Nano Instruments Provide Options to Meet Healthcare Challenges

JPK Instruments, a leading manufacturer of nanoanalytic instrumentation for research in life sciences and soft matter, is pleased to announce the installation of multiple instrument solutions at the new Swansea
University (Wales, UK) Centre for NanoHealth.

One of the biggest challenges facing the future of healthcare is enhancing early intervention in diagnosing and treating diseases in nonhospital environments; key to this is the earliest possible detection of disease and the swift identification of appropriate medical or surgical treatments. The Centre for NanoHealth is a unique interdisciplinary research centre based on the application of Nanotechnology leading innovations in Healthcare established to address these challenges.

JPK’s patented NanoWizard® AFM platform, systems will initially be used in three exciting applications areas. Dr. Chris Wright will lead a team to study cell mechanics as part of his program on bionanotechnology which focuses on nanoscale mechanisms of disease and its control. Dr Peter Dunstan will be developing chemical finger printing techniques using TERS – tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy which will couple the AFM to a Raman spectrometer and Professor Steve Wilks is to use new electrical mode innovations to develop diagnostic sensors with unprecedented sensitivity by applying nanowire technology.

Professor Steve Wilks, Deputy Head of the Swansea University’s School of Engineering and Director of The Centre for NanoHealth said: “The JPK instruments will provide the CNH with a world-leading platform to
understand the behaviour of cells and proteins at the nanoscale and identify key detection mechanisms for clinical screening. This is essential for the development of next generation medical sensors for diagnosing
diseases at a much earlier stage.”