UCC and Almac announce collaboration
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UCC and Almac announce collaboration
08.06.2010
UCC and Almac (a contract research and manufacturing organisation based in Northern Ireland, specialising in integrated drug development and human health) are proud to announce the official launch of an academic/industrial collaboration in the field of solid state chemistry.

The partnership, which is principally funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), is focussed upon applying innovative new technologies to elucidate 3D molecular structures from powder x-ray data. Through the use of current x-ray technology, it is necessary to generate a single crystal in order to extract such structural information. This is often problematic and the pharmaceutical community have been compelled to seek alternatives.

The programme of research will be carried out between the Pharmaceutical Solids group of the Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility, UCC (Anita Maguire, Simon Lawrence, Humphrey Moynihan, over ten postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers) and the Almac Physical Sciences group (Linda McCausland and Noel Hamill). This team is joined by postdoctoral researcher Dr László Fábián who brings specialist expertise in powder diffraction to the project.

Welcoming the collaboration, Anita Maguire, Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Director ABCRF, UCC said: " The UCC/Almac collaboration is strategic to the progression of our academic goals and will be of great benefit to the students of UCC, the research community and the Irish pharmaceutical sector as a whole.” Linda McCausland, Head of Physical Sciences at Almac commented: “Almac is delighted to be engaged with UCC on this exciting research project. The combined expertise will be used to develop novel techniques which can advance the drug development strategies of our clients.”

To celebrate the launch of the collaboration, a joint symposium on the topic of “pharmaceutical polymorphs and co-crystals” was held on in April 28th 2010 at UCC. This milestone event was attended by over 60 representatives from the Irish pharmaceutical industry and academia. The large and diverse audience is testimony to the importance that is placed on the role of solid state chemistry in pharmaceutical development. As such, there is no doubt that the research output of this innovative new venture will be eagerly anticipated.

Picture L-R: Professor MA McKervey (Almac), Humphrey Moynihan (UCC), Professor Anita Maguire (UCC), Gareth Maguire (Almac), Noel Hamill (Almac), Linda McCausland (Almac), Simon Lawrence (UCC), Curtis Elcoate (UCC), Laszlo Fabian (UCC), Kevin Eccles (UCC), Dawn Kelly (UCC).

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