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My lab has enjoyed a collaboration with DSUK for over 10 years now.  Interactions between industry and academia should always be encouraged but what is particularly pleasing in this case is the mutual benefits that both partners have been realised as a result.  The opportunity to guide students through their thesis is a major goal of academia and, for the two students below, this would not have been possible without the help of DSUK.  Active participation with the DSUK user group meetings, dovetailing them with the International Chromosome and Genome Society  conferences, has enabled extensive networking opportunities; we have also had a great deal of fun beta-testing new DSUK products.  Most important however is that the collaboration has facilitated the generation of impactful research, we look forward to further fruitful collaboration in these challenging times ahead.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/bio/griffin/

I had the pleasure of collaborating with Digital Scientific UK (DSUK) on

my PhD project, which was about the study of chromosome position in the nucleus of sperm and human preimplantation embryos and whether an association exists between altered position and infertility (sperm) or aneuploidy (embryos). Also we developed new methodologies to be able to study the position of chromosomes through interpretation of FISH signals.

The contribution of DSUK was very important and by that I do not only mean the financial aspect. I got a lot of help and support with all aspects of fluorescent microscopy work. Advice on filters, general maintenance tips for good day-to-day microscope use and of course my work benefited from using SmartCapture for the image capture and analysis. This platform is extremely user friendly and robust and that for me was important as I had to capture/analyse many images on daily basis.

Another important aspect during the development of the new technologies was the involvement of DSUK in organising a user meeting with all involved participants to exchange views and tackle similar problems. I think this is important and it brought us close with other colleagues and had the opportunity to present our work (e.g. QD-FISH Symposium, London, 25th January 2007).

Further to that I was involved with the organisation of the DSUK’s User Group Meeting (usually a 2-day social/academic event, which takes place every two years) which brought colleagues from different research fields (e.g. cytogenetics, cancer) under the same forum for discussion and presentation of their work. Asked to organise this event was a unique experience that I am aware of its importance not only for my personal skills but also for the scientific interaction and outcome.

I believe that the technical expertise (microscopy), the immediate feedback, and the willingness to help from ideas were the key aspects that I will keep from this collaboration with DSUK.

Publications that have arise from the collaboration:

Ioannou D, Tempest HG, Skinner BM, Thornhill AR, Ellis M, Griffin DK. (2009) Quantum dots as new-generation fluorochromes for FISH: an appraisal. Chromosome Research 17:519-530.

Ioannou D, Griffin DK. (2010) Nanotechnology and molecular cytogenetics: the future has not yet arrived Nano Reviews. Vol.1.

http://www.nano-reviews.net/index.php/nano/article/view/5117

My collaboration with DSUK plays a key role in my PhD, which relies heavily on accurate and clear representation of FISH signals for analysis of whole chromosomes, as well as specific regions of chromosomes for studies in nuclear organisation and comparative cytogenomics. In the future, the focus of my PhD will shift towards a substantive project, of which Q-FISH will form a large portion of my methodologies. For this section of my PhD I will be working very closely with DSUK in order to design a system for collecting data specific to my needs. For this reason, my collaboration with, and sponsorship from DSUK is of huge benefit to me, as I can be assured that I will receive an excellent level of training with SmartCapture that will allow me to obtain clear and precise results for my thesis.

I look forward to continuing a fantastic relationship over the course of my PhD and in particular look forward to being involved in the new technologies and opportunities to be explored over the coming years.