1983-1988 - Humble beginnings and initial growth
The Institute was founded in 1983 by Professor Heinz Wolff as a financially self supporting Institute. Heinz had moved with part of his team from the Medical Research Centre’s (MRC’s) Clinical Research Centre at NorthwickPark where he was the Head of Biomedical Engineering. Early research involved feasibility studies in space research for the European Space Agency where Heinz was Chairman of the Microgravity Committee and rehabilitation research on Heinz’s Tools for Living for which he had a 5 year grant from the charity Action Research. The common theme of research in the Institute at that time was “man in a hostile environment” whether that environment was microgravity, underwater or the physical challenges faced by disabled and older people in unit gravity. The vice chancellor in 1983 was unable to give Heinz a building or financial support, so Heinz assembled a number of second-hand portakabins which he was able to magically transform into a brand new 2-story portakabin complex 2 years later as payment for a series of advertisements he starred in for the Portakabin company. The new complex was opened by the then Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Kenneth Baker, in 1985 and is still in use today by the university – now known as the ChadwickBuilding.
1989-1997 Growth of Space Science & Engineering
Another ex-MRC employee, Ian Sutherland, joined the Institute in November 1988 with a view to becoming Heinz’s deputy director. He was initially put in charge of Heinz’s space biology programme, initially working on the Advanced Biological Safety Cabinet (ABSC) for the ESA BIOLAB programme.
The next 8 years was quite action packed. Heinz launched the “Juno Mission” in June 1989 to put a British Astronaut and science on board the MIR space station with the simple advertisement “Astronaut wanted no experience necessary”. This culminated in the Helen Sharman becoming that first British Astronaut in May 1991, but sadly we only raised enough funds for the astronaut to fly and not enough for the science to fly as well. At the time the Institute had grown from about 20 people to about 40 at the peak of the Juno mission. The failure to raise the money for the science led to a slow reduction of the Juno space team. Heinz being Heinz, sold the building to the university to finance generous redundancy packages and helped find a good job for every member of staff who left.
Meanwhile a number of the other space projects were maturing. The ABSC went from Phase A (feasibility) to Phase B (prototype) in collaboration with a small Dutch Aerospace company and in August 1990 transformed from an ESA funded project to a NASA funded project to develop a Glovebox facility for the United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML1). This eventually flew in June 1992 with 14 experiments on board ranging from protein crystallisation & combustion to fluid science. The Mission was a great success and the Glovebox team were commended for their “can do” attitude.
There were a further 10 successful missions on board USML, USMP, the MIR space station and the Space Shuttle Mid-deck from 1992-1998. In addition, feasibility studies were being undertaken on a larger Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) and Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) for Space Station Alpha. The reasons for success were 1) our reputation for innovation within ESA and NASA; 2) the fact that Heinz had chaired the microgravity committee for 14 years and 3) our ability to work to industrial timelines. The problems we encountered were 1) the fact that the UK did not support manned space flight (there are faint signs that this is now changing today); 2) the technology was transferred to the Netherlands where their government does support manned space flight and 3) there is a limited market for the technology ie only one space station. For this reason (and later the Challenger disaster) Space work was slowly wound down at the Institute. But we had developed a group of high quality engineers, a multidisciplinary team that could combine research and development of new technology and its exploitation with international experience of working with academia, industry and government organisations.
1997-2001 Spin-offs from Space & New Initiatives
Heinz stood down from being director of the Institute in 1995 and Ian Sutherland took over the directorship. Heinz continued his research activities within the Institute, but some of the TfL personnel moved to the Design Department to set up a new group called Design for Life (DfL). There then followed a period of consolidation developing various spin-offs from space and starting new initiatives based on the expertise of the remaining staff in post. Spin-offs from space included an active urine collection device (AUCD) which started with feasibility studies funded by the charity Action Medical Research and later culminating in a 2 million Euro research programme (PI Eleanor van den Heuvel) from EU FP5 to develop a non-invasive continence management system (NICMS).
Basic research on shape memory alloys used in space applications for deploying space experiments led to an EU CRAFT research programme (PI Ian Sutherland) to develop a new non-explosive Shape Memory Alloys technology for splitting rocks in the ornamental stone industries and Quarries in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Sweden with D’Appolonia, Italy.
New initiatives included a novel orthotic brace for children suffering from scoliosis (PI David Hawes) in collaboration with Stanmore Orthopaedic Hospital; a project exploring the Molecular Effects of EMF Exposure on Human Cells with Biological Sciences (PI Janet Arrand) to examine whether power lines cause an increased incidence of cancer; an EPSRC/DTI Foresight research programme (PI Heinz Wolff) to develop caring homes for older people (Millennium Homes) followed by 2 years of Huntleigh Technology funding. Meanwhile the drug purification research team was successful in obtaining two new Research Council grants (PI Ian Sutherland) for both the scale-up and scale-down of their technology helping to lead the Institute into its expansion and enterprise stage.
2002-2008 - Expansion & Enterprise Phase
The recent growth of the Institute has been for several reasons: 1) a solid base of research excellence had been built, on which an excellent track record had been established and new initiatives could grow; 2) excellent networking both national and international, 3) the growth of a postgraduate student research programme and 4) the reorganisation of the University into Schools and Specialist Research Institutes.
As a solid grant portfolio was established, we were successful in applying for £1m of SRIF2 funding to build the Advanced Bioprocessing Centre and refurbish the whole Institute. This gave leverage to the successful £0.25m application for equipment funds from the BBSRC. We were successful in applying for 2 of the 60 new blood appointments in April 2003. These two new posts split initially between research (70% - BIB) and teaching (30% SED) have strengthened the Institute’s Medical Engineering team in biofluid mechanics.
Following completion of BIB’s first PhD in 2002, and following on from successful EPSRC funding the Institute received funds from the EPSRC to set up a Doctoral Training Programme. The postgraduate student population has slowly been increased by about 3 per year to 17 postgraduate students in 2008 and several exchange students, with a staff complement of 30+.
Enterprise has always been a strong culture within the Institute from the early days of the Juno Mission, the development of the Glovebox for NASA and the spin-out of Anson Medical. By 2005 a spin-out company from the Institute’s drug purification equipment development, Dynamic Extraction Ltd., had received investment funding and moved to new premises in Slough.
Ability Products & Flex ‘n Lock, spin-out companies for non-invasive continence management and spinal brace material, are approaching investment. Following an earlier DTI Innovation Award, the founder shareholders of Dynamic Extractions Ltd were awarded the 2005 Corac Award for Engineering Research with Enterprise promise.
A number of new Research Council grants have recently coming in: one on protein purification, two on bioreactor/separator technology and one on new equipment development. In addition the University has funded succession management with the appointment of a new Deputy Director and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor Francis Moussy, who will is building a new research team on biosensors and closed loop glucose monitoring for diabetics – he comes with funding from the NIH. The Institute is now poised to expand further as new initiatives develop and new strategic alliances are formed. The opportunity is now there for attracting large consortium funding for a wide range of new initiatives.
