We’re Expanding into New Labs and Offices

We’ve outgrown our lab and office space.  It’s served us well for the past 4 years, but with our recent new recruits, and purchase of some lovely new kit, we need more space! So, some of us are moving into a newly refurbished lab and office space in Block 21 of Alderley Park.

The demand for our services is increasing every year. We have almost doubled in people in the past two years and we’re set to double again in the next 2 to 3 years.  And with people comes equipment.  Our existing two labs and office are full.

The new lab and office suite provides us with 50% extra space: enough for 13 people in the lab and 9 in the office.  We’ve decided to move our protein crystallography services to the new lab and about 50% of the protein biochemists.  This will give us plenty of breathing space in our two other labs for our cell culture and protein purification scientists.

“Managing our growth is an excellent challenge to have, of course.  Making sure everyone is part of the new plans and that all the space, new and old is integrated well has been an important part of the process”, commented Mark Abbott, Chief Executive Officer.

Steve Harborne and Juli Warwicker have been planning out the new area to maximise the use of the space. “Using the Blender software has been very helpful.  One of the biggest challenges for us has been the need for a cold room.  Much of our work needs a 4°C environment.  We’ve sourced two massive chiller cabinets.  And, as with every new move there isn’t enough plug sockets!”, noted Steve. “We’ve ordered all the furniture and lab equipment and hopefully we’ll be settled in the new space by the beginning of April”.

“We’re all looking forward to the move.  It’s a lot of hard work but we know it’ll be worth it – just for the extra elbow room!”, added Derek Ogg, Chief Scientific Officer and Protein Crystallographer.

New lab space

Rendered representation of new labs and office