Scientific Instruments Division Press Releases

01 Sep 2003 - Cranfield awarded BBSRC Link grant in conjunction with Farfield

Cranfield University's Biotechnology Centre, in collaboration with Farfield Sensors has been awarded a £250,000 grant for the study of real-time molecular-level conformational changes for knowledge generation in the BioSciences.

The funding is from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under the LINK Analytical Biotechnology Programme. This programme facilitates the collaboration between academia and SME's with the major aim to develop new commercially viable techniques. Modern molecular biology is offering a wealth of information concerning genomes, and increasingly proteomes, etc. Currently, there is a lack of techniques to determine molecular-level functional information such as conformational changes during biomolecular interactions. Within the terms of this grant Cranfield will be further developing the Farfield Dual Polarisation Interferometry technology, (DPI) that can independently determine both the thickness and material properties of attached molecular layers. This will enable High resolution determination of molecular-level conformational changes during molecular interactions in real-time and complement the current approaches of circular dichroism, NMR, X-ray diffraction, etc.

Dr David Cullen, Reader in Biophysics & Biosensors at Cranfield University's Biotechnology Centre commented 'This is wonderful news. The award of the BBSRC LINK grant in conjunction with Farfield Sensors will enable us to explore the potential of the underlying principle of the AnaLight® Bio200 system in the area of real-time molecular conformation analysis. This offers the possibility of a high resolution and even high-throughput platform for real-time functional analysis of molecular studies in drug discovery and development programmes gaining deeper insights into the molecular basis of diseases'.

The project will last for three years and will be led by Dr Dave Cullen of Cranfield in collaboration with Dr Neville Freeman Farfield's founder and Development Director.

For further information contact info@farfield-sensors.com