ISSN 2399-1542 ISSUE 107
INNOVATE UK
NESTA
FEATURED RESEARCHERS
We discover more about the history of the UK’s innovation agency and the impact it is having on the successful commercialisation of UK research.
Geoff Mulgan, Nesta’s Chief Executive, tells us about social innovation and the exciting projects currently underway at the foundation.
Articles include features on innovative UK companies: Green Biologics; CALCIVIS; DM Education; GeoRoc; Gamlen Instruments; Research Features 3 Teer Coatings.
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Translating new research and ideas into practical, applicable and commercially successful ventures is key to the concept of innovation. How can scientists take their work and create a business from it? How can commerce help get the most out of an exciting idea? These questions and more are asked and answered by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. They aim to increase innovation in the UK by supporting the businesses that are driving science and technology developments. Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of Nesta, who also put innovation at the heart of what they do. We spoke to him about how they are harnessing the natural creativity and talent of the UK to tackle the big challenges facing our society today. That determination is certainly something that the researchers and companies featured in this issue all have in common – they have identified a problem and provided a solution: a computer programme to help combat illiteracy; a novel technique to identify dental erosion; a new method for the disposal of nuclear waste; viable alternatives to fossil fuels; a press to allow researchers to create better tablets; or a model to predict coating systems for industrial components. This ability to transform a spark of inspiration into a practical application is key to so many areas of our society. It strengthens our economy, improves our services and encourages a younger generation of future scientists. Join our global readership and discover more about the valuable work these companies are doing.
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CONTENTS 06 10 14 18 22
Innovate UK: bringing innovative ideas to market
Fossilising fossil fuels with green alternatives
Shedding fresh light on dental demineralisation The Trainertext Method: a visual track to literacy Nesta: New ideas, new possibilities
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Hot isostatic pressing can substantially reduce the volume of nuclear waste
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Hot off the press
Modelling magnetron sputtering for high value manufacturing
Social media and the rise of video
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Thought Leadership
Innovate UK: bringing innovative ideas to market Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency, and its goal is to help grow the UK economy by inspiring and supporting pioneering UK businesses to create the industries of the future. The agency facilitates the creation of new products, processes, services and industries, by providing the knowhow to take innovative ideas from concept to reality.
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he UK does science well, that is in no doubt. With the exception of America, the UK has more Nobel Laureates than any other country. And, although home to just 0.9% of the planet’s population, the quality of the nation’s scientific institutions is ranked second in the world. So the UK is definitely doing something right. But how can it make the most of these assets? SUPPORTING INNOVATION Innovate UK was founded by the British government in 2007 (as the Technology Strategy Board) to address this question. Described as the UK's innovation agency, this non-departmental public body aims to close the gap between innovative research and its commercial exploitation. Based in Swindon, the agency funds, supports and connects innovative businesses with the aim of accelerating sustainable economic growth. It provides funding for projects in four sectors: health and life sciences, infrastructure systems, emerging and enabling technology, and manufacturing and materials. To date 7,600 organisations have been supported, resulting in 55,000 new jobs and over £11.5 billion added to the economy.
In her latest blog, Innovate UK’s CEO, Dr Ruth McKernan summed this up as bringing new ideas and new products ’out of the lab and into the marketplace’. To stimulate the ‘out of the lab and into the marketplace’ process, Innovate UK has many mechanisms at its disposal. These include Collaborative Research & Development funding and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, which help to connect businesses seeking new knowledge and skills that could bring about a significant and positive change in their way of working. And there’s the very dynamic sounding ‘catapult centres’. With specialisms in everything from offshore renewable energy and transport systems, to cell therapy and satellites, these organisations serve as research and development facilities, spanning the gap between early stage research and market opportunities. An example is the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. From its base at Guy’s Hospital in central London, the centre is facilitating the growth of the cell and gene therapy industry by helping organisations across the world translate early stage research into commercially viable and investable therapies. Innovate UK also runs a range of funding competitions, which are open to all UK
With the exception of America, the UK has more Nobel Laureates than any other country 6
Thought Leadership
The integration of skills, technologies and interdisciplinary methods, as exemplified by Wales’ SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre, is something that Innovate UK is particularly keen to encourage companies with an innovative idea. Start-up companies are encouraged to partner with larger companies, and everyone has to bid for money: the best ideas receive funding. REACTING TO CHANGE One of this year’s competition winners spotted an emerging gap in the post-Brexit agricultural sector. The University of Lincoln, together with Capacity Building Support Ltd and Berry Garden Growers Ltd, entered their plans for autonomous robots to support fruit picking. At present, the UK soft fruit sector employs approximately 35,000 fruit pickers each day. The roles are low skilled and the sector has a high reliance on EU migrants to fill these posts. When the UK leaves the European Union, the availability of this labour force will be greatly reduced and fruit growers will struggle to harvest their crops. Autonomous robots offer a potential solution. ENCOURAGING COLLABORATION The integration of skills, technologies and interdisciplinary methods, as exemplified by
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Wales’ SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre, is something that Innovate UK is particularly keen to encourage. Based at Port Talbot, SPECIFIC is developing buildings that can generate, store and release their own energy, in one system, using just the sun’s energy. While the centre’s research teams are working on the next generation of solar technologies, the building-integration team is already testing out SPECIFIC’S vision for ‘buildings as power stations’, by building full-scale demonstration models, using existing technologies. At the same time, the centre’s commercial engagement teams are bringing together professionals from industry and government to develop the commercial viability of these new technologies, and to discuss and stimulate change in the construction sector. EXPANDING HORIZONS Ensuring that this wealth of new ideas, products and services can expand beyond the archipelago of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is another key aspect of Innovate UK’s work.
SPECIFIC recently opened a new research facility to start manufacture of demonstration models of their 'buildings as power stations'
“The UK is a limited market for many businesses”, notes the agency’s CEO, Dr Ruth McKernan, in her latest blog. “UK companies must look up and out, exploring international opportunities to ensure they scale. Innovate UK may be a UK innovation agency but we have an evergrowing focus on the many, many business opportunities available internationally for UK businesses. “After all, innovation knows no boundaries – whether they are geographic, disciplinary, organisational or societal“.
Contact Innovate UK Polaris House North Star Ave Swindon SN2 1FL UK E: support@innovateuk.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/ organisations/innovate-uk www.facebook.com/innovateuk twitter.com/innovateuk
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Microbiology
Fossilising fossil fuels with green alternatives
Green Biologics are a renewable chemicals company who are not only changing the face of renewable chemicals, but are changing the world while they are at it. Dr Liz Jenkinson is one of the lead researchers at the company, and it is her work that is providing the answer to the question: is there an alternative to fossil fuels? Her work proves that the answer is yes, and that it only relies on three key components – bacteria, genetic engineering and sugar.
