The University’s Liverpool Shared Research Facilities (LIV-SRF) are celebrating over £2.5m in investment from Medical Research Council (MRC) as well as European accreditation for their imaging facilities.
Based within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, LIV-SRF provides researchers access to world class resources in bio-imaging, multi-omics and bioresources. In the recent MRC equipment call all three of the Faculty’s bids for funding were successful, resulting in £2m funding for the latest equipment:
- Professor Claire Eyers has been awarded £976K to increase capabilities for robust high-throughput clinical proteomics within the Centre for Proteome Research.
- Professor Warwick Dunn from the Centre for Metabolomics Research has been awarded £925.5K for a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry system for metabolite-based precision medicine.
- Dr Tobias Zech and colleagues in the Centre for Cell Imaging (CCI) have been awarded £676K for an automated high-resolution microscope platform with robotics to study pharmacodynamics in 3D cell cultures.
LIV-SRF’s Centre for Cell Imaging (CCI) has also been invited to join the Euro-Bioimaging consortium. Euro-BioImaging (EuBI) is a research infrastructure consortium established in 2020 by the European Commission that offers state-of-the-art imaging services through its network of internationally renowned facilities. Membership is limited to only the very best imaging facilities in Europe and must be linked to the opportunity to promote significant biological discoveries and their translation into medical benefits. Following a rigorous competitive process, Liverpool was one of only seven UK institutions to be admitted and the only one from the North West of England.
Professor Harish Poptani, who led Liverpool’s application said: “Our success was based on the strength of our science, our outstanding imaging capabilities and expertise and the ability to image anything from proteins to people. We will be working closely with partner facilities in the UK and Europe to improve access, share best practice and drive innovation in our imaging capabilities.”
Professor Ian Prior, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor, Technology Infrastructure and Environment Directorate and Director of LIV-SRF said: “These successes demonstrate the Faculty’s ability and reputation in managing and sustaining high-end infrastructure for cutting-edge research. The MRC funding was a 3/3 success for the Faculty, which is a great return and builds on previous success in recent years with other major infrastructure calls. Our invitation to join Eurobiomaging is recognition of how the University of Liverpool is ahead of many of our peers when it comes to delivering outstanding imaging services – reward for a brilliant team effort.”