Thermo Fisher Scientific Extends Technology Collaboration with University of Birmingham, UK

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc, the world leader in serving science, is pleased to announce plans to extend its technology collaboration with the University of Birmingham in the UK at the University’s new Phenome Centre. Thermo Fisher will supply a range of advanced mass spectrometry instruments to be used for the centre’s research in metabolic phenotyping and metabolomics studies.

In collaboration with Birmingham Health Partners, the Phenome Centre Birmingham is an £8M facility that aims to provide University of Birmingham scientists with the tools needed to conduct large-scale metabolic phenotyping research. The centre’s goal is to better understand biochemical mechanisms, targets and biomarkers associated with aging and disease, to enable a stratified medicine approach that will enhance patient outcomes.

“We are pleased to continue our long-standing collaboration with Thermo Fisher in these important areas of metabolome research,” said Professor Mark Viant, Director of Phenome Centre Birmingham. “Combined with our strong impact in technology and method development, we look forward to the benefits we will translate to the human population through stratified medicine approaches.”

“We look forward to furthering our highly productive, multi-faceted collaboration with the University and congratulate them on the opening of the new Phenome Centre,” said Iain Mylchreest, vice president of R&D for chromatography and mass spectrometry at Thermo Fisher. “These scientific relationships are mutually beneficial in helping us to advance our analytical tools and technologies that, in turn, enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.”

The new facility is equipped with a range of instruments for untargeted and targeted assays including the Thermo Scientific Q Exactive Focus Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap, TSQ Quantiva Triple Quadrupole and Orbitrap Elite Hybrid Ion Trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometers, each equipped with a Thermo Scientific liquid chromatography system. In addition, a Q Exactive Plus Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometer will be used for training purposes in the Birmingham Metabolomics Training Centre.

Thermo Fisher has been in collaboration with Professor Mark Viant and Dr. Warwick Dunn from the University of Birmingham for more than 10 years. Most recently, the organisations collaborated to accelerate research in high-resolution accurate mass (HRAM) and triple quadrupole liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for life sciences applications. As part of these collaborations, Thermo Fisher provided the University of Birmingham with prototype technology for evaluation, supported several PhD students on metabolomics related research projects and collaborated with the Phenome Centre Birmingham in the Metabolomics Training Centre.