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For people, place, prosperity and planet, we deliver impact with measurement science

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Health

Providing metrology to support the bioeconomy

Engineering biology and new bioproducts for health applications and a net zero economy

Driving industry competitiveness through improved use of data

Bringing bioproducts to the marketplace as early as possible is a priority. Delivery must consider the need for clean growth, achieving a net zero economy and the increased complexity of sustainable production of industrial biotech and agritech products. There is a requirement to understand and capitalise on the increased use of health data in order to compete globally and our work seeks to meet this challenge through:

  • the application of adaptive manufacturing technologies (continuous process, predictive monitoring, real time release) to bio-based products
  • industry 4.0 and digitisation of manufacture, including integrated systems, sensors, additive technology and smart devices
  • human/animal/plant biology, micro-organisms and the use of biological processes in order to develop bio-based products, systems and tools
  • engineering biology approaches to pathway manipulation, molecular design and improved properties
  • cell free synthetic tools and systems to enable scale down, scale up and scale out of new products.

Metrology expertise to support industry and the bioeconomy

Our work is supporting the competitiveness of the UK Life science and healthcare industry though:

  • development of the measurement capabilities and standards that support the adoption of advanced manufacturing processes  
  • providing measurements (biological, chemical and physical) which deliver insights into characterisation, formulation and quality of manufacturing bio-based materials
  • application of the cellular-level metrology infrastructure required for standardisation and interoperability of biological parts and processes
  • delivering industry standard QA/QC measurements and reference data to enable manufacturers to have control over all the design, test and manufacturing
  • provision of QA/QC standards, reference materials and higher order methodologies and good practice guides to support industry
  • development of a metrology materials ‘toolbox’  for standardisation and validation of synthetic/engineering biology approaches to manufacture
  • the use of quality experimental data to feed into digital twins for predictive modelling

These programmes are underpinned by our work as the UK’s National metrology institute and the realisation and maintenance of SI units along with primary and secondary standards.

If you have a research collaboration where our expertise can help, please contact the team and discuss your project.

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Case study

Innovative carrier keeps vaccines cold as they are transported to remote locations

Article

Case study

Enhancing 3D Bio-Processor Technologies for Synthetic Biology

Article

Case study

Validating a rapid analysis tool for monoclonal antibodies

Article

Case study

Optimising viral vaccine development

Article

Working with NPL

Our researchers are at the forefront of new innovations that promise to deliver new solutions to healthcare challenges, and also play a vital role in providing the standards and assurance to accelerate their route to market. Learn more about our research areas and working with our experts.  

If you have a research collaboration where our expertise can help, please can contact the team and discuss your challenge.

Contact us

Building a 'Google Earth' of cancer

The Grand Challenge, a new Cancer Research UK initiative, aims to overcome the biggest challenges facing cancer researchers in a global effort to beat cancer sooner Funded through the scheme, NPL's Professor Josephine Bunch leads a group of international and multidisciplinary chemists, physicists and biologists from the UK to develop a reproducible, standardised way to fully map tumours with extraordinary precision.

Google earth project

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Find out more about the range of work we do in health.

Research
Products and services
Industries

Contact us

Our research and measurement solutions support innovation and product development. We work with companies to deliver business advantage and commercial success.
Contact our Customer Services team on +44 20 8943 7070

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