POLICY NEWS

UK defense minister LewisMoonie announces that astake in the government-ownedscience and technology groupQinetiQ is to be sold to astrategic partner. This marks the latest steptowards stock market flotationand the complete transfer ofQinetiQ into the private sector. The company was formed in

July 2001 when the formerDefence Evaluation andResearch Agency (DERA) wassplit into two: QinetiQ andDSTL (Defence Science andTechnology Laboratory), whichis still part of the Ministry ofDefence (MOD). According toMoonie, a strategic partnerwill provide “greater freedomand access to capital, allowing

the company to exploit itstechnologies and capabilities,and diversify the wealth ofknowledge it has built up overthe years to the benefit of thewider UK economy.”Confidential discussions withpotential strategic partnersare beginning, with the aim ofcompleting the transaction bythe end of the year. Witharound 9000 employees andturnover of £8 million, QinetiQis one of Europe’s largestresearch organizations andhas the potential to become aworld leader in technology-based solutions, says Moonie.“There are significantopportunities to transfertechnology that was previouslyfocused on defense to supportthe development of innovativeand exciting commercialapplications and consumerproducts,” says Moonie,“particularly in areas such aselectronics.”

The UK’s Engineering andPhysical Science ResearchCouncil (EPSRC) is funding acollaboration to develop a newgeneration of ‘electronicnoses’.The researchers from theUniversities of Warwick,Leicester, and Edinburgh arefollowing the example of natureto try and improve on currentelectronic nose technologies.“We are taking recentdevelopments in the fields ofnanotechnology and polymerphysics to design novelmicrosystems that are able tomimic our nasal passages andolfactory sensors,” explains

Julian Gardner of WarwickUniversity. As with manyexisting electronic nosetechnologies, the sensing isperformed by arrays ofconductive polymer devices,but the researchers areproposing a new way ofinterpreting the signals. “Theinformation processing of oursystem is very much inspiredby how the olfactory systemworks in nature,” says TimPearce of Leicester University.In the real scenario, whensufficient numbers of odormolecules interact with anolfactory receptor neuron, anaction potential is induced to

send a signal down a nervefiber to the brain. “We willdesign our system to do asimilar thing,” says Pearce.“When the mixture of odormolecules meets our sensorarray, a volley of spikes will begenerated. If there is a highconcentration of odormolecules, trains of spikes willbe generated and theirfrequency will be proportionalto the molecule.” Using these‘neuromorphic’ signalprocessing methods that weredeveloped at Leicester andEdinburgh provides additionalinformation that could helpdistinguish complex odors.

Alister Hamilton’s team atEdinburgh will be working onintegrating the system onto asingle silicon chip that ispractical to implement. “We’reusing parallel analogcomputation strategies thatare derived from biology ratherthan implementing aconventional digital processor.By concentrating on very lowpower consumption analogcircuits we hope to produce asystem with long battery life,”he explains. If realized, thehand-held electronic nose couldfind many applications inhealthcare, environmentalmonitoring, and food safety.

The Cody Building. (Courtesy of QinetiQ.)

May 200218

Insight intodrug designA new institute devoted topharmaceutical and medicalmaterials is to be set up atthe University of Cambridge.The Institute forPharmaceutical MaterialsScience brings togetherexpertise from theDepartments of MaterialsScience and Metallurgy andChemistry, with that of theCambridge CrystallographicData Centre (CCDC) andPfizer. A five-year agreementguarantees funding from Pfizerfor 21 staff and students toconduct research into thestructure, manufacture, andbehavior of solid dosageforms.“The collaboration...will createa major interdisciplinary teamthat will allow for radicalresearch and new insights,”says the Institute’s directorWilliam Bonfield.

Strategic partner for QinetiQ

Natural noses on a chip