A new centre at the University of Strathclyde aims to capture real-time video of individual molecules interacting with each other. This matters because scientists currently lack the tools to watch molecules in action at the nanoscale. Without that ability, they cannot directly observe how diseases unfold, how drugs bind to their targets, or how new materials form at the most fundamental level. The Centre for Molecular Nanometrology—the first of its kind worldwide—will develop the measurement techniques needed to close that gap. If the research succeeds, it could transform how we diagnose disease, design drugs, and engineer new structural materials. Watching a single molecule as it interacts with a potential drug, for example, would reveal precisely whether and how the drug works, without the guesswork of indirect methods. The project also bridges the University with medical collaborators at King’s College London, ensuring that advances in measurement flow directly into healthcare and chemical industries. This is fundamental science with a clear practical destination: better diagnostics, smarter drug design, and stronger materials, all built from a direct view of the molecular world.
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The lack of capacity for advancing the emerging field of nanometrology can only be addressed through stra-tegic interdisciplinary collaborations that provide a stimulating and innovative research environment to catalyse and sustain a new dimension in UK research capability. In a major strategic initiative, Strathclyde University (SU) has founded a Centre for Molecular Nanometrology (2005 - to our knowledge, the first in the world) with facilities supported by the Wolfson Foundation and the Science Research Infrastructure Fund. This Centre has the ultimate goal of recording real-time images of dynamical interactions of single molecules in-situ. With the award of a Science and In-novation Award the Centre will facilitate the high quality, innovative, multidisciplinary research environment required to nurture and develop the extra capacity needed to make the UK a leader in nanometrology. A Science and Innovation Award will also bring together the Centre and medical collaborators at King's College London (KCL), bridging the molecular measurement gap to innovation in emerging areas of strategic impor-tance such as disease pathology, diagnostic tools in nanomedicine, the design of new drug treatments and new structural materials while facilitating knowledge transfer into the healthcare and chemical industries.
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