The University of Liverpool has announced that it will be leading a national research facility worth £125m to drive scientific discovery and advance technologies as part of the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) infrastructure fund worth £388m.
The Relativistic Ultrafast Electron Diffraction and Imaging (RUEDI) facility will benefit areas of research including quantum technologies and personalised medicine.
The UKRI recently announced five new infrastructure projects with new funding to equip the UK’s research and innovation bases, with an additional £85m for the UKRI’s Digital Research Infrastructure Programme.
In collaboration with the University of Liverpool’s Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Rosalind Franklin Institute, the new facility will allow researchers to explore changes in living cells as they happen to develop more personalised treatments for patients in a more renewable and sustainable manner.
Personalised medicine uses an individual’s genetic profile to guide decisions made in relation to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Typically prescribed based on their average effects in a population, rarely providing dose-optimised treatment for patients can lead to increased side effects, adverse reactions, medication non-adherence, poorer patient outcomes and increased healthcare costs.
In addition, RUEDI will provide new insight into material structural integrity during extreme conditions and could lead to quantum computing.
Beginning construction in 2027 and launching by 2032, the instrument will have the fastest time resolution electron microscope and the fastest time resolution electron diffraction instrument, enabling the dynamic study of biological and chemical processes in real time and at the femtosecond timescale.
Adam Staines, infrastructure portfolio director, UKRI, said: “This programme is key to support of digital infrastructure investments and the people who use them across all research disciplines.”
Professor Nigel Browning, chair of electron microscopy, school of engineering, University of Liverpool and RUEDI lead, commented: “This ground-breaking capability will help researchers develop the new technologies and solutions needed to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.”
