Nanomedicine Research Group
Research Achievements
A major strategic initiative for the University is the emerging multi-disciplinary area of nanotechnology. The core members of the Group were instrumental in uniting established micro- and nano-technology activities within the University to help set up the University Research Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. The University's Nanotechnology activities were flagged as 5* in the 2001 RAE. In addition, all of the core members of the proposed Group were involved in RAE 5 or 5* rated Units of Assessment in the 2001 RAE.
The Group members have built on this success and have received significant further funding for both clinical and basic-science nanotechnology-related activities, including awards from Research Councils, industry, the Ministry of Defence and charities as well as venture-capital funding for spin-out companies. These activities and research outputs since the 2001 RAE confirm that the members of the Group are at the forefront of the field at an international level. In 2003 core members of the group were involved in a successful Institutional Discipline Bridging Award application 'Medicine and Nanotechnology' to the MRC. This programme is designed to create real world applications for clinical medicine using Nanotechnology.
Research Strategy
Nanotechnology will become one of the basic technologies for healthcare delivery in the next twenty years. Our own research vision is of a communicating interface between the physical and biological worlds; the nanoengineered Biological-Physical-Information Interface. Over the next few years the Group will therefore expand the multi-disciplinary nanotechnology research capability within the University in both regional and international contexts. We will seek to broaden the scope and emphasis of the Group, and indeed the Institute, in order to promote and encourage training and investment in biomedical application and clinical deployment of micro- and nano-scale devices and technologies. A critical early step in turning our plans into reality is the recent establishment of the regional Centre of Excellence in Nanotechnology and the commissioning of a state-of-the-art biomedical device micro and nano-fabrication facility in the University Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology. It is envisaged that networking within the wider Group would extend the beneficiaries into the community at large by forming consortia to bid for national collaborative funding and funding from the EC Framework 6 programme, within which nanotechnology is a major priority. The Nanomedicine Research Group continues to develop research themes that aim to understand the interaction of cells and tissues with biomaterials. This will allow the design of implant surfaces that are able to specifically control and dictate cell phenotype and responses.
More information about this area of research can be found at the Institute of Cellular Medicine.
Staff List
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Dr Mark Birch
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Professor Jeremy Lakey
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Dr Philip Manning
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Professor Andrew McCaskie
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Professor Calum McNeil
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