02 Feb Meeting the Challenges of Measurement in the Life Sciences

Mark Kane, Instrument Account Manager at Waters UK, blogs on the challenges of meeting the measurement needs of a rapidly evolving life sciences sector.

Waters is a multinational company with a big presence in the UK and Ireland where we develop and manufacture mass spectrometry products that have made a significant impact in the world-wide life sciences community.

Health and life science applications are supported by a team based in our largest European site located at Wilmslow, Cheshire. Apprenticeship schemes and a large graduate intake make Waters a UK employer of high quality science, engineering and software development jobs that has attracted its fair share of Scots over the years.

The challenges of measurement in life sciences are varied and can be akin to looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. In fact when you understand the minuscule amounts of material we can identify and accurately quantify in presence of the most complex biological matrices then you would see needles in haystacks are easy.

So if you are looking to image a tumour when expressed as its chemical constituents, or if you want ensure that you have the exact dose of chemotherapy drug to treat that tumour Waters has an innovation that can help you.

In Scotland life sciences are thriving and we are growing our customer base to meet the demands of a variety of different customers with some specific analytical challenges. Some are pushing the boundaries of what we know and understand in life sciences, and others need to have confidence that their products are precisely manufactured in a highly regulated environment. The challenge for Waters is to meet the measurement needs of a rapidly evolving and fast paced life science community.

Innovation and providing benefit are at the core of our culture, and as anyone who works for Waters will tell you we are focused on “customer success”. Here is what senior Research Director Kevin Wyndham says about our culture of innovation.

“Today, as the world changes so quickly around us, it’s more important than ever to maintain a culture of innovation. Customers, technology and competition are changing. Customers want products that are easier-to-use yet more robust than ever, and they want systems to be integrated.” Wyndham believes innovation requires and understands three things: what customers need, what technologies are available to address those needs, and the market viability of any product. “When we merge these three pieces, we help our customers succeed, and that’s when we succeed.”

Waters UK will be attending Scotland’s Life Sciences Awards on 28 February 2018 at the Glasgow Hilton, so please come and say hello.