Science company, Thermo Fisher Scientific has reported strong second quarter growth in 2010. This is due to the success of its investment and new product initiatives.
Thermo Fisher Scientific’s laboratory products and analytical technologies have benefit from the growth, whilst its molecular and cellular biology activities have been boosted by the acquisition of Fermentas.
The science company are looking to support their future expansion with new innovations in life sciences, clinical research and specialist diagnostics.
Marc Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific, said: “We successfully leveraged our top-line performance to achieve solid operating margin expansion and double-digit EPS growth.”
A biotechnology company is currently looking for an Automation Scientist to join their team based in Cambridgeshire, UK.
As an Automation Scientist, you will be working with scientists in Research and Development where you will help evaluate current laboratory practices and help devise methods of automating practical work so that they can be performed in a more streamlined and efficient.
Working as an Automation Scientist, you will help install, test and validate new laboratory automation to ensure that it is fit for purpose and will help support and modify existing laboratory automation to ensure that it operates to a high standard and evolves to meet the changing needs of scientists.
This Automation Scientist role will also require you to help train and advise users on the optimal use of laboratory automation. Communication and collaboration with others forms a major part of this role. As part of the Automation team you will work at the bench to test laboratory automation and validate that the automation performs to the required standard and delivers benefits to the scientists.
The ideal candidate for this Automation Scientist job will have a degree or HNC/D in Life Sciences, Computing or near equivalent. You will also need laboratory skills in microbiology, molecular biology or assay work to work with scientists performing diverse laboratory processes before and after automation.
This Automation Scientist also demands a candidate with experience in inautomated liquid handlers, plate readers, automation software and equipment (Tecan, PerkinElmer, Biotek, Genetix and Velocity 11). Familiarity with additional automation platforms is also a plus.
This is a fantastic opportunity to join a leading biotech company in the beautiful surroundings of Cambridgeshire, UK.
Apply now
For more information, or to apply for this Automation Scientist job now, please contact Julie Marshall at CK Science on 01438 723500 or email jmarshall@ckscience.co.uk.
As reported on the Times Online website, Gordon Brown has announced that a state-of-the-art laboratory complex based in London has won £250 million of public funding. The laboratory, named the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation will lead British medical research and is backed by Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and University College London.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) has already invested £47 million in the project and it is said that it will be one of the largest of its kind when it opens in 2015.
The new complex will be the new home for the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and the World Influenza Centre, and will bring together 1, 250 scientists to study fundamental human biology and turn their discoveries into new therapies for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Speaking of the project, Mr Brown stated,
“There is nothing more important for the future of our society and economy than what we are setting in motion today,” he told an audience of senior scientists today.
“I believe that the project will transform lives, will make for a stronger economy that will put us right in the forefront of research around the world, and will give people a huge amount of hope about the future.”
Sir Paul Nurse, the Nobel prize-winning scientist who chairs the centre’s steering committee, said that the project should be secure regardless of the result of the election. “The truth is it is such a good idea it would be inconceivable whatever the colour of the incoming government not to fund it,” he said. “There have been informal conversations and I believe all three parties have indicated their general support.”
Should Labour win the election, Mr Brown has said that he plans to appoint a Minister for the Life Sciences. This new minister would be responsible for co-coordinating biomedical research across government and for helping scientist to commercialise their work.
In partnership with the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, scientists at the University of Manchester and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will be working together to investigate how the biological clock controls inflammation in lung diseases, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
It is hoped that the £500,000 study, which will be funded by GSK, will lead to the development of new drugs that will target how the internal body clock regulates the severity of inflammation. The team at the University of Manchester will be headed up by Professors Andrew Loudon, David Ray and Kath Else. This team will work closely with colleagues in the Discovery Biology group at GSK.
Speaking of the collaboration, Professor Loudon or the faculty of life sciences, stated:
“Many inflammatory diseases are highly rhythmic in presentation and often worse at night. We believe there is also a strong rhythmic control. It has long been speculated that asthma and other inflammatory conditions have an underlying clock mechanism controlling the severity of the disease. These clocks are all over the body, including in cells responsible for the immune response in the lung. In addition the way we metabolise drugs is highly rhythmic. Our aim is to gain a sufficient understanding of this process so we can target key parts with specific new drugs.
“We are working with GSK not only to develop new drugs to alleviate symptoms but also reveal optimal timing of therapy, known as chronotherapy. This is a new and exciting area of research. It is being taken very seriously in France, for example, where researchers have for some time been studying the importance of timing of chemotherapy in cancer. This study is just one at the beginning of an exciting new phase in circadian rhythm research.”
Inflammatory diseases of the lung are a major cause of mortality world-wide. In the case of COPD, the progression of this inflammatory disease is irreversible once commenced. In the UK 27,478 people died as a result of COPD in 2004. Other diseases with an inflammatory aspect include asthma, which is a predisposition to chronic inflammation of the lungs in which the airways are reversibly narrowed.
As reported on the Times Online, the Pharmaceutical Industry giant, AstraZeneca plans to cut 1,200 UK Pharmaceutical jobs. The job cuts are a result of the company’s suspension of their research into various disease areas.
The company plans to close its research and development facility based in Leicestershire, along with another small plant in Cambridge. Pharmaceutical development work at the Avlon facility near Bristol will also cease. Some of the workers will move to the company’s Alderly Park in Cheshire which is AstraZeneca’s largest research and development plant.
This will come as disappointing news to the Government, who created the Office of Life Sciences last year in a bid to increased the number of science and pharmaceutical jobs. The head of the Office of Life Sciences, Lord Drayson, said “I’m obviously disappointed that AstraZeneca is closing Charnwood, but the announcement that Alderley Park will become one of AstraZeneca’s top three global R&D sites shows that the UK remains an attractive location for investment in pharmaceuticals.”
Earlier in the year, AstraZeneca announced that they planned to cut 8,000 jobs around the world by 2014, including 3,500 in research and development, as part of a large-scale refocusing of the business.
Science company, Thermo Fisher Scientific has reported strong second quarter growth in 2010. This is due to the success of its investment and new product initiatives.
