OnconanoBBB

UoB is represented in this project by the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (PABS), Biomedical Materials and Medical Devices Research Group (Group) led by Prof. SV Mikhalovsky, Prof. Andrew Lloyd, Dr Matteo Santin and Dr Gary Phillips. Brighton is one of the top three ‘new’ universities in the UK according to the Times and the Guardian league published in 2005; chemistry is in the top 20 across the country; pharmacy – subjects allied to medicine – in the top 10. PABS, currently with 41 research active academic staff, 3 School Research Fellows, 14 postdoctoral researchers and 129 postgraduate students, has been successful in pursuing multidisciplinary research in areas allied to medicine. In the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2001 – the main research quality control instrument in the UK - the School has been awarded the top grade 5 in their Unit of Assessment. The Group is comprised of 8 academic staff, including two professors, 11 Experienced Researchers (8 postdoctoral researchers, 1 researcher with MPhil qualification and 2 research technicians) and 15 PhD students. Average impact factor of peer reviewed publications of PABS is 3.5-3.6 in the last five years, and the number of publications post RAE 2001 is 75 per year. Since 2001 the Group has been particularly successful in getting funding for its research into development of novel biomaterials from international, European and the British funding bodies, including highly prestigious and competitive grants such as BRITE-EURAM LIPOSTIN (BRPR-CT97-0494) with partners from Italy and Belgium, Interreg IIIa (with France), INTAS (with Austria, Finland, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia), the UK Research Councils, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and direct industrial funding. Currently the Group participates in FP6 project QLK3-CT-2002-02075 (DNA Switch) with Italy, Switzerland and Hungary (2003-2006). This level of funding reflects international recognition and recent successes of the group in developing novel carbon-based technologies in the biomedical field. Over 60% of the School’s £2.2 million income is obtained by the Group. Major expertise of the team involved in this project is in biomaterials and extracorporeal medical devices, biocompatibility, mechanical and physicochemical characterization of porous materials, biochemistry, immunology, cell biology, protein biochemistry and tissue engineering. Brighton has developed adsorbents for blood purification and wound healing, in vitro biocompatibility tests reflective of clinical situation and methods for improving biocompatibility of surfaces.
The Group offers a wide range of technologies for the preparation, surface modification and physicochemical characterization of biomaterials. The Group possesses a unique combination of expertise in the field of biomedical devices for wound healing, ophthalmology, orthopaedic and dental applications as well as in extracorporeal adsorbent based technology. A ‘trademark’ of the Group is its ability to develop the scientific idea from a laboratory bench to its practical application and commercialization. This is reflected by a number of projects directly funded by industry or jointly with DTI, the Research Council (EPSRC), through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and CASE studentships, patents and innovation awards. Three members of the team have been awarded Business Innovation Award of the Year by the Board of Governors, University of Brighton; two of them – Prof. SV Mikhalovsky and Prof. AW Lloyd received this award twice. In 2003-2006 together with the National Physical Laboratory (UK) they carried out two DTI-funded projects ,which led to the development of one of the first standards on biomaterials in the world (ASTM F2450-04 Standard Guide for Assessing Microstructure of Polymeric Scaffolds for Use in Tissue Engineered Medical Products, ASTM (2004). In recent years UoB has been successfully collaborating in joint projects with Pharmidex team presented in OnconanoBBB (FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP-2008, project 230766 NMS-CNT).
UoB is fully equipped to fulfil its project tasks. In addition to a variety of modern instruments which represent spectrometric, chromatographic, (ultra)centrifugation, microbalance, calorimetric, biochemical, radiochemical and immunochemical techniques, the Group uses a dedicated cell culture laboratory, electron microscopy suite and surface and image analysis suite PABS has benefited from a major SRIF (Scientific Research Infrastructure Fund) funded programme to upgrade its laboratories and equipment
UoB has extensive links with pharmaceutical and medical devices industry, hospitals, medical charities and patients’ focus groups. The project fits with the strategic positioning of the team as conducting the world-class research in biomaterials and extracorporeal medical devices. Recently Brighton has established firm links with the SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) and Wessex Enterprise Centre, which brings together the expertise of the universities in the South of England to support new hi-tech businesses arising from the academic activities.