Analytical Sciences
Analytical Sciences is a functional grouping of sections at NIBSC which deliver highly specialist technologies and capabilities to support the vital work of the Institute across standardisation, control and research activities. The sections not only contribute to site-wide projects but also pursue their own research areas in collaboration with industrial and academic colleagues in their respective fields.
Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics offers essential structural characterisation in both the analysis of single biotherapeutic molecules and the understanding of the whole cell response, as well as addressing the issues of identity and falsified medicines.
Glycan Analysis is vitally important in establishing the biological activity and potential immunogenicity of biotherapeutics including follow-on and biosimilar candidates and is one of the highest profile post translational modifications that can occur during biopharmaceutical manufacture.
Protein Science facilitates gene expression and purification of small-scale quantities of engineered proteins for bioanalytical study, pinpointing critical sequence motifs and the impact of sequence changes on biological function. The section also works on development of performance validation standards in collaboration with the Standardisation Science section below.
Biostatistics provide the essential statistical expertise and experimental design understanding to underpin all areas of the Institute’s scientific work, including the collaborative studies needed to derive consensus potency assignments for International reference materials.
Microscopy and Imaging delivers state-of-the-art electron microscopy and confocal microscopy analysis contributing to a wide range of standardisation, control and research collaborations across the Institute and beyond.
Standardisation Science provides expertise and capability in formulation development and freeze drying to facilitate the reference materials programme and undertakes research in these areas.
Next Generation Sequencing provides invaluable information into genetic identity, and inter- and intra-organism diversity as well as insights into functional aspects of organisms.
Bioinformatics provides the statistical framework and rigour to investigate and answer the biological questions raised by the big data generated by sequencing, spectroscopy and imaging experiments.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a versatile technique that can be used to characterise the chemical content and solution structure of molecules.