Dr Rory Steven, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow

In 2023, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced 75 new Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF), funding research projects across a huge range of disciplines to tackle major global issues. The FLF programme is designed to support talented researchers in universities, businesses and other research and innovation environments to develop and tackle ambitious, challenging, and important research.  

Dr Rory Steven, a Senior Scientist at NPL, works across a variety of applied and fundamental areas within mass spectrometry imaging (MSI). 

We spoke to Dr Steven about his work and what led to this exciting opportunity. 

1. What is mass spectrometry imaging and how have you been working with it so far at NPL? 

My work at NPL includes diverse areas including the study of diseases such as cancer, development of new ionisation technology and the metrology and fundamental characteristics of laser and solvent sampling in Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI).  

Mass spectrometry (MS) encompasses lots of different instruments and methods that allow us to measure exactly what a sample is made of – its molecular or atomic composition. MSI typically extracts material from a sample surface using a probe like a laser, ion beam or ionised spray of liquid droplets. The ionised (electrically charged) material ejected from the sample surface is then measured in the mass spectrometer and we can measure its molecular identity – all the molecules and atoms that make up the sample.  

2. With this fellowship, what’s the challenge and how will you be addressing it? 

To study the mechanisms of diseases like cancer, we need an in-depth understanding of the thousands of molecules and atoms that make up a piece of diseased tissue. Doing this helps us understand what makes a cancerous tissue different to healthy tissue.  

MSI provides us with powerful information but has some limitations, like ‘matrix effects’. This happens when there are changes in the signals we measure from a sample, because of the material the sample is made from, and it means we don’t get a fully accurate picture of what’s happening. 

My fellowship seeks to study these challenges in multiple MSI technologies so that we can improve our methods and instruments, and try to make that picture more accurate. In the long term, this will help us understand how cancer cells behave.  

3. How will this research impact people in their everyday lives? 

The overarching aim is to develop MSI as a widely used, highly reproducible, and impactful tool in disease research, drug discovery and clinical applications. It is really important that other scientists are able to use the same equipment and methods as us, and get the same results.  

This will mean that scientists and researchers can find new ways to develop drugs and therapies for diseases, because they will be better able to identify how to treat diseased cells without harming healthy cells – this is known as finding drug ‘targets’. It will also help scientists find better ways to diagnose diseases earlier and more accurately. Advancing MSI will be a big part of moving towards those goals. 

4. What’s your favourite aspect of your research? 

Working with motivated, highly talented colleagues and collaborators is number one. The fact I’m fortunate enough to do so across a range of interesting and complex research and measurement projects is the icing on the cake.  

5. How does it feel to be the first person at NPL to receive this award? 

I was honoured to be successful as a round 7 UKRI Future Leaders Fellow applicant. To some extent it was uncharted territory for NPL, certainly it was for me, so I am very proud to achieve this outcome. However, there will be many other successful applicants for this and other fellowships at NPL in the future and the success of the 5th NPL fellowship awardee will be equally impressive as the first. In the meantime, I will be doing what I can to help others achieve success and learn from my experiences.  

More on mass spectrometry imaging

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