Trinity Welcomes Donation of Biomedical Research Equipment from Waters Corporation
Posted on: 09 October 2013
To mark the occasion of the donation of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Systems (HPLC) by the Waters Corporation to the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI), a delegation of Waters Corporation recently visited Trinity College Dublin in September where they toured the TBSI laboratories and met with Provost of Trinity College, Dr Patrick Prendergast.
HPLC is a chromatographic technique used to separate the components in a mixture, to identify each component and to quantify each component. It is considered an instrumental technique of analytical chemistry systems.
“The Alliance HPLC systems which Waters donated now allow us to perform high-throughput quantitative analysis of brain neurotransmitters and glycoanalytics of tissue samples from patients with neurological disorders,” explained Head of School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, Dr Gavin Davey, in whose laboratory the equipment was installed. “Having them installed in the TBSI also allows more advanced practicals to be designed for both undergraduate and advanced biochemistry and neuroscience students. This type of training is important for developing laboratory-based skillsets for students and ultimately improves their chances of securing employment when they leave Trinity.”
Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Patrick Prendergast and Vice President of Europe and Asia Pacific Operations at Waters Corporation, Dr Mike Harrington
“We are deeply grateful to Waters for their generosity, “explained Head of Academic Neurology at Trinity, Professor Orla Hardiman. “Our research objective is to understand the biology of neurodegenerative conditions from the bedside to the bench. Multidisciplinary collaborative research between clinicians, laboratory based scientists and industry provides us with the best chance to find treatments quickly. The research environment in TBSI, supported by companies like Waters Corporation, is ideally designed to achieve this.”
“I was extremely impressed with the superb new facilities and the cutting-edge laboratories that I toured at the Trinity Biomedical Science Institute,” stated Vice President of Europe and Asia Pacific Operations at Waters Corporation, Dr Mike Harrington, “We are very pleased that our recent donation of HPLC systems may contribute to the multidisciplinary research effort at Trinity College into understanding and finding new treatments for neurological diseases.”
The Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute is a state-of-the-art research facility which consolidates and integrates pre-clinical bioscience research and teaching from across five Trinity College schools: Medicine; Biochemistry and Immunology; Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science; Chemistry and Engineering. The TBSI is also structured around three interlinked research centres, the Centre for Study of Immunology; Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery and Centre for Medical Device Technologies.
Waters Corporation, headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts, holds worldwide leading positions in complementary analytical technologies – liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, rheometry and microcalorimetry.