The next small thing: Pioneering nanotech centre opens in Bloomsbury
On Tuesday, 7 November, the new £25 million London Centre for Nanotechonology (LCN) opened in Bloomsbury. The research centre will see scientists from various disciplines coming together in Bloomsbury with the shared goal of advancing the area of Nanotechnology in the hope of discovering major developments in patient care.
Nanotechonology is the branch of science concerned with the design and production of extremely small electronic devices and circuits built from individual atoms and molecules. The new Centre is a joint venture between University College London and Imperial College London and confirms Bloomsbury’s place as a leading centre in cutting edge scientific research, competing with the best facilities around the world.
In the new centre, physicists sit next to medical doctors, chemists and engineers, the Centre is acting as a bridge between the biomedical, physical, chemical and engineering sciences.: “The LCN is truly interdisciplinary in its nature,” said Professor Gabriel Aeppli, joint director. “Researchers from eight different academic departments are working together on projects which require skill combinations that no individual scientist or even traditional academic department can contribute.”
Despite terms like Nanotechnology and Biotechnology being associated with multinational commercial ventures, there is a underlying importance in this research relating to patient care: “LCN researchers have shown how nanotechnology can be used for cancer diagnostics, which they are already commercialising via a start-up company,” Professor Aeppli explains. “In a decade we expect to see a new, nanotechnology-enabled generation of personalised drugs capable of targeting specific cells such as tumours, as well as new medical diagnostics. This will change the face of healthcare.”
Sympathetic architecture for conservation area
The centre occupies a purpose-built eight-storey facility in Gordon Street, Bloomsbury, as well as extensive facilities at Imperial’s South Kensington campus. Designed by the architects Feilden Clegg Bradley, the main elevation to Gordon Street takes the proportions of the surrounding conservation area into account.
The elevation is split into three distinct zones, reflecting the different building uses within, and also aligning with the traditional base, middle and top/attic stories of the adjacent classically composed elevations.
Ultra-low vibes
The Bloomsbury site has state of the art equipment crucial to the application of nanotechnology. Not only that but the fabric of the building had to be purpose-designed for ultra-low vibration which will allow experiments with molecules – which are so sensitive that in a normal environment, the vibrations of a person walking at the other side of the building could destroy the experiment – to be conducted.
The opening was marked by a symposium led by David King,
the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Office of Science and Innovation, Professor Mark Walport, Director of The Wellcome Trust, and the joint directors of LCN, Professor Aeppli and Professor Tim Jones. Many of LCN’s 200 researchers were also on hand to discuss their work.
