There are currently some 20 Lancer glassware washer/dryers working daily in John Innes Centre (JIC) laboratories, from underbench to vast machines washing on four levels
Research scientists at the renowned John Innes Centre (JIC) in Norfolk continue to make important contributions to the development of cancer drugs and antibiotics, and Lancer says it is pleased to be helping such critical research over many years by ensuring that the laboratory glassware is thoroughly cleaned so that the integrity of research results is not prejudiced.
Led by Prof Tony Maxwell, JIC scientists have recently developed a new technique that will help search for new anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs more quickly and accurately.
They found a new way of measuring the activity of a group of enzymes called DNA topoisomerases that help package DNA, the molecule that stores genetic information, into cells.
Chemicals that block these enzymes could be developed into new anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs.
The previous method used for measuring this activity is time consuming and labour-intensive; this new technique is faster, more accurate and could be automated with robotics to screen thousands of chemicals and identify those with the potential to be made into drugs.
Earlier in 2006, JIC researchers also succeeded in harnessing bacteria in the soil to then be able to create antibiotics to kill that bacteria.
This enables them to forge more effective antibiotics to combat viruses such as MRSA.
There are currently some 20 Lancer glassware washer/dryers working daily in JIC laboratories, from underbench to vast machines washing on four levels.
The JIC, Norwich, UK is an independent, world-leading research centre in plant and microbial sciences with over 800 staff.
It carries out high quality fundamental, strategic and applied research to understand how plants and microbes work at the molecular, cellular and genetic levels and is grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
