Characterising a novel vaccine platform
Activirosomes Ltd used advanced imaging at Diamond Light Source to assess vaccine delivery batches for Chikungunya—reducing reliance on animal studies and improving manufacturing quality.
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Healthcare
Research Area
How we support the Healthcare industry
Innovative use of technology, together with rigorous controls to ensure product security, is needed to meet demanding requirements for healthcare technology development, particularly around cost, portability and usability. As the focus moves from the hospital to the home, healthcare research and development is increasingly driven by the needs of the patient end users rather than clinicians. The requirement to develop robust, reliable, lower-energy and cost-effective point-of-care devices is more important than ever before. While it remains essential to business strategy to balance the needs and opportunities in both developed and emerging markets, increasingly complex regulatory frameworks are delaying the time to market, so a good understanding of the science behind the product and access to the widest possible variety of research and development tools is vital to ensure success.
Diamond provides specialist analytical techniques for the atomic to microscale characterisation of materials ranging from high-performance components and devices through to diagnostic tools and drug delivery technologies.
Diagnostics
- Understand chemical and structural changes at interfaces in sensor technologies;
- Explore novel imaging technologies for diagnostic methods;
- Develop and test detector technologies;
- Probe the performance of chemical and biological sensor technologies;
- Chemical imaging at the cellular level.
Implants
- Investigate chemical speciation during corrosion processes;
- Explore failure mechanisms: cracks, voids, fatigue and wear;
- Investigate the microstructure of novel materials;
- Follow structural evolution during cycling: examine the effect of ageing on components.
Novel Materials
- Structural identification and characterisation of biocompatible materials;
- Follow the effect of sterilisation treatment on material structure and properties;
- Investigate composite materials and artificial tissues.
Devices
- Characterise structures of novel materials for devices;
- Structural studies of encapsulation and release systems;
- Monitor interfacial phenomena at interfaces.