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ith the unprecedented threat of climate change making the planet’s temperature warmer year on year, there is a growing need for greener, environmentallyfriendly alternative products. It has been well documented over the years that fossil fuels are in limited supply and yet, they are the source used to power the world. They run our cars, heat our homes, and are even used to produce a variety of products such as medicines, cosmetics, plastics and lubricants. If you brushed your teeth this morning, or if you have ever played tennis, the toothpaste and balls you used were probably produced using fossil fuels. So, the question is: if we are to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, how are we going to continue our modern way of living? This is where Green Biologics and the
excellent work of a dedicated team of molecular microbiologists, analytical chemists and fermentation scientists comes in. The Oxford-based institution and its US-based subsidiary have recently opened the first renewable ABE manufacturing plant in the USA since the second World War, to convert the sugar from corn into the products acetone and n-Butanol along with by-products of corn oil and animal feed. These chemicals and their modified derivatives can then be used in a wide range of everyday products directly replacing the same chemicals that are currently made from fossil fuels. FROM MANCHESTER TO OXFORD GBL’s research follows on from the original acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) fermentation work carried out in Manchester back in 1912. This discovered a method that could use bacterial fermentation (the conversion of sugar into
Green Biologics’s research follows on from the original acetone–butanol– ethanol fermentation work carried out in 1912, using a bacterium called Clostridium as a biocatalyst to create n-Butanol and acetone www.researchfeatures.com
products) to produce acetone, n-Butanol, and ethanol from carbohydrates such as starch and glucose. Over a hundred years later, Green Biologics have taken this concept many steps further. Their research follows the same principle of bacterial fermentation, using a bacterium called Clostridium as a biocatalyst to create n-Butanol and acetone but Green Biologics have improved both the bacterium and the process to produce cost-effective, higherquality chemicals when compared to the fossil-derived versions. These chemicals can then be used directly or reacted to make derivatives, before being used in products such as paints, fragrances, cosmetics, lubricants and even as ingredients for food. JUST A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR… The whole process, in effect, revolves around breaking down sugar, and converting it into n-Butanol and acetone via bacterial fermentation using Clostridia microbial strains. The simpler and more accessible the sugars, the more efficient this process is. For example Clostridia will quite happily ferment glucose which is a C6 sugar or xylose which is a C5 sugar. However, the feedstocks used for a commercial fermentation process are rarely simple and without this, the Clostridia microbial strain is unable to ferment correctly to produce the required products quickly enough and at high enough concentrations. ...HELPS THE CLOSTRIDIA FERMENT… The team at Green Biologics have overcome this issue through a combination of advanced engineering and strain improvement methods. Using methods such as adaptive lab evolution, they have developed improved clostridial strains to use in the process of breaking down C5 and C6 sugars and for overcoming a number of other challenges associated with this type of fermentation. Not only that, but as these strains have been produced without the need for genetic modification (GM), they are natural and safe to use at the Minnesota plant. …IN THE MOST DELIGHTFUL WAY This plant – known as Central Minnesota Renewables – currently uses the ABE fermentation process with Clostridia to ferment sugars found in corn. However, it is hoped that future research and technological developments will move the process towards using sugars found in lignocellulosic feedstocks (i.e., corn stover, bagasse, woody biomass). Currently, the
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Microbiology
C5 and C6 sugars contained within these feedstocks are inaccessible to Clostridia and are unable to be broken down directly. Future research will therefore look to establish hydrolysis pre-treatments that will allow the sugars to be accessed and converted. This is just one of Green Biologics’s current research focuses, progressing in conjunction with Dr Jenkinson’s groundbreaking work using CLEAVE™ technology. This technology is a different way of applying CRISPR gene-editing technology, designed to make highly specific changes in the clostridial DNA (for example deleting a specific region of a gene or making a single base pair change). It can also be used to integrate specific genes into Clostridia microbial strains. These genes can be pinpointed, edited and developed to incorporate the new functionalities required. In other words, CLEAVETM technology has provided Dr Jenkinson and her team with a breakthrough technology capable of expanding and diversifying their product range. Using this innovation, clostridial microbes can be effectively converted into small chemical factories which, with the application of genomic editing and synthetic biology techniques, can develop more products than the butanol and acetone produced during ABE fermentation. CLEAVING CLOSTRIDIA The ability to edit genomes and utilise synthetic biology within Clostridia enables new biological pathways to be added or removed. This, in turn, generates different products that can be utilised across different industries. In one example of Dr Jenkinson’s work, a novel pathway was added to the fermentation process using CLEAVETM technology to produce
The Biomass route to the consumer
a chemical particularly valuable within the food industry. In another example, CLEAVETM was used to alter the ratio of butanol and acetone produced during the ABE fermentation process, depending on the quantity required and the value of each product. Not only that, but by optimising and inserting new enzymatic genes into the Clostridia, the microbes can be modified to break down more complex carbohydrates, which supports and ties into Green Biologic’s other area of research – accessing sugars contained within lignocellulosic feedstocks. A SWEET FUTURE Although the research undertaken by Dr Jenkinson and her team is yet to be published, the emergence of CLEAVETM technology as a potential, scientificallyproven, alternative method to fossil fuels is ground breaking work, and is likely to change the world as we know it. The ability to develop a diverse range of products using Green Biologics’ methods will not only help the environment, but it will also provide a platform on which further beneficial research can take place.
Biomass
C5 and C6 sugars Bio-based n-butanol & acetone Bio-based esters and derivatives Formulated products Consumers
The emergence of CLEAVETM technology as a potential, scientifically-proven, alternative method to fossil fuels is groundbreaking work, and is likely to change the world as we know it 12
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Detail What made you decide to get involved with Green Biologics? When I joined, the company was still working in many different areas, including research contracts, before focusing on Clostridia and chemical production. For me the interest was in the science – we were working with bacteria that are not standard lab strains therefore we had lots of challenges to overcome and that was what drew me in. Why is finding green alternatives to products typically derived from fossil fuels so important to you? There is a need to find alternative ways of making these chemicals. Using microbial fermentation is one way to do this whereby we can take waste and convert it into something useful. Ultimately these processes can be both renewable and sustainable, they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and they can provide some security regarding supply chains. How likely is it that your technology could replace fossil fuels as a power source (rather than as a source of chemicals to use in products) in the future? Right now the challenge with using the bio-butanol from our process as a biofuel is related to cost. Butanol can be used instead of petrol and the founder of Butylfuel, Dave Ramey, has shown this by driving a Buick across the US powered by 100% n-butanol (http://www.butyldude. com/the-2005-trip.html). At the moment, our production costs cannot compete with petrol, primarily due to the cost of feedstocks. In an ideal process our feedstock costs would be minimal, using waste that would otherwise be burnt or left to breakdown naturally. However right now, the sugars contained in these lignocellulosic feedstocks are generally inaccessible to our strains and the pre-treatment processes are either not efficient or economic to use at scale.
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As these technologies mature, the costs of production will come down and in the future it is feasible that bio-butanol could be used as a fuel to power our cars. Why did you choose to use Clostridium as the bacterium in the fermentation process? Solventogenic Clostridia have previously been used as industrial microbes for the production of ABE; therefore, we know they are robust enough to be scaled up. The process itself, however, fell out of favour when it could no longer compete economically with petrochemical-derived products. In the last 15–20 years our understanding of these microbes, the advances made in genomics and in genetic manipulation technologies and the advances made with fermentation technology development mean we can be competitive again, especially in the high-value market sectors. Synthetic biology has great potential for engineering organisms to make products that we need, but if we can work with nature to give us a head start, as we have with Clostridia, then we are more likely to be successful. With the recent purchase of a manufacturing plant in America, will Green Biologics continue to expand in the future? That is the idea. Our first commercial plant at Little Falls, Minnesota began production in 2016. We are currently producing butanol and acetone and selling them to chemical companies and directly blended into consumer products. Our first product, Greenflame™ charcoal lighter fluid is now available in stores in the US (www.greenflame.com). Over the next 12–18 months, production of acetone and butanol will be ramped up and in the meantime we are looking for potential new plants in the US or Europe. Ultimately, we will introduce new products developed through CLEAVETM to develop biorefineries making a range of renewable chemicals.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Dr Jenkinson’s research focuses on using microbial engineering and synthetic biology techniques to utilise Clostridia microbial strains as biocatalysts. She and her team at Green Biologics aim to provide customers with more sustainable, green alternatives for everyday products such as paints, cosmetics and food ingredients. FUNDING Green Biologics has benefitted from private and public funding including investors Swire Pacific, Sofinnova, Capricorn Ventures, Morningside and Oxford Capital partners, and UK, European and American agencies including Innovate UK, Horizon2020, ERANET, and US Department of Energy BIO Dr Jenkinson received a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Genetics in Biotechnology at Sussex University before undertaking a PhD in Biology at York University. She is currently the head of the strain development team at Green Biologics, utilising her expertise in molecular biology to develop key tools capable of manipulating Clostridia microbial strains. She is also in charge of several Innovate UK funded grant projects, primarily focused on synthetic biology. CONTACT Dr Liz Jenkinson – Head of Strain Development, Green Biologics Ltd Office: 80F Park Drive, Milton Park Abingdon Oxford OX14 4RY UK Lab: 45A Western Avenue, Milton Park Abingdon Oxford OX14 4RU United Kingdom T: +44 (0)1235 435710 E: liz.jenkinson@greenbiologics.com W: http://www.greenbiologics.com @GreenBioLtd
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Dentistry
Shedding fresh light on dental demineralisation
The experienced team at CALCIVIS Ltd has developed a new approach to the preventive management of dental caries, one of the leading causes of tooth decay. Using engineered proteins inspired by bioluminescent marine organisms, the team have developed a complete imaging solution for use in the clinic.
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eeth are made up of a central core containing blood vessels and nerves, surrounded by a relatively soft matrix known as pulp. This is, in turn, surrounded by a layer of dentine and the whole tooth is covered in a hard enamel surface to protect it from damage. This enamel is the hardest substance in the human body – but, despite this, is still prone to a process called demineralisation.1
A DENTAL DISASTER Several processes are responsible for demineralisation, from purely physical erosion (e.g., grinding) to chemical erosion in the form of acid attack. Acid enters the mouth from foodstuffs such as fizzy drinks, stomach acid in severe acid reflux, or more commonly as a by-product of bacterial respiration. Bacteria are naturally present in the mouth, in fact some of them are beneficial. However, others actively attack the enamel of teeth and promote demineralisation. The most damaging of these are encouraged to proliferate by excess sugar in the diet, forming bacterial plaques under which the acid is trapped against the vulnerable enamel.
