-based drug discovery, in vitro and in vivo assay development, innovative and automated approaches to drug design, advanced enzymology/protein science synthesis and development.
• A second shared aim is focused on structural characterisation of the mode of action of neutralising antibodies or nanobodies and the use of such information in the development of new immuno-therapeutic entities.
• Vaccine design. The facilities will look to identify ways to bring their assets and partnerships to bear on the generation of high-resolution structural data, and appropriate cellular imaging data, to feed into the design of novel vaccines and the refi nement and optimisation of vaccination strategies.
In 2021, Oxford established the Pandemic Sciences Institute hosted by NDM, as a multi-disciplinary, university-wide initiative to build upon the model of innovation, collaboration and agility that yielded critical breakthroughs for COVID-19, and to identify and counter future pandemic threats.
Diamond, the UK’s national synchrotron, co-founded the COVID Moonshot , a spontaneous global collaboration that started in March 2020, triggered by data from Diamond’s XChem platform for fragment screening, and rapidly identifi ed potent antivirals targeting the main protease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These antivirals are now undergoing a preclinical programme funded by the Wellcome Trust; and data openly shared by Moonshot additionally enabled the identifi cation of another promising COVID-19 drug developed by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi that is now in late-stage clinical trials.
More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/8jXK 59631pr@reply-direct.com
Professor Sir David Stuart Director of Life Sciences at Diamond Light Source (Credit: Diamond Light Source)
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