New UK Centre of Excellence for Engineering Biology, Metrology and Standards announced

NIBSC are collaborating with prominent UK partners in biological measurement to establish a new Centre of Excellence for Engineering Biology, Metrology and Standards.

The initiative, involving National Physical Laboratory (NPL), LGC Group and Imperial College’s SynbiCITE aims to support the fast-growing UK synthetic biology industry with a ‘toolbox’ of metrology and technical standards.

As a global leader in the control and standardisation of biological medicines, NIBSC will play an important role in the development of synthetic biological standards and assays. 

Standards to support industrial growth

Synthetic Biology combines engineering principles with biology to build new or redesign existing biological systems for specific purposes. The field holds enormous potential for transforming processes within industry and biological research, however appropriate standards to ensure harmonisation across synthetic biology and provide confidence in product performance don’t currently exist.

The new Centre aims to deliver measurements and standards needed by the synthetic biology community to convert innovation in this area into valuable products and services across a range of industrial fields, from health to bioenergy.

The Government has identified Biotechnology and Bioeconomy as key areas for the growth of the UK’s industrial strategy. Funding for the project is provided as part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund  that seeks to unite UK-based world leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time.   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Electron microscope image of Human Papilloma virus-like particles     

Our involvement                                                                                                                             

As part of a consortium led by NPL, we will share our experience in high-powered electron microscopy and isotopic dilution mass spectrometry. NIBSC experts will seek to develop traceable measurements for biological control elements through monitoring the behaviour of synthetic virus-like particles (VLPs) within biological systems.

“Having previously been awarded funding from the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR), and as a metrology designated institute (DI) for bioactivity, this centre continues to demonstrate our commitment to expanding our relationships within the metrology community.”