ALL PAIN AND NO GAIN More than 30% of the UK population suffer from dental caries2, where the enamel of the tooth has been weakened due to demineralisation. Left untreated, or spotted too late, it can result in the cavitation of the tooth and exposure of the sensitive inner structure. This then requires drilling (to enlarge the hole back to solid enamel) and filling (with a suitable composite material). Demineralisation and remineralisation (the natural repair process) of the teeth is a dynamic process, occurring constantly in a healthy oral environment. It is up to dental practitioners to spot when insufficient remineralisation results in a net loss of minerals on the tooth surface3 and then provide appropriate treatment to counteract its effects. Until recently, this has relied on visual and tactile inspection of the tooth surface – with dentists using their knowledge and experience to identify active caries sites over inactive ones. The unfortunate result of this, however, is that some cases go untreated before it is too late, while others are treated unnecessarily. ILLUMINATING INSPIRATION Chris Longbottom from King's College
More than 30% of the UK population suffer from dental caries, where the enamel of the tooth has been weakened due to demineralisation www.researchfeatures.com
Dental Institute is a paediatric cariologist and one of the inventors behind the CALCIVIS technology. He says, “The initial idea for what would eventually become the CALCIVIS imaging system came to me whilst I was attending the International Association of Dental Research meeting in Baltimore.” It was not a particular speaker that inspired him though. Instead, browsing a bookshop during a slow afternoon session he picked up a book about bioluminescence in marine organisms and noted that the process was regulated by minerals such as calcium ions. This sparked the idea for a novel way to image active caries in teeth – and the concept of CALCIVIS was born. With help from Adam Christie, an experienced business developer in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets, they set about developing the initial products, although it was not until Bruce Vernon came on board that the technical difficulties around imaging were resolved. Bruce has extensive experience of immunological techniques as well as regulated manufacturing facilities, so he was well placed to bring the technology from concept to realisation. LET THERE BE LIGHT At the heart of the CALCIVIS imaging system is the CALCIVIS photoprotein – a dental biologic which produces light when it reacts with the free calcium ions which are released on actively demineralising tooth surfaces. Because these small flashes of light are not visible to the naked eye, the CALCIVIS system also comprises a specialist imaging device designed exclusively to image the tooth surface after delivering a metered volume of CALCIVIS photoprotein. Using a one-touch, computer-controlled process, the bespoke software presents a chair-side demineralisation “hot-spot” image-map to clinicians in less than a second, enabling an informed and efficient dialogue with patients right there in the clinic. It is this immediate access to accurate, objective information about the patient’s risk of developing caries or erosive lesions which means the technology is a benefit to preventive dental care. ROLLING OUT TO PATIENTS Armed with the information the imaging system provides, a dental practitioner can target specific areas for treatment, as well as engage the patient in a visual demonstration
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Dentistry
The clear display (above) and the spectrum used in the CALCIVIS images (right) simplify discussion and interpretation – the lighter colours indicate a more severe lesion
of how their oral hygiene behaviours affect their teeth. By moderating their diet or using specific treatments on teeth with early-stage, active lesions, the patients have a good chance of stopping demineralisation in its tracks, preventing painful cavitation and subsequent restoration of the teeth. With the vital patient safety tests already completed in the UK and progressing in the US, CALCIVIS is set to bring its product to market with a launch in the UK in 2017. Following successful trials in four dental clinics in Scotland, the Principal Investigator, Charles Ormond, said, “It has been very interesting to be involved with a clinical study of this new technology in Scotland. The images have the potential to provide real insights into the ongoing demineralisation disease process”. This enthusiasm for the technology is indicative of the likely response from other clinicians. CALCIVIS CAPTURES THE MARKET Exhibiting at dental and biotechnology fairs and congresses around the world, the aim is
now to publicise the new technology as widely as possible to encourage uptake. Costing only a few pounds per patient in consumables and with low capital outlay, this technology is set for rapid uptake in the private dental care market. With the focus here on preventive treatment to reduce costly interventions, CALCIVIS gives clinicians an indispensable tool with which to help and educate patients whilst, at the same time, providing vital data to the professionals. It is just as positive from the patient’s point of view. CALCIVIS provides an immediate view of their oral health in an easy-to-understand format. They can leave the clinic knowing exactly what they must do to prevent caries or erosion progressing and adjust their lifestyle accordingly. Return visits will be to monitor the situation accurately, rather than for the dreaded drill and fill, meaning a muchimproved patient–clinician relationship.
CALCIVIS provides an immediate view of oral health in an easy to understand format – patients can leave the clinic knowing exactly what they must do to prevent dental demineralisation and caries developing 16
How does demineralisation occur and why is it such a problem? Fundamentally, demineralisation starts with the dissolution of tooth enamel, either through physical erosion or acid attack. This means you start to lose calcium ions. We're able to detect those calcium ions and visualise them. So, CALCIVIS’ technology is the most direct measure you can get of active demineralisation. And, if you think about it, demineralisation is at the root of all dentistry. If teeth were inert and not subject to demineralisation related to acidic conditions, then you wouldn't need much of modern dentistry. Why are current solutions less than ideal? Currently, the search for or assessment of early demineralisation in particular, is predominantly a visual and tactile process. Dentists use a rounded probe called an ‘explorer’ to test the firmness of the tooth’s surface. It's quite difficult to see early lesions, and when you do see them it's even more difficult to understand whether they're actively progressing or not. So there's a significant level of subjectivity in the diagnostic workup for early caries lesions, and for acid erosion as well. What we're doing at CALCIVIS is giving dentists a tool that enables them to see active demineralisation and to know whether or not it's actively progressing. How does CALCIVIS image demineralisation – what would the dentist and patient experience of the imaging process be? For the patient, it would feel like the dentist was using a standard intraoral camera. These are specialised cameras adapted for the oral environment, and in our case a dentist uses a video feed to identify the tooth of interest. Essentially, the dentist then simply pushes the button on the device, and within less than half a second the device has both sprayed the protein onto the tooth surface and imaged the tooth. That image is then instantly available on the screen. And the nice thing about our images is that they are very straightforward to interpret: at the heart of the technology is a photoprotein that reacts with calcium ions, and the higher
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Detail the concentration of calcium ions in the lesion, then the more luminescence we get – we use a royal blue spectrum as an indicator which goes from very dark blue through to white, indicating the concentration of calcium ions. If you compare this to the interpretation of x-ray images, for example, it is very straightforward – you can tell how severe the lesion is from the colour whereas a 3D x-ray image requires a lot of skill to interpret. The image is then displayed and the dentist can directly show a patient where the tooth is demineralising, where calcium is being lost from the tooth. We know from the clinical studies that we've been doing, that patients actually like to see this. It's a revelation to them, particularly when the dentist explains that they can use a preventive therapy to stop any further demineralisation, which in turn stops them getting a cavity and stops the dreaded drill and fill. What are the principal benefits of the CALCIVIS system? Some of the market research we've done with dentists has suggested that using CALCIVIS would change two things about their management of patients. First is that there would be significantly more communication with the patient: if you have a relatively straightforward image that you can discuss with the patient in a way that is easy for them to understand then the level and quality of the communication goes up. Second is that dentists have said they would use preventive products significantly more as a result of using the technology. Importantly, they know that there's an issue that needs to be addressed – there’s active demineralisation. There are a number of products out there, like fluoride varnishes, various remineralisation agents, sealants, etc. that can be used to arrest demineralisation or actually reverse it. The key thing, though, is they can then monitor the effectiveness of the treatment, because one of the difficulties with these remineralisation therapies is knowing what the optimum treatment regime is and knowing whether you've treated the patient successfully or not. If you've remineralised that lesion or you've stopped any further
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demineralisation, our technology can show that and again that’s something that dentists haven't had before. Dentistry is gradually shifting. In the old days, we had the drill–fill paradigm, where even with relatively early lesions you'd often end up having a restoration. Now, there is a gradual move towards a more diagnostic workup, and more focus on prevention and the use of these secondary preventive products. At CALCIVIS, we aim to enable that preventive paradigm. That's what the technology is all about as far as we're concerned. So that is the main benefit and that's a significant benefit in terms of dentistry, but also for patients themselves. What are the next steps for bringing CALCIVIS to market? We're just about to start a beta test in the UK with 20 practices who are going to install the product and use it in a normal routine clinical setting. This allows us to do things like software refinements, and so on and so forth, just to see how the product behaves in a normal routine clinical environment. That beta test will allow us to make any final tweaks and so on, before we formally launch the product in the UK later on this year. We're also preparing to make our regulatory filing in the US so we could potentially be in the US market before the end of next year. We've been meeting with most of the big dental companies this year, and I think people are impressed with the progress that we've made, because just four and a half years ago this was essentially just an idea. We've really had to develop it from scratch so I think we've done quite a lot over that period of time.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES CALCIVIS are focused on revolutionising the management of dental demineralisation by providing real-time chair-side assessment of the caries and erosion process. FUNDING Archangels Investors Limited Scottish Investment Bank European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst BIO CALCIVIS was co-founded in 2012 by Adam Christie and Bruce Vernon. The CALCIVIS imaging system was developed with input from Professor Nigel Pitts and Dr Christopher Longbottom – both leading specialists in dental caries management, based at King's College Dental Institute. CONTACT Robert Teague Marketing & Sales Director CALCIVIS Ltd Nine Edinburgh BioQuarter 9 Little France Road Edinburgh EH16 4UX UK E: rteague@CALCIVIS.com T: +44 (0)131 658 5152 W: www.CALCIVIS.com
1 Ross, M., Kaye, G., Pawlina, W. (2006) Histology: a text and atlas, 5th ed., Philadelphia; London; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2 Oral Health Foundation: National Smile Month, Facts and Figures. Link: http://www. nationalsmilemonth.org/facts-figures/ [accessed 06/04/17] 3 Featherstone JD. The continuum of dental cariesevidence for a dynamic disease process. J Dent Res.2004;83 (special No C):C39–42. [PubMed]
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The Trainertext Method is an implicit instruction process that draws on the natural strengths of the learner. Its use has even shown positive results on children with learning disabilities
Literacy
The Trainertext Method: a visual track to literacy David Morgan, CEO of DM Ed, and his team have taken an “implicit” approach to reading instruction, known collectively as the Trainertext Method. The key to this innovative computer-based method is visual mnemonics, which give learners the tools to decode any word alongside visual guidance.
