Our goal is to join emerging technologies with novel routes to incorporation into devices. In a multi-disciplinary and industry-linked agenda, we also consider vital downstream risk factors to allow rapid integration of our work into a functioning industrial value chain.

Research Projects

Project 1: EPSRC IRC in Targeted Delivery for Hard-to-Treat Cancers

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) in Targeted Delivery for Hard-to-Treat Cancers was established in October 2018. It comprises five leading universities (Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, Glasgow & Birmingham) alongside several partner institutions, and aims to develop new technologies capable of enhanced drug delivery for the treatment of four hard-to-treat cancers: mesothelioma, pancreatic cancer, and two types of brain cancer - glioblastoma & ependymoma. Details about the full project and team (PI Prof. George Malliaras, Dept. of Engineering) can be found below.

Website: https://www.teddy.eng.cam.ac.uk/

Twitter: @Cancer_TeDDy

IfM team:

• Ronan Daly
• Etienne Rognin
• Niamh Willis-Fox

Funding acknowledgement: EPSRC

Project 2: Affordable near-patient diagnostics to distinguish infectious diseases in the Philippines (AND2ID in Ph)

Acute fever may be caused by a range of pathogens, but clinical symptoms may be too non-specific to differentiate the causative organism, so correct diagnosis requires pathogen-specific diagnostic tests. These diagnostics are too expensive for routine use in resource-limited settings. This means that many patients are treated empirically with broad spectrum antibiotics, which may be unnecessary, toxic, and increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance. Conversely delayed diagnosis and treatment may lead to poor outcomes.

A barrier to low-cost diagnostics in the Philippines, arises from a value chain that spans the world, without Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). If we could use technologies that can be manufactured locally, using local resources, then we have the first step to providing affordable diagnostics in resource poor areas, and delivering a sustained improvement in healthcare, while also developing the local economy. The full team is led by Prof. Lisa Hall, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.

IfM team:

• Ronan Daly
• Cassi Henderson

Funding acknowledgement: UK Medical Research Council

Project 3: Affordable Low-volume  Printed High-throughput Assays (Project ALPHA)

With ever increasing numbers of biological targets being identified, for example in cancer research, there are a growing number of high-throughput screening facilities, each requiring major capital investment to enable researchers to test treatments in anywhere from 96 to 1536 well-plate arrays. However, as more advanced materials, biopharmaceuticals and treatments are explored at an early stage in academic research labs and as a broader community of researchers want to take advantage of this robust scientific approach, there is a potentially revolutionary improvement in capability if we can deliver a low-cost tool implemented to the same standard in any lab. The team has been put together to take the first steps towards an ultra-low cost approach that shifts to an even higher density of arrays, that ensures 3D fluid environments and finally is flexible to work with a small lab footprint and a wide range of analytical techniques. The team, led by Dr. Ronan Daly, includes Prof. Lisa Hall, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and Dr. Stefenie Reichelt, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.

IfM Team:

• Ronan Daly
• Qingxin Zhang

Funding acknowledgement: BBSRC

Other projects

In addition, our team has PhD students working on exciting healthcare-linked research projects such as:

• Susannah Evans: The effect of printing forces on biological activity
• Sebastian Horstmann: Sensing of electrolytes and biomaterials for healthcare applications using touchscreen technologies
• Tanya Mangoma: Bio-inspired approaches to sensors: additive manufacturing of neuromorphic devices

Head of Group

Dr. Ronan Daly

University Senior Lecturer in the Science and Technology of Manufacturing

T: +44(0)1223 766065

E: rd439@cam.ac.uk

Related publications

• Neus Jornet-Martínez, Cassi J Henderson, Pilar Campíns-Falcó, Ronan Daly, Elizabeth AH Hall, Towards sarcosine determination in urine for prostatic carcinoma detection, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 287, 380-389, 2019.
• Cassi J Henderson, Elizabeth Pumford, Dushanth J Seevaratnam, Ronan Daly, Elizabeth AH Hall, Gene to diagnostic: Self immobilizing protein for silica microparticle biosensor, modelled with sarcosine oxidase, Biomaterials 193, 58-70, 2019.
• Niamh Willis-Fox, Etienne Rognin, Talal A Aljohani, Ronan Daly, Polymer mechanochemistry: Manufacturing is now a force to be reckoned with, Chem 4 (11), 2499-2537, 2018.
• Jan F Engels, Cassi J Henderson, Ronan Daly, Reinhard Renneberg, Elizabeth AH Hall, A lateral flow channel immunoassay combining a particle binding zone geometry with nanoparticle labelling amplification, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 262, 1-8, 2018.
• Tadas Kartanas, Victor Ostanin, Pavan Kumar Challa, Ronan Daly, Jerome Charmet, Tuomas PJ Knowles, Enhanced quality factor label-free biosensing with micro-cantilevers integrated into microfluidic systems, Analytical chemistry 89 (22), 11929-11936, 2017.
• Ronan Daly, Tomás S Harrington, Graham D Martin, Ian M Hutchings, Inkjet printing for pharmaceutics–a review of research and manufacturing, International journal of pharmaceutics 494 (2), 554-567, 2015.