University of Strathclyde

Overview
Based in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, the University of Strathclyde is winner of the Times Higher Education UK University of the Year 2019 and The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2020. The University continues to take bold steps in transforming its approach to working with business, industry and government to make a positive impact on the local and global community it serves.
Strathclyde is a socially progressive, leading international technological University, inspired by its Age of Enlightenment founder’s vision of a ‘place of useful learning’. Together with its partners, it has developed shared clusters of research capability in high-growth areas, including Health Technology, Quantum, Space, 5G, Industrial Informatics and FinTech. Strathclyde is the anchor university for the National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland, a centre of expertise to help position the UK as a global leader in advanced manufacturing.
Research
Strathclyde is home to world-class researchers who address local, societal and global challenges.
Research is of central importance to everything the University does. It informs teaching and helps make a difference to business, industry and society as a whole. Strathclyde is in the UK’s top 20 universities for research intensity, according to the Times Higher Education’s analysis of REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2014. 
Strathclyde’s leading-edge research and close links with business, industry and public sector organisations make it the university of choice for a growing number of doctoral researchers. Collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches and the desire to create an impact are key drivers at the core of Strathclyde’s research strategy, which is embedded in all its doctoral programmes. Strathclyde’s research programmes showcase its focus on relevance and usefulness, through impact on industry, science and society.
Glasgow City Innovation District
Strathclyde, in partnership with Glasgow City Council, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurial Scotland has established Scotland’s first innovation district as a hub for entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration, bringing together ambitious, forward-thinking people to tackle societal and global challenges and drive inclusive economic growth.
Technology &amp; Innovation Centre Zone
At the core of the Glasgow City Innovation District, the Technology &amp; Innovation Centre (TIC) zone, sited within the University of Strathclyde, has a high concentration of innovative organisations, including UK Catapult Centres, Scottish Funding Council Innovation Centres and the UK’s first Fraunhofer Institute.
In the TIC Zone, Strathclyde is transforming the way academics, business, industry and the public sector work in partnership. They are working together to find solutions to significant challenges in areas of economic importance.
The Innovation and Industry Engagement Directorate is at the centre of Strathclyde’s strategic commitment to delivering global economic and societal impact. Working with entrepreneurs, academics and external business partners, the aim is to support the formation and growth of commercial opportunities and to facilitate new partnerships between these communities.

<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
Despite the existence of screening and biopsies, the lack of sensitive and affordable tools for early diagnosis and prognosis of aggressive primary cancer is the most important obstacle to reducing mortality and enhancing patient quality of life. Liquid biopsy offers a promising solution that facilitates non-invasive, facile measurement for cancer diagnosis, monitoring prognosis and validating the efficacy of a treatment over time. However, liquid biopsy is technically challenging because of the diminutive amount of circulating cancer cells in a high background of healthy cells, demanding a highly selective and sensitive analysis mechanism.
The team at the University of Strathclyde have successfully demonstrated a rapid and highly selective diagnostic tool for aggressive primary cancers, the main causes of mortality from cancer in Europe due to the lack of effective tools for early detection and monitoring of recurrence.
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
Bespoke nanoprobe technology has been designed for the detection and analysis of RNA at the single cell level, with application in the early detection, prognosis, efficacy assessment and prediction of aggressive primary cancers.
Our liquid biopsy technology is a disruptive diagnostic that bridges a critical gap in technologies for the detection of molecular markers with minimal liquid biological samples. Our technology relies on bespoke RNA nanoprobes based on a novel type of nanoprobe to detect ribonucleic acid (RNA) biomarker at the single cell level through fluorescence detection systems such as flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. This allows analysis of the expression level of RNA biomarkers at the single cell level.
We plan to construct novel prototype fluorescence instrumentation to enable high throughput rapid quantitative RNA analysis at single cell level in conjunction with our RNA nanoprobes. Our nanoprobes have been shown to identify cancer molecular biomarkers in circulating tumour cells in blood.
Combining our nanoprobe assay with the quantitative analysis, our technology provides the opportunity for a game changing in vitro liquid biopsy diagnostic.
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
Unprecedented opportunities for rapid detecting RNA in only small subsets of cells among large populations in liquid biopsy.
An affordable diagnostic technique for improved clinical decision making with global market potential.
<h1 id="opportunity">Opportunity</h1>
The team are now looking for Licensees and partners to develop the technology further.