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hy is learning to read so difficult? This was the milliondollar question that inspired David Morgan, Mechanical Engineer and Education Specialist, to develop a computer-based reading intervention programme devoted to helping children read through intuitive visual processing. “For many children, learning to read phonetically is hard – to the point that reading often turns into an immense struggle”, says Morgan, who can relate to this, having experienced difficulty himself as a child. In the worst case, children get in the habit of guessing or memorising instead of learning how to decode, which can be fatal to their literacy development. A NEUROLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Taking an entirely different approach from the traditional phonics that most education developers and publishers subscribe to, Morgan and his team began by studying the systems of the brain to determine how to tap into their strengths and facilitate a pupil’s literacy learning curve. They discovered that many memory processes are visual, and in fact, nearly a third of the cortex is devoted to visual processing and storage. Morgan used this neurological knowledge as a basis for developing a system now known as Trainertext. At the core of this system is the use of visual mnemonics – cues that work by associating an image with characters or letters whose name sounds like the item that has to be memorised. “Text is initially hard for children because it is abstract. So,
we started to connect memorable images to each letter, which made it much easier for the children to remember them.” After long periods of research and development, Morgan and his team found that they could harness the same visual prompts to assist the decoding process. UNHOOKED ON PHONICS According to Morgan, phonics rules simply do not work. Conventional phonics is an explicit instruction method, which teaches the “rules” of Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs). It involves linking a particular sound (phoneme) to a particular letter or group of letters (grapheme). The problem with this technique is that the brain finds it difficult to recollect all the letter patterns in relation to sound. The English language is particularly tricky, as it is full of spelling and pronunciation irregularities. On average, each of the 44 phonemes in English can be linked to nine different graphemes, and each grapheme has over three different possible sounds. The Trainertext Method, on the other hand, is an implicit instruction process that draws on the natural strengths of the learner. “The second key neurological pillar of our approach is that reading is a skill that we perform in the subconscious, ‘procedural’ memory”, clarifies Morgan. This is a crucial point given the fact that skills are acquired in a different way to ‘declarative’ conscious processes, whereby knowledge requires learning “rules” to solve complex maths equations, for example. Morgan equates reading to skills like walking, talking and riding a bike, which are implicitly learned through guided practice – suddenly, the
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Literacy
An example of how Trainertext helps with tricky words
subconscious takes over and it all clicks into place. TODAY A READER, TOMORROW A LEADER Children with reading delays who follow a regime of around 60 to 90 15-minute Trainertext sessions have demonstrated significant improvement and can read normal text without the images. Progress in spelling typically starts to show after around 120 to 150 lessons. Additional sessions build confidence and fluency, and in some cases even put pupils at the top of the class for reading. “The conventional approaches to reading have never achieved more than 85% success. When you think about it, that means one out of seven children has gone through the school system unable to read.” The Trainertext Method has even shown positive results on children with learning disabilities. In developing the programme, some neurological complications surfaced that thwarted reading development – in children with weak cerebellar function, for instance. Such children have difficulty with eye tracking and tend to be easily distracted or show signs of dyspraxia. Weak magnocellular pathways, which prevent a child from being able to lock both eyes on the same focal point, were another complication that was detected. Morgan and his team tracked eight areas of neurological challenges connected to the reading process and found that with the right exercise regime, such complications can be improved. Their system was found to build up a child’s eye tracking in about ten days, instead of the six months or
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The data collected in the RCT run by the Open University
more required by conventional support regimes. THE DM ED GUARANTEE What began as a research project in 2004, has flourished into a successful company. DM Ed now retails three DM Reading products for learners of all ages and situations – there is even a programme for adults.
DM Ed is all about giving everyone the gift of literacy. Understanding the devastating effects illiteracy can have on a person’s life, the company offers an unconditional refund promise to anyone not satisfied with the programme. As Morgan says himself: “Far too many people have been held back by weaknesses in their literacy. We want to change that forever.”
Understanding the devastating effects illiteracy can have on a person’s life, DM Ed is all about giving everyone the gift of literacy www.researchfeatures.com
Detail How open are school officials and teachers to computer-based intervention in general? I think that five years ago you would have found some resistance to the idea. But that is now changing. Teachers are seeing computers as an assistive technology rather than a threat to good classroom practice. And the level of technical ability amongst teachers is inevitably rising too, just as with all of us. Has it been difficult to integrate DM Reading Programmes into the education system? As an intervention system we have always been to one side of the curriculum. Our role is to get students back on track with the curriculum. So we have never found a problem with integration. Teachers just want a solution to this critical issue, because it blocks all real progress from the age of nine onwards. The children are then reading to learn, rather than learning to read. How does the Trainertext Method compare with other computer-based reading intervention programmes? Every other programme we know of uses one of the three conventional methodologies, which have been around for decades or centuries (whole word, classic phonics and multisensory). We are using a fundamentally different approach to get the phonics working for a child through the visual mnemonics. By using this new implicit instruction process for the decoding, Trainertext is a much more comfortable and effective experience for the learner. It works with the natural learning patterns of the brain. DM Reading programmes are targeted at learners with reading delays and disabilities, but does it have the potential to enhance the skills of those who are already strong in reading? It is true that most of our development has been mainly done with struggling readers. But Trainertext makes the process much easier for any learner.
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So we have just released a system for much younger children, with no known difficulties, and an app for adults. Our task over the next eight years is to get Trainertext into the hands of every child learning to read. We also work with strong readers who struggle to spell. They are almost always sight-word readers and when we teach them to decode, their spelling drops into place quite easily. Memorising spelling lists is like pushing water up a hill for those children! What is next on the agenda, foreign languages perhaps? Yes, absolutely. Our next major target is to release versions in Spanish, Arabic and Hindi. We would then be able to reach nearly two billion poor readers. We have 15% of our children failing to learn to read, but sadly that is pretty good compared to most of the world. From a scientific perspective, what are the benefits of computerbased learning tools with gaming features? It’s a funny thing, that people sometimes feel learning through play is somehow lightweight. That view is neurological rubbish. The brain learns when it is engaged. So boredom is the death of learning and all good teachers entertain. I believe that emotion and interaction are the gold seams of accelerated education. I learned double entry bookkeeping from John Cleese, the comedian. He made it a lot easier, because I was awake through the class. We run very short lessons, of no more than fifteen minutes, and we always engage the learner to the maximum of our ability, with some form of entertainment and/or challenge. If we can get a bit of toilet humour in there too, we definitely will. For neurologically sound reasons, of course.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES David Morgan's research focuses on developing a fresh approach to the process behind learning to read, for both children and adults. Within this, he hopes to develop a system that works with the brain's learning style and engages the brain through entertainment. RESEARCH PAPER http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1111/1467-9817.12107 FUNDING Innovate UK COLLABORATORS • The Open University • Innovate UK • Big Society Capital • Google Campus • Startup Leadership Programme BIO David Morgan is the founder and lead educationalist of DM Ed. His research focus has been literacy partly because he himself struggled to learn to read. David’s first degree was in mechanical engineering. He has a Master’s degree in Education. David also helped establish the Shannon Trust, a prison literacy charity. CONTACT David Morgan, CEO DM Education 29 Beaumont Street Oxford OX1 2NP UK T: +44 1865 237951 E: davidm@dm-ed.com W: https://dm-ed.com
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Thought Leadership
Nesta: new ideas, new possibilities Great things can be achieved with great ideas. Creative ways of seeing, perceiving and solving problems can change the world. But the process of transforming a spark of inspiration into something with the potential to be useful is a complex one. This is where Nesta - which started life as the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts – comes in. Nesta seeks out and develops new ideas, with the aim of tackling the big challenges of our time. Geoff Mulgan, Nesta’s Chief Executive, met up with Research Features to tell us more.
