DR Relaxo spin out scientific consultancy partnership
This partnership supports academic and industry researchers globally in the interpretation of experimental data from a specialist area of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experimentation called fast field cycling NMR (FFC NMR).
The partnership was formed in March 2022 by Professor David Faux and Dr Rémi Kogon on the back of research advances from the Horizon 2020 Marie-Curie ITN project ERICA, lead by Professors McDonald and Faux. Dr Kogon was one of the 13 graduating PhD students from the project.
Our interpretative model, called the 3-Tau model, is the international leader, maximising information gleaned from fast field cycling nuclear magnetic resonance (FFC NMR) data through a user-friendly software package called 3TM.
The DR Relaxo partnership received funding in April 2022 from Stelar (FFC NMR machine manufacturer) for a reinterpretation of 25 sets of FFC NMR data from mixtures of cancerous and healthy tissue. We discovered two markers both consistent with the ingress of water through the cell membrane wall into the cell – a fingerprint of cancerous cells. We are in contact with the Institute of Cancer to investigate if the new findings could lead to research grant proposal. Speculatively, FFC NMR plus our 3TM software could provide a fast, effective assessment of disease progression from biopsy samples.
Procter & Gamble provided funding to DR Relaxo to interpret FFC NMR results from new shampoo formulations that are sulphate free. Fresh funding is expected soon. With more work, we may be able to determine the layer spacing in lamellar structures without the need for time-consuming X-ray techniques.