Accelerating the speed and increasing the number of experiments is a critical factor in research and development. Aligned within the completion of the Dorothy Hodgkin Research Building (housing approximately 100 researchers; £6.5 million investment) the University of York’s Department of Chemistry and Swiss-based Chemspeed Technologies have formed a collaborative partnership to speed up R&D. Chemspeed has invested about £750 K by providing two robotic platforms.
Chemspeed Technologies, a leading provider of high-throughput and high-output research and development workflow platforms, and the Department of Chemistry of the University of York, have teamed up to modernize the way chemical reactions are screened and evaluated. The fully automated platforms for parallel synthesis, Isynth and Multiplant Prores, enable the academic groups to increase their number of experiments to find faster and more effective, solutions to demanding challenges in the area of synthetic chemistry and catalysis. Furthermore, the higher output can leverage the success rate in finding new, greener and cleaner synthetic methods to valuable chemical intermediates, which are important drivers in research, not only for academics but also in industry.
The hi-tech robotic equipment which is designed and built by Chemspeed, will be housed within the new research facility of the Chemistry Department. Dr. Jake Grace (Workflow Architect at Chemspeed) will be based predominantly in York, contributing his technical expertise to the research programs. Jake will interact closely with the research groups in York to identify mutually beneficial collaborative opportunities, which have the potential to transform productivity and diversify the portfolio of research projects being carried out at York.
About the Department of Chemistry (University of York)
York is one of the UK's leading Chemistry departments - internationally recognized for teaching and research. One major objective is to undertake the highest quality fundamental and applied research. York has a distinctive interdisciplinary structure founded on strong areas of core chemistry. Research in the Department of Chemistry is thriving; research income has averaged £6.1 million in new grants per annum over the last 3 years. There are 50 members of staff of international repute, about 160 graduates (mainly studying for PhD degrees) and over 60 research fellows. The research is housed in the state of the art Dorothy Hodgkin Research Building.