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eoff Mulgan is interested in social change. A quick glance at his CV shows this to be a recurring theme, and one which he has approached from many different angles. He used to be head of policy at 10 Downing Street, he founded Demos, the ‘UK's most influential thinktank’ (as described by The Economist), and spent some time as a Buddhist monk. Today Geoff is Chief Executive of ‘innovation foundation’, Nesta, an organisation which aims to bring about social change through the practical implementation of new ideas. This independent body aims to get people working together, from grassroots activists to national governments, to improve how the world works for everyone. Research Features met up with Geoff to find out more about social innovation, a process that he describes simply as ‘new ideas that work’, and to hear about some of the exciting projects currently underway at Nesta. Hello Geoff! Can you tell us what brought
you to Nesta and what your role there involves? I have a PhD in telecommunications, I ran the Prime Minister’s (Tony Blair’s) policy unit, and was involved in the arts in quite a few fields. For me, this was a chance to bring quite a few of those threads together. We have here a team of about 200 people, working on everything from research projects, to investments, to practical programmes. We now work in six continents, so we have become a very global organisation. My task is really keeping the show on the road, ensuring that what we do is as impactful as possible and that the main focus is on innovation. We do not do much fundamental or basic research. It is more about trying to bring ideas into the world and to be as useful as possible, and achieve some public benefit. Innovation is a real buzzword at the moment. Is there a certain point when it took off? I think it has been recognised for about 40 or 50 years, that innovation is the main driver of economic growth. In most accounts, at least 60%, probably 80% of economic growth
It takes development, experimentation and adaptation of all kinds to turn even a fantastic idea into a form which will grow a business or change the way a social system works 22
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How Do I? – one of the recipients of Nesta's Inclusive Technology Prize – is an app which guides disabled people through daily tasks
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Nesta's headquarters at Victoria Embankment, London
Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta.
comes from new ideas and their adoption. In fields like the public sector there is growing recognition that if you do not innovate, you stagnate. To some extent it is a word that is very widely used and probably overused. What are the challenges that Nesta was set up to address, and what impact has the organisation had on these issues? The founding goal of the organisation was to address what has been a very longstanding issue in the UK, which is our ability to make ideas useful. That can be about commercialising ideas from universities, but much more broadly, it is about an anxiety that we are a creative country, but we are not always so good at making the most of that creativity. What we have done over the last 16 or 17 years is act on this in many fields. We have been an investor, directly, in earlystage tech companies. We have helped to grow fields like alternative finance, which has roughly doubled each year in turnover for the last five years, with a turnover of nearly four billion last year. We have helped shift the whole approach of the UK on coding skills for kids. Many more primary and secondary school children are learning computer science and learning how to code. We have brought in some radical new approaches to health care. We are always trying to bring together our capabilities in research, in funding,
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but also in knowing how business and government work, with a focus on practical implementation as well as ideas. Do you think there are always lots of ideas around, but that sometimes the circumstances are not right for them to reach their potential? It is rare for ideas to be born fully formed. One of the things we have done is to experiment with lots of methods for improving the quality of ideas, helping people turn a half-formed idea into something with the potential to be useful. It is very rarely the case that there is a pool of ideas simply ready to be exploited. It is hard work. It takes development, experimentation and adaptation of all kinds to turn even a fantastic idea into a form which will grow a business or change the way a social system works. How valuable are historical perspectives on present day innovation questions? It is always interesting to look at history. Our digital magazine, The Long + Short, has commissioned many articles looking at historical analogies. To give you an example, we are doing a lot of work at the moment on how cities can best experiment with the use of drones, and also design the regulation of drones. There are lots of parallels with what
happened when the car came along. To get the best of the car, but not the worst, cities had to invent things like driving schools, road markings, traffic rules, fines and driving licences. A whole panoply of institutional innovations were needed to get the best out of the technology. It is always useful to look at a historical analogy with almost any innovation now. What are some of the main considerations in the formation of innovation policy and what is Nesta’s relationship to policy making? We work with many governments around the world. We conduct training for innovation policy leads. In the next couple of years we will be doing that in 20 countries. In the UK, we work closely with the Whitehall departments, but also in Scotland and Wales, partly helping policy makers be aware of the different methods they could be using for funding or for support, partly helping on data tools. We have developed better ways of mapping what is actually happening in the economy, identifying new firms, new sectors, new clusters, and we think those will become pretty standard in policy making in the future. We also deal with some perhaps slightly more lateral issues. We are doing a big study at the moment on future skills needs in the UK and the US, looking at how
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Š Luca Marziale
Thought Leadership
Abandon Normal Devices: one of the virtual reality projects funded as part of Nesta's Digital R&D Fund for the Arts programme, with Arts Council England and AHRC, to engage new audiences in the arts
Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta
automation will change jobs, and the likely skills needs of different kinds of job. This will allow us to see how fit-for-purpose the current provision by schools or universities is, given the young people in them now will be needing a job in 10 or 20 years time. So we are working on a lot of different angles of policy. An ethical and societal mission is at the heart of Nesta’s innovation agenda, how does Nesta marry these aims with an analytical approach? We like to look at the facts as they are, particularly where public money is concerned. The UK, like many countries, invests many billions in innovation. We think it is pretty important to be able to distinguish good from bad innovation, and one of the deficiencies of much of the policy debate is that it often treats innovation as good in itself. You mentioned historical perspective, and it is fairly obvious, once you reflect for a moment, that some innovations have been incredibly damaging. We think in the future it will be necessary for anyone involved in innovation to be a lot more sophisticated about ethical questions. Most writing about innovation and most innovation agencies around the world are still stuck in a rather anachronistic frame, where innovation is just good per se and they do not distinguish between good and bad.
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Our aim is to become, at a global level, a trusted intermediary with deep knowledge of how innovation works in practice Nesta is based in the UK, but is involved in projects all around the world. Can you tell us about the importance of international collaboration for Nesta? Innovation is truly global now. Ten or 20 years ago we would have only really looked to Silicon Valley, or to perhaps Japan to learn about innovation. Now there are all sorts of innovations in innovation happening in China, India, Brazil, Scandinavia. We see it as really important to be open to all of those, to learn from them, to adapt the best methods coming from other countries. Often that means putting together or encouraging collaborations across borders. Obviously a great deal of modern science is very global and very collaborative, and a fair amount of innovation is as well. We see it as absolutely vital that the UK does remain very open and networked in every aspect of its innovation ecosystem in the future. What is your vision for Nesta over the next 18 months? We have just moved into a new building and we are trying to use our new space as a hub for people and organisations involved in creative solutions. We are growing a number of our teams and units which have become quite global in their reach. We have, for example, the Challenge Prize Centre, the Alliance for Useful Evidence, and a team
running transformative processes in health care. We have an i-school – an innovation school which is going global this year. We are really keen to help all of these grow as a network of organisations, and we may set up sister organisations in a few other countries this year too. Our aim is to become, at a global level, a trusted intermediary with deep knowledge of how innovation works in practice.
Contact Nesta 58 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DS UK E: information@nesta.org.uk T: 020 7438 2500 W: www.nesta.org.uk /nesta.uk @nesta_uk
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It has been shown that the HIP process can produce dense, physically robust wasteforms with large volume reductions from 100 % waste 26
Nuclear Waste Management
Hot isostatic pressing can substantially reduce the volume of nuclear waste A graduate from the University of Sheffield, Dr Paul Heath of GeoRoc Ltd has a PhD in the application of hot-isostatic pressing (HIPing) technology to challenging and diverse radioactive waste streams. He currently leads GeoRoc Ltd’s research on HIPing of nuclear waste streams from the Sellafield site.
