Only a year after being granted £2 million to become part of the DTI's Micro and Nanotechnology (MNT) Facilities Network, the Dolomite Centre says it has exceeded all internal and external milestones
Dolomite was set up as the world's first microfluidic application centre to design and build microfluidic devices and instrumentation.
Combining specialist glass, quartz and ceramic technologies with knowledge of high performance microfluidics, Dolomite is able to provide innovative solutions for a broad range of exciting new application areas including, environmental monitoring, clinical diagnostics, food and beverage, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
With engineers and biologists working flat out on commercial development projects, the Dolomite Centre has met all the original objectives, including facility refurbishment and ISO approval, among others.
In its first year Dolomite has also created a new advisory group to augment its scientific and fabrication expertise, with industry-leading professionals from sectors including pharmaceuticals, forensic science, medicine and academia.
UK minister for science and innovation, Malcolm Wicks said: "The UK has a proud history of innovation in science and technology.
"We believe that we must work with industry to develop the technology we'll need in the future, so that we can maintain our position as a leading global economy.
"That's why we're supporting the Dolomite Centre and its work in nanotechnology.
"It provides a great opportunity to harness the UK's world-class expertise and use it to boost our economy and our quality of life".
Commenting on their initial success Dolomite managing director Mark Gilligan said: "We are very pleased with the progress made in this first year.
"The DTI funding has enabled us to build a truly world-class facility, we have a team of extremely talented industry experts on our advisory board and we can utilise our long-standing expertise in microfluidics to address novel application areas in almost any industry".
He continued: "With this amount of interest, we are poised to grow significantly.
"During 2007 we will concentrate on moving these first projects forward and establishing further our reputation."
