Page 12 - Shimadzu Journal vol.9 Issue1

“I truly felt like we aren’t just a customer, we are working together to advance science” | INSIGHT from CUSTOMER

Dr. Paul Eason How will the UNF MedNexus become a leader scale charac terization of materials is the future of both

medicine and manufacturing, and our goal at UNF is to
and catalyst in preparing high quality health-
remain on the cutting edge of it, so we are prepared
care professionals?
when the need for novel characterization pushes re­
Healthcare and research hospitals provide a significant
contribution to the economy of Jacksonville and the
What technologies will be integrated into
surrounding Northeast Florida region. As a state funded search into new directions.
institution, UNF’s mission is to train the workforce of the this center and which Shimadzu platforms
region and to improve the lives of our citizens by ad­ are/will be utilized? What applications
vancing science and understanding. There exists a natu­ and/or emerging clinical research fields
ral opportunity for UNF to take the lead on aggregated will these platforms be applied to?
resources and talent from our own faculty and students
to partner with our local hospitals and biomedical com­ The suite of instruments that we are acquiring as part
panies. The main goal of UNF MedNexus is to position of MedNexus are being housed in our Materials Science
us as the hub for medical training and research support and Engineering Research Facility (MSERF). MSERF was
to the surrounding hospitals, clinics and biomedical created in partnership with Shimadzu and other equip­
communities. By serving the research hospitals with ment providers to be a state of the art materials char­
state of the art equipment, UNF strengthens its partner­ acterization facility to serve many STEM research
ships with these renowned institutions, creating a pipe­ programs on campus. The MedNexus MS Suite will
line for our students to work with some of the brightest house the MALDI 7090, MALDI mini and LCMS 9030.
minds in medical research. Ultimately UNF MedNexus These instruments provide fairly comprehensive molecu­
will create a pathway for UNF students to work in the lar identification methods, especially as they augment
most advanced areas of medical research, and provide a
source of research funding back to our faculty.
Connecting technology like the MALDI MS system to
frontline medical researchers provides our stu­
dents the opportunity to train on the most cut­
ting edge methods while working with the best
minds in the industry.

What other benefits will this project
bring to UNF and the rest of the world?

As UNF expands its research capabilities and con­
tinues to support STEM education, workforce
development and research in the region, our rep­
utation in the scientific community grows.
Creating word class facilities like the MedNexus
MALDI MS Suite elevates our capacity to attract
the best students and faculty to keep this mo­
mentum going. This past year has shown us how
vital a rapid response from the research commu­
nity can be in the fight against global health
crises. As proteomics and materials science
merge to unlock the molecular mechanisms of
disease and therapies the possible benefits to the
world are simply too vast to speculate on. Nano MALDI mini­1

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