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he UK will spend around £117 billion on nuclear decommissioning within the next century. Of this, around 70% of the financial expenditure is predicted to be focused on Sellafield, the site of many ground-breaking nuclear developments in the 20th century. Having successfully delivered concept and early design projects based on Sellafield waste streams, Dr Paul Heath and the team at GeoRoc are working on an innovative new technology, based on a hot-isostatic pressing technique (HIPing). This technology could save up to £950 million in waste management and packaging costs and reduce the volume of sludge and slurry radioactive waste in repositories by up to 90%. CURRENT WASTE TREATMENT In England and Wales, Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) and High Level Waste (HLW) (wastes exceeding 4 GBq / tonne α or 12 GBq / tonne β/γ) arising from current and historic nuclear operations, are to be disposed of at a single geological disposal facility, or repository. Prior to deposition, wastes are processed in order to be deemed passively safe using existing waste treatment methods, including cementation and melting into a glass wasteform (vitrification).
taking valuable repository space which may be costed by volume, and incurs additional waste transfer liabilities. The process is not ideally suited for all waste streams, for example the presence of reactive metals such as uranium may destabilise the cement, leading to reduced stability and durability. Vitrification is the preferred option for high level wastes (HLW). It typically involves calcining the waste materials and melting with additives in order to immobilise radionuclides and chemotoxic elements within a borosilicate based glass. Vitrification is also under investigation as a method for the treatment of ILW. Although vitrification offers a significantly reduced waste volume when compared to encapsulation, it is a complex process which requires exact control of process parameters such as the melt viscosity, crystallisation
and conductivity, which are dependent on waste-stream composition. In addition, the processes involved may lead to greater radioactive volatile losses, more complex offgas systems and additional secondary wastes. HOT-ISOSTATIC PRESSING GeoRoc’s Hot-Isostatic Pressing (HIPing) technology is potentially an exciting alternative treatment option for ILW wastes. HIPing is an existing method used to densify and consolidate materials by applying isostatic pressure at an elevated temperature in a pressure vessel. An inert gas, typically argon, is used to pressurise the heated vessel. For radioactive waste treatment, the waste is sealed inside a specially designed canister before HIPing. As the temperature and pressure inside the vessel increases, the materials placed in the canister react and densify to produce stable, volume reduced wasteforms. THE BENEFITS GeoRoc have been investigating how the HIP process could be used to treat approximately 5000 m3 of wastes (primarily magnesium hydroxide sludges from Magnox fuel elements and clinoptilolite slurries from SIXEP plant operations) from the Sellafield site in the North West of England. The selection of a baseline treatment option for these sludge and slurry wastes is currently under review by Sellafield Ltd. GeoRoc's work to date has shown that the HIP treatment method is commercially feasible. A conceptual plant design detailing the treatment philosophy of these wastes has been delivered to Sellafield, supported by a trial demonstrating that over 160 L of sludge can be processed in a single waste package. This trial processed over 160 L of sludge into a single 40 L HIP package. Following
ILW is typically treated via cementation, which encapsulates the waste products within a cement matrix to contain the radioactive products. However, this process typically increases waste volumes by up to 400%,
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Nuclear Waste Management
The work performed by GeoRoc pushes the boundaries of HIP technology for waste treatment, successfully processing the largest demonstration wasteform to date the success of these two projects, GeoRoc’s process has become a viable alternative, under consideration for the treatment of ILW streams. The advantages of this technology over existing practices include increased wasteform stability, significant waste volume reductions and minimised secondary or operational wastes. This aligns with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) Research and Development 5 Year Plan to establish alternative waste treatments with a particular focus on volume reduction. As a number of these wastes are poorly characterised, Dr Heath and the team needed to understand the flexibility of the HIP process
and, specifically, its capacity to accommodate the physical and chemical variations within the waste stream and the properties of uraniumdoped radioactive samples. This further research will demonstrate the feasibility of using GeoRoc’s technology to treat these highly variable waste-streams. UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUES: THREE KEY PHASES Using simulants of the Magnox sludge and SIXEP sand/clinoptilolite slurry currently at Sellafield, the first stage investigated the science and reaction of the materials during processing, selecting a suitable combination of additives and processing parameters. Subsequently, samples were loaded with non-radioactive caesium (Cs) and a range of
Vacuum
additives to simulate the complex chemistry of the sludge wastes and their effect on processing was determined. The next phase looked at the extremes of Sellafield’s waste inventory. By evaluating the effect of varying particle size, carbonate content, organic content, reactive metal content and total waste loading, it was determined that suitable wasteforms could be produced across the expected range of sludge and slurry waste streams using identical process parameters. Finally, the project will produce and analyse uranium-doped HIP samples. The samples will be based on the Magnox sludge composition and will characterise the behaviour of radioactive material during processing. This will provide information on the speciation, wasteform quality and technical feasibility of uranium inclusion within the HIP process. THE FUTURE OF NUCLEAR WASTE TREATMENT GeoRoc’s technology has the potential to significantly reduce the lifetime waste management costs for radioactive waste liabilities. Savings could be made through the production of fewer packages, a smaller repository and simplified logistics. This, in turn, would reduce the environmental, safety and security risks associated with waste handling and transport. These factors may save the NDA, and therefore the taxpayer, several hundred million pounds. In addition, the use of HIP technology to treat these wastes is likely to promote the long-term isolation of radioactive and toxic materials, minimising the risk of these elements reaching the environment in an uncontrolled way from interim storage facilities.
Canister filling
Evacuation/bake-out
Sealed canister
Simultaneous application of heat and isostatic pressures
Canisters loading in HIP
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HIPing
Waste Packaging
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Detail As the simulants for the feasibility studies are based on Magnox sludge waste, will additional studies need to be completed at other sites? As the primary focus of all UK nuclear operations is public safety, research into the treatment of each wastestream is typically undertaken to ensure the process is suitable, whatever the proposed treatment methodology. The highly variable physical, chemical and radioactive properties of wastes around the world means no one solution is able to safely and effectively treat all wastes. Thermal treatment of wastes, such as HIP, offer significant improvements, ensuring radioactive waste is treated safely by reducing the volume and increasing the long-term stability of the waste materials. Can this technology be applied to wastes from other industries e.g. oil, gas, and mining? Yes, one of the major benefits of HIP technology in the treatment of radioactive wastes is the flexibility to produce a range of materials using the same processing equipment. This is equally true of other wastes, especially heavy and toxic metals produced from drilling and mining operations. HIP technology processes waste in a sealed canister, which means the critical treatment parameters (e.g., temperature, pressure, time) are independent of the waste-stream properties. This allows the same equipment to be used to design and produce metallic, ceramic, glass or glassceramics materials at high waste-loadings, based on the chemistry and physical properties of the waste. Having demonstrated the viability of HIP for the treatment of Sellafield sludge and slurry wastes, what is the next step for full commercialisation of the technology? GeoRoc have designed a functional pilot plant. This facility will be the world’s first integrated and flexible demonstration of HIP technology for the treatment of waste materials. The pilot facility has been designed to process wastes at a commercially relevant scale (~1/10 – full scale depending on waste stream) and will be
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made available to trial problematic wastes. We believe the operation of this pilot facility will provide a step change in the acceptance of HIP as an option for treatment of the world’s most problematic legacy wastes.
Comparison of waste volumes produced if Sellafield's ILW sludge and slurries were treated by a variety of potential options (m3)
Can HIPing be applied to existing cemented waste packages? While theoretically possible, it would require some development effort with some front-end processing. There would also have to be a cost benefit assessment undertaken by the waste owners to see if there was any value in further treating these packages. The packages are therefore not a current target for us. GeoRoc is focusing its development efforts on the higher hazard, untreated wastes, such as the Magnox sludges. One potential issue with decommissioning is the unavailability of historical operational data. Does this limit waste treatment options? The complexity and cost of obtaining representative data for certain waste streams can severely limit their waste treatment options. This is why the flexibility afforded by HIP treatment and the research we have been performing on the waste envelope is so important to supporting the commercial implementation of this technology. For example, it has been shown that the HIP process does not need to accurately meter chemical additives as it has a broad chemical process window and can produce dense, physically robust wasteforms using 100 wt% waste. This is true whether treating magnox sludge, SIXEP sand/clinoptilolite or a combination of the two, all under identical processing conditions.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Dr Heath’s research focuses on the disposal of nuclear waste. His recent research has been related to the application of hot-isostatic pressing in the treatment of UK ILW sludges and slurries. FUNDING • Innovate UK • Nuclear Decommissioning Authority COLLABORATORS • Martin Stewart (GeoRoc) • Sam Moricca (AMEPT) • Prof Neil Hyatt (ISL – University of Sheffield) • Dr Sean Morgan (Sellafield Ltd) BIO Dr Paul Heath has been leading GeoRoc’s Sludge and Slurry Treatment R&D programme for over two years. Since the start of his PhD, his research has focused on the development of treatment options for radioactive wastes. These studies have aimed to combine advanced, passively safe wasteforms with industrially relevant processing technologies. CONTACT Dr Paul Heath, Materials Engineer, GeoRoc Ltd Unit 1 – Building 3 Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) Rotherham S60 5WG UK T: +44(0)7939 889 726 E: paul.heath@georoc.co.uk W: www.georoc.co.uk
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Pharmaceutical Technology
Hot off the press
formulation). Examples of these may include diluents, binders, lubricants, disintegrants (to enhance tablet break up) and sweeteners, or other substances to improve palatability. Tablet design and manufacture is therefore a complex science, combining these ingredients to produce a quality product.
