Date: Thursday, July 4, 2013

Time: 5pm until 7pm

Venue: Centre for NanoHealth, ILS2 building, Swansea University (campus map here). Light refreshments will be provided.

During the Business Open Evening, visitors will have the opportunity to:

• Meet the research and business development teams
• View the Centre’s display area, highlighting the latest research at CNH including Regenerative Medicine (Stem cells, Cartilage repair,

Tissue scaffolds, Wound healing); Genotoxicology and Disease diagnosis; Rheology; Biosensors, Microneedles and Microfluidics

• Tour the Centre and view our state-of-the-art equipment and facilities
• Network with researchers and like-minded businesses
• Register for a two-hour free training session on Hitachi S4800 Scanning Electron Microscope.

This event is free of charge, but to register your attendance, please contact Emma Dunbar, Commercial Manager, Centre for NanoHealth, on 01792 606471, or email: e.j.dunbar@swansea.ac.uk.  Visit http://www.swan.ac.uk/nanohealth/.

Centre for NanoHealth at Swansea University: Early diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer could prevent suffering, save lives, and reduce costs for health services. Swansea University is responding to this challenge through the Centre for NanoHealth (CNH), a £21.6 million initiative that draws together expertise from the Colleges of Medicine and Engineering, in partnership with industry and the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU).

Based in a clinical and biomedical research environment, the Centre is a pioneering, integrated facility where novel devices and sensors can be designed, manufactured and evaluated. Such advances in nanotechnology, together with developments in biomarker discovery, have the potential to lead to the detection of the onset of disease at the earliest possible stage.

A key area of research within CNH focuses on how nanoparticles interact with organic material. Whilst it is important to explore and understand the therapeutic effect, it is also essential to understand how nanoparticles interact with healthy cells. This is an area in which Swansea has taken a lead in partnership with The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Texas, and which has led to the development of the field of Transport Oncophysics – the ability to develop and deliver therapeutics that are not just personalised to individual cancer patients, but to individual lesions in the patient.

Nano-devices and nano-biosensors will enable health professionals to detect and measure biomarkers present in fluid or tissue samples at a level of sensitivity far beyond current detection methods. They will also allow for point-of-care testing in community clinics, GP surgeries, or in the home, and will be used in the growing area of companion diagnostics, where devices report to a patient’s clinician through new e-health systems.

Directed by Professor Steve Conlan (College of Medicine) and Professor Steve Wilks (College of Science), the Centre is funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh European Funding Office, and engages with small businesses, other universities, international corporations and the NHS through collaborative research and development projects.

The Centre also works closely with the University’s Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre (College of Engineering) and the Institute of Life Science (College of Medicine). Projects undertaken by CNH have been funded by a range of organisations, including EPSRC, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Technology Strategy Board (including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships), the European Commission’s FP7 programme, the Welsh Government, and the National Institute for Health Research.

Swansea is also leading an alliance of four institutions from Wales and Ireland in a £1 million Celtic Alliance for NanoHealth venture to pioneer the development of cutting-edge healthcare.  The alliance, which includes the University College Dublin Centre for BioNano Interactions, Trinity College Dublin Institute of Molecular Medicines and Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), and Dublin City University Biomedical Diagnostics Institute and Nanobiophotonics and Imaging Centre, will help companies on either side of the Irish Sea stay at the forefront of innovation and growth in what is a fast developing and hugely influential healthcare sector.