Centre for Molecular Nanometrology, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland

Description of organizationstrathclyde logo

The Centre for Molecular Nanometrology at the University of Strathclyde has extensive experience and a world leading reputation in the field of coupling innovative nanoscience with optical spectroscopic measurements of biological systems. The Centre was set up in 2005 jointly between the Departments of Chemistry and Physics and now houses around 50 researchers. Most notably we have been able to produce a range of functionalised metal nanoparticles that are capable of being deployed in living systems to report on the biological status. An advancement of this has been to couple the nanoparticles with small and large molecule drugs to improve their efficacy. This approach generates a large amount of data which has been used to develop new data handling systems but also to further the internationally leading position of the Centre for Molecular Nanometrology in this highly competitive sector. A number of different diseases are being used to demonstrate the advantages of the technology including examining cancer protein pathways with a view to improving drug screening and subsequent efficacy, early detection of fungal infections in immune compromised patients and inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis. There is also a strong activity on trying to understand how nanoscience can advance approaches to combat parasite infections with emphasis on the developing world.

 

Profile of staff members

Professor D Graham has been a work package leader on two successful Basic Technology Grants and also a major Science and Innovation Award in nanometrology as well as a leader of a platform grant. He is also a work package leader in an FP7 programme on single molecule detection. He has produced 13 patents and is co-founder and non-executive director of a molecular diagnostics company which is a spin-out from the University called Renishaw Diagnostics Ltd which now has 30 FTE.

 

Graham is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nanoscience and in particular the use of nanoparticles and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for biomedical applications.

 

Webpage

Centre for Molecular Nanometrology, University of Strathclyde

 

 

Five recent publications relevant to the project

1) Bayesian Methods to Infer the Number of DNA Oligonucleotides in Multiplexed Raman Spectra

Zhong, M., Girolami, M., Faulds, K., Graham., D.

Royal Society of Statistics – C, 2011, 60, 2, 187–206. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9876.2010.00744.x.

 

2) Combining Functionalised Nanoparticles and SERS for the Detection of DNA Relating to Disease

Graham, D.,* Stevenson, R., Thompson, D.G., Barrett, L., Dalton, C., Faulds, K.

Faraday Discussions, 2011, 149 (1), 291 – 299. DOI: 10.1039/C005397J.

 

3) Gold nanoparticles for the improved anticancer drug delivery of the active component of oxaliplatin

Brown, S.D., Nativo, P., Smith, J., Stirling, D., Edwards, P.R., Venugopal, B., Flint, D.J., Plumb, J.A., Graham, D.*, Wheate, N.J.*

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, 132, 4678–4684. DOI: 10.1021/ja908117a

 

4) Control of Enhanced Raman Scattering Using a DNA Based Assembly Process of Dye Coded Nanoparticles

Graham, D.,* Thompson, D., Faulds, K., Smith, W.E.

Nature Nanotechnology, 2008, 3, 9, 548-551.

 

5) Rapid and ultra sensitive determination of enzyme activities using surface enhanced resonance Raman scattering

Moore, B. D.,* Stevenson, L., Watt, A., Flitsch, S., Turner, N. J., Cassidy, C., Graham, D.*

Nature Biotechnology, 2004, 22, 9, 1133-1138.