The new D series research powder analyser from Gamlen Instruments speeds up the process of advanced tableting research. Created by Dr Michael Gamlen, Head of Tablet Development at the Wellcome Foundation Ltd for 15 years, it has been demonstrated to generate data which accurately predict the behaviour of pharmaceutical powders when compressed in production conditions.
P
ressing pharmaceuticals into tablets as a way of creating an easy-to-administer form of solid dosage has a long history; tablets are now the most popular method of administration, making up a third of all dispensed prescriptions. They provide a remarkably efficient way to deliver an
accurate dose to a specific site, but their manufacture is not without its challenges. FORM AND FUNCTION As well as the active chemical for treatment, each tablet contains excipients (inactive substances that serve as a vehicle for a drug or improve the processing behaviour of the
AN EXPERIENCED OPERATOR This research has been brought to the cutting edge by Dr Michael Gamlen’s innovation. Having specialised in pharmaceutical engineering as a pharmacy undergraduate, Dr Gamlen completed his PhD at the renowned Nottingham University. From there he pursued a career in product development, tablet formulation and process optimisation studies, becoming Head of Tablet Development at the Londonbased Wellcome Foundation for biomedical research and consulting for other biotech companies. Using his years of experience in tablet design and manufacture, he created the first computer-controlled desktop tablet press through a lengthy and painstaking process of research and development. This has recently been enhanced by the launch of the Gamlen D series powder compaction analyser. The new instrument has been shown by independent tests to simulate the behaviour of a production tablet press and provide complete control of the compaction process using only small amounts of material. It generates precise measurements of material compressibility and lubrication by capturing tablet compression force, detachment and ejection force measurements. In addition, the Gamlen D Series can be linked to the Tablet Tensile Analyser and an analytical
The D Series provides complete control of the compaction process – it generates precise measurements of compressibility and lubrication by capturing tablet compression force, detachment and ejection force measurements 30
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Pharmaceutical Technology
ADA
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balance to provide an integrated assessment of tablet properties. The system utilises a 4-figure analytical balance and digital micrometer to automatically capture and send thickness, weight and fracture data to the computer in real time. Dynamic powder compaction analysis can also be carried out using the unique Gamlen punch position and force measurement combination. A PRESS INTO SERVICE With a wide range of die sizes available (3–15 mm), the Gamlen D Series provides accurate compaction data as it presses the tablet into shape. The die is then rotated for measurement of detachment force as the die base is slid across the tablet. This centres the formed tablet, still held within the die, over the ejection cavity. The die is then rotated back to the starting position and the tablet is ejected in the same direction as the compaction event while measuring the ejection force. These steps are analogous to detachment and ejection on a conventional tablet press, and provide vital data for preproduction testing.
The principal advantage of the D Series system is the ability to bring all of the compaction and lubrication data into a single manufacturability analysis which helps the operator understand the product is the ability to bring compaction and lubrication data together in a single analysis to help the operator understand the product. Through accurate measurement of tablet weight and dimensions using the balance and digital micrometer supplied, the Tensile Stress Analyser is linked to the compaction system to provide the user with calculated values for tablet density, tensile
fracture stress, solid fraction and G ratio (a new assessment of tablet quality developed by Gamlen). Using the proprietary software, users are able to plot these values against each other to generate curves of important production characteristics such as compaction (tablet solid fraction vs tensile fracture stress),
The ability to test out variations in the composition of powders prior to tablet manufacture, and using small quantities of materials, saves time and money. Using the system, researchers can quickly make incremental adjustments to the composition until the desired quality is achieved. It is also useful for studying tablet excipients, and using model systems to understand the compaction process. THE DEVELOPMENT IS IN THE DETAIL The principal advantage of the D Series
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Detail Why are tablets such a popular format for drug delivery? Because they are cheap to make, easy to transport, and can be made with a wide range of different properties What are the principal challenges in creating a preparation for tablet manufacture? To improve tablet quality the principal challenge is to measure the difference between a good and a bad tablet. This is only possible using an instrument which controls the force used to make the tablet. It simulates compaction of the tablet on the production tablet press. How does the Gamlen D Series assist in overcoming these challenges? The Gamlen D series allows the user in the laboratory to compare powders and products at controlled compaction force, and predict the properties of the product in full production.
the instrument allows the user to study the impact of material and process changes without needing to run full-scale production tests, saving time and money. What are the key differences between the D series instrument and the initial tablet press you designed when you first set up Gamlen Tableting Ltd? The key improvements in our system are the development of the detachment system, for comprehensive study of lubrication problems, and the increase in operating speed to improve productivity and throughput. What are the next steps for Gamlen Tableting? We will be launching a new compaction analysis software suite including a number of completely new ways to study the tableting process and simplify the process for improving tablet quality.
What additional benefits does the D Series provide for tablet research? By acting as a compaction simulator,
tableting (compaction pressure vs tensile strength) and compressibility (compaction force vs solid fraction). Researchers in Japan have recently published data for studies using exactly this technique to assess the tableting properties of a wide range of products. At least eight full scientific papers and at least 30 posters demonstrating the applicability of the instruments have been published. By identifying ranges within which the tableting properties of a powder are considered optimal, the researchers are able to investigate how different excipients affect tablet formation. These data can then be used to support the known properties of the substances when considering inclusion in preparations and to predict the properties of the product in production, preventing failures during manufacture such as sticking, capping or binding and helping to create tablets that resist damage during packaging and transit.
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A PRESSING NEED The Gamlen D Series provides researchers with a powder compaction system which is unique in its field. Truly benchtop in size and weight it can even be encased within a glove box or other chamber for complete environmental control. The software provides accurate and reproducible management of the compression parameters, with automatic calibration on start-up and control of punch dwell time. Easily operated by a single researcher and with a compaction rate of 0.01–3 mm/s, the complete system makes formulation testing quick and efficient. Covering the entire process of tablet research using the combination of compactor and tensile analyser, data is immediately available either visually within the software or by export to industry standard spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. The Gamlen D Series uniquely bridges the gap between research and manufacture and truly streamlines the tablet development process.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Dr Gamlen’s research focuses on improving tablet quality through design, formulation and development. Following the extensive success of his initial research tablet press, Dr Gamlen has made it his mission to update and streamline the development process for tablet manufacture further using his newly updated D series powder compaction analyser. FUNDING Innovate UK COLLABORATORS • King’s College London • GlaxoSmithKline • Pfizer • Sawai Pharmaceutical Company BIO Dr Michael Gamlen has had an extensive career within scientific research and tablet development. After studying for his PhD at Nottingham University, he became the Head of Tablet Development at the Wellcome Foundation Ltd and a consultant to Vanguard Medica Ltd. Following this, he realised people needed a more reliable way to improve tablet quality under controlled laboratory conditions, and he knew how to do so. This resulted in the Gamlen product series. CONTACT Dr Michael Gamlen, Managing Director Gamlen Tableting Ltd Biocity Nottingham Pennyfoot Street Nottingham NG1 1GF UK T: 0115 912 4271 E: michael.gamlen@gamlentableting.com W: http://gamlentableting.com/
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Magnetron sputtering allows for greater sputter efficiency and increased sputter rates at significantly lower gas pressures
Physics Engineering
Modelling magnetron sputtering for high value manufacturing Teer Coatings is a leading company in the production of state-of the-art thin film coating deposition systems, and hence in the development of custombased coating solutions for any given component. They are currently involved in a collaborative modelling research project, for the efficient and accurate prediction of industrial magnetron deposition systems.
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ogether with its parent company (Miba Coating Group), Teer Coatings is a pioneer in manufacturing Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) coatings and developing fully computer controlled coating systems. Not only that, but the company are currently focusing on modelling magnetron sputtering – they have helped develop a virtual machine that simulates the coating process, which will eventually speed up the development of the manufacturing process, and cut down the cost dramatically. Introducing commercial software that can accurately perform self-consistent particle modelling, simulations of various designs and targets for thin film deposition, including magnetic field simulations, is currently at the core of the company’s objectives. WHAT IS ‘SPUTTERING’? In principle, sputtering – a term whose etymology defines it as the process of emitting saliva with noise – involves highly energetic particles that hit a given target material in order to generate, or eject, atoms which are subsequently used in thin film deposition on a given substrate. The substrate is placed in a vacuum chamber with an inert gas, and, following sputtering, the atoms emitted from the target will be deposited onto the substrate. Owing to their high energy, these particles (ions) initiate collision cascades which, ultimately, reach the intended surface with energies greater than the respective binding ones, thus triggering the ejection of the surface atoms. This implies that these highly energetic particles have kinetic energies that are much higher than the
respective thermal ones, although it should be mentioned that the number of the ejected atoms will depend on their respective mass, the energies of the triggering ions, and also their respective angle of incidence. This is an extremely significant and exciting technique that can be employed in a plethora of applications from decorative coatings on glass, to coatings that are engineered specifically on products. As such, it is at the core of today’s semiconductor industry. Currently, there are many techniques for sputtering – namely electronic, heat spike, potential, chemical sputtering, etc. – each with their own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, heat spike sputtering occurs in very dense solids where the distances between the triggering ions and the target are very small. Such dense collisions will produce a so-called heat spike that induces local melting to the crystal, thus allowing many atoms to undergo sputtering because of the subsequent flow of liquid from the melting crystal. BENEFITS OF MAGNETRON SPUTTERING Magnetic fields can be used to control the velocity, direction and behaviour of ions. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that, even though it has been a while since sputtering has practically revolutionised thin film coatings from large R&D systems to large production systems, research has shifted its attention to magnetron sputtering, owing to its profound advantages compared to conventional sputtering. Magnetron sputtering is based on plasma sputtering processes in which plasma is created and confined within a magnetic field.
