The University of Sheffield

<p><strong>Overview:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Sheffield is a world top-100 university renowned for the excellence, impact and distinctiveness of its research-led learning and teaching. The University’s outstanding performance for excellent teaching and research, as part of a genuinely global community, is consistently confirmed by international independent assessments.</p>
<p>The university takes its public and social responsibility seriously. It is committed to making the world a better place. This approach is embedded in everything they do, from partnerships with local and global organisations to their research and teaching.</p>
<p><strong>Research:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Sheffield has a global reputation for world-leading research that makes a difference. It influences policy, changes lives and helps in understanding the world so that we can make it better. The university has over 180 research institutes, centres and groups. They address challenges from finding a cure for motor neurone disease to building a sustainable economic recovery. The research institutes and centres at the university have been created to address global challenges facing society, today and in the future. They are often interdisciplinary, with external collaboration and funding, and have earned international recognition.</p>
<p>The world-class research being undertaken at the University of Sheffield generates a wealth of new knowledge, much of which has the potential for licensing to innovative organisations seeking to augment their current activities or diversify their operations.</p>
<p><strong>Industry Partnerships:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Sheffield is collaborating with partners in the private, public and third sectors to find real-world solutions to real-world problems.</p>
<p>The university partners with organisations large and small, believing that by working together, we can find novel solutions to real-world problems. In their experience, it leads to world-class research and commercial success to businesses around the world. Together, The University of Sheffield shares knowledge, facilities and industry insight to help influence cultural, social, economic and political change.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>The critical stirring of a test solution relies on an external input and can take up valuable time. Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed a self-rotating device that is compatible with small-scale mixing, allowing for the results of tests to be delivered quicker and without the need of an external input.</p>
<p>Rocket stirrers have been developed for efficient stirring of solutions at the pL (picoliter) to mL scale. They are biocompatible, biodegradable and customisable to user requirements. As well as reducing waste, Rocket Stirrers are easy to deploy relative to conventional stirrers and shakers manufactured from single use plastic.</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<p>The stirrers are composed of biocompatible silk and are produced through reactive inkjet printing. The self-rotary motion is generated either by the release of a surface active agent resulting in the Marangoni effect (a change in the surface tension) or by catalytically powered bubble propulsion. The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) is 3.</p>
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<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<p>The team have developed small scale devices that can stir via self-propulsion to promote mixing in small volumes (pL to mL) of solutions.</p>
<p>Rocket stirrers are:</p>
<ul>
<li>biocompatible</li>
<li>biodegradable</li>
<li>customisable to user requirements</li>
<li>compatible with miniaturised assay formats e.g. microfluidic devices</li>
</ul>
<p>The team is also able to rapidly demonstrate the benefits of rocket stirrers in a given user defined scenario via computational fluid dynamics modelling.</p>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<p>Alongside the use for medical and environmental diagnostic tests (using immuno-based or enzyme-based detection) to provide faster, more accurate tests, this technology has the potential to improve performance in a range of applications.</p>
<p>Some of these include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Targeted therapeutic delivery</li>
<li>Motion sensing</li>
<li>Environmental science (water bioremediation by selective removal of contaminants)</li>
<li>Enhanced delivery of chemicals</li>
<li>Cell homogenisation</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="opportunity">Opportunity</h1>
<ul>
<li>Seeking collaborators and in particular industrial partners</li>
<li>Licensing</li>
</ul>