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Physics Engineering
Positively charged ions from this plasma are then accelerated towards a negatively charged electrode (target) – similar to a conventional electric field. Provided that the respective potential can amount to several hundred eV (electron Volts), these positively charged particles will then strike the electrode, thus forcing atoms to be ejected from the target. The closed magnetic field is used to trap electrons more efficiently, thus allowing the formation of plasma under lower pressure. This not only decreases the electrons lost as a result of collisions with chamber wall, but it also has the capacity to limit the (unavoidable) deposition of gas on the thin films. Magnetron sputtering allows for greater sputter efficiency and increased sputter rates at significantly lower gas pressures. However, the characteristics of the deposited thin film can vary, in a controlled manner, by altering the properties of the plasma. This is why the process has become more controlled, offering a greater number of applications in comparison to conventional sputtering. This is the field where Teer Coatings demonstrates its critical role.
The development and commercialisation of software that can enable the distinct modelling of magnetron sputtering is bound to enhance its productivity, applicability, and reproducibility Magnetic fields can essentially define the behaviour and the properties of the ion charged particles that are used for sputtering. So, with collaborators at Cobham and the Open University, the team together developed and validated the modelling software Opera, which can model the interaction of plasmas in electromagnetic fields, and accurately evaluate the efficiency and eventually the properties of the coatings themselves. This method can also be extended to model specific target utilisation
– including multi-target coaters – which are, consequently, validated against production devices. The development and commercialisation of software that can enable the distinct modelling of magnetron sputtering is bound to enhance its productivity, applicability, and reproducibility. This, in turn, will provide a level of high performance and unprecedented accuracy to the semiconductor industry in general.
MODELLING MAGNETRON SPUTTERING Teer Coatings has dedicated more than 30 years to manufacturing and designing magnetrons that can be rectangular, cylindrical, circular, and of various sizes. They have developed a plethora of targets that can be directly cooled or bonded, and can be manufactured in such a way that can fit most magnetron sizes. However, and most importantly, Teer Coatings is following the trend of magnetic sputtering, and hence has been seeking the best solutions to model the overall process.
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Detail What was the company’s incentive to place magnetron sputtering modelling as its primary aim? For the magnetron sputtering industry, our current problem is that we have to go through extensive trials, or build multiple prototypes, in order to respond to new customers' requirements. This process can be very time-consuming, and it uses lots of resources. The incentive for the company is to use a software to model the whole process, which will greatly cut down the development time, even eliminating the need for building prototypes. Obviously, this will reduce the cost, and significantly improve efficiency. Why is magnetron sputtering more important or efficient than other types of sputtering, including chemical and heat spike? Magnetron sputtering technology has many advantages over other types of coating technologies, such as (1) high deposition rates, (2) ease of sputtering any metal, alloy or compound, (3) highpurity films, (4) extremely high adhesion of films, (5) ease of automation, and (6) excellent uniformity on large-area substrates. Another advantage is that it’s environment friendly. For example, the electro-plating industry produces large amounts of Cr (IV), which is toxic and causes serious contamination to the environment; the magnetron sputtering technology can do the chromium coating efficiently without any by-product of Cr (IV). What will be your primary means for commercialising this product? The commercialisation and promotion of the software is up to the company Cobham. Teer Coatings have access to the software, and will fully utilise
the software to model the magnetron sputtering process. This will provide our customers with better coating services, like faster turn-around time, better coating uniformity, and more competitive pricing. Is the developed software userfriendly, and if so, what can the designer predict and optimise? Yes, the software developed by Cobham is user-friendly, with an intuitive graphic user interface to set up the 3D model, and carry out the simulation process. The magnetic field of the magnetron can be precisely predicted, which will help the engineer to optimise the layout of magnets to achieve the desired sputtering conditions. The dense plasma in front of the magnetron can also be modelled, which is important to determine the racetrack on the target and the utilisation rate of the target. Furthermore, the trajectories of the particles can be simulated, and hence the coating uniformity can be predicted. Can the developed software be used to model all electromagnetic devices? The software Opera has been developed over many years by Cobham, and it was indeed designed to be used as a general modelling software for all electromagnetic applications. Magnetron sputtering is a special case, which hasn’t been covered by any major electromagnetic modelling tools. During the period of the collaborative research project, a plasma physics module was developed and added into the software package Opera. It won’t answer all the questions we have in practice, but certainly it’s very useful to reduce time spent on the sputtering process development.
[Using] a software to model the whole process ... will greatly cut down the development time, even eliminating the need for building prototypes
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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Teer Coatings focus on developing individual coating solutions for components. Their recent research has centred around validation of magnetron sputtering modelling for more efficient coating process development. FUNDING Innovate UK COLLABORATORS • Derek Monahan, John Simkin, Chris Riley (Opera Software, Cobham Technical Services) •D r Alexandre Nominé, Prof Nicholas St John Braithwaite (Plasma Lab, Department of Physical Sciences, The Open University) Cobham is responsible for the development of the software, called Opera; Open University is responsible for the investigation of plasma physics, which is the key process in the magnetron sputtering; Teer Coatings is responsible for the running of the actual magnetron sputtering experiments, collecting data, and verifying whether the predication made by the modelling is correct. BIO Teer Coatings Ltd develop individual coating solutions for components and are leaders in building coating machines. They specialise in Physical Vapour Deposition coatings and have one of the world’s most comprehensive coatings portfolios. They are also firmly committed to research and development and are heavily geared to progress and innovation. CONTACT Miba Coating Group. Teer Coatings Ltd West-Stone-House, West-Stone, BerryHill-Industrial-Estate, Droitwich, Worcestershire, WR9 9AS UK T: +441905 827 550 E: hailin.sun@miba.com W: http://teercoatings.co.uk
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COMMUNICATION RESEARCH NEWS
Social media and the rise of video
Since the innovation of Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web and the introduction of Google in 1998, the successive trend of online development has been in social media. Patrick Bawn takes a look at how important using video has now become across these platforms, especially within science. With the world living in a time of online interactivity, and people becoming more and more immersed in using social media platforms, the landscape of human interaction has been forever changed. The millennial age and the rapid emergence of technology has seen social media platforms becoming increasingly recognised as the go-to place for news and keeping up to date. On Facebook alone, there are 20,000 people online every second, with the average American spending around 40 minutes a day on the site. Recent statistics also show that Twitter has almost 320 million active users per month – representing a huge scope for potential interactions. Not only that, but since YouTube’s inception in 2005, video has really taken off as a mainstream marketing channel, engaging
audiences during the time that they spend online. You only need to check your Facebook newsfeed to witness first-hand the number of videos posted online each day. In fact, on YouTube alone, there are over 300 hours’ worth of video uploaded by users every minute.
science to move alongside this technological expansion. Becoming familiar with the methods in which videos can be used on social media could help to attract a new demographic of widespread, tech-savvy consumers – ultimately aiding scientific research in the long run.
Sensational science This extensive emergence represents an opportunity to bridge the ever-growing gap between researchers and the general public. Due to the accessibility and plethora of information now available online, science must engage fully with this medium in order to be represented in a way that is accurate – telling the story as it is meant to be told.
Bridging the gap Nowadays, watching videos through social media channels is the main method used by people to view content and access stories. It is time for the scientific community to embrace this method as well, making true, accurate research accessible to everyone – in a simple and engaging format.
Sensationalised articles based on limited research are easy to come by with the growth of the internet, so it is important for
For more information on turning your research into a simple yet effective animation, please visit our sister company SciAni at www.sciani.com.
It is time for the scientific community to embrace videos, making true, accurate research accessible to everyone
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Social Media for Scientists RSM was born out of multiple conversations with researchers who see a real benefit in connecting with a broad audience over an ongoing basis. Social Media can now be considered one of the most prominent and important engagement tools of the modern era. We help you get the ball rolling and can even provide long term Social Media Management support.
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