Driving Industry Engagement - reflections from Malcolm Skingle

Malcolm Skingle has seen huge changes in his 20 years as Chair of Diamond's Industrial Science Committee (DISCo). He started out meeting in a portacabin with David Clark from the EPSRC and Gert Materlik, Diamond's founding CEO, before the facility even existed. He's watched Diamond take a key role in generating data to underpin the Structural Genomics Consortium and contributing to the Protein Data Bank, and Diamond’s contribution to a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold, the AI that predicts protein structures, something which couldn’t have happened without Diamond and now forms a key part of its research pipelines.

Malcolm faced challenges as Chair, admitting, "I'm not a physicist, what do I know about this?" when first asked to lead the committee. But his humility turned out to be his greatest strength in the role.

As David Clark puts it, Malcolm was able to “ask all of the difficult questions that potential users might want answering!”

His first job was to research how other countries were using synchrotrons to advance their research. “It became obvious what an asset a home-based facility could be for the UK science and the business community; I felt compelled to drive forward the business case to secure funding for what would be a key national resource,” says Malcolm - "The Diamond synchrotron now not only rivals those in other countries but stands at the cutting edge, which was especially clear during the COVID pandemic."

Initially seen as a bit of an academic ‘jewel in the crown,’ Malcolm was keen to see the potential and ‘power’ of this technology shared with industry. 

“The thing that really stands out is how the whole setup has grown over the years to provide such slick and streamlined capabilities, with dedicated services for industry,” says Malcolm. “Diamond has really listened to industry and made it both simple and flexible to access these advanced capabilities, enabling industrial research, in particular drug design and material science, to move forward at a monumental pace."

Malcom recalls the early days when teams of people came to Diamond with a collection of crystals and would do 8-hour shifts to conduct experiments. A team would then follow and work on it for 2-3 days. “No one wanted the night shift, of course, but someone inevitably drew the short straw! We’ve now transitioned to a seamless model whereby you can mail in your samples to be uploaded by the Diamond team, change samples, and collect data remotely – from your back bedroom if you want to!

There are a whole range of options available to collect and analyse the data; you can either do this yourself, with help from the Diamond team if required, or they can do it on your behalf. There is no longer a need for those 8-hour shifts or to schedule work on the back of academic research.”

Malcolm explains that the key value of using a high-end facility such as Diamond is that you are armed with real-time information and insights to make informed decisions for your R&D projects. For example, during COVID, it allowed medicinal chemists to develop structures and see how a protein would bind with potential anti-viral molecules. As the virus mutated, you could see in real-time how the physical changes were taking place, and which drugs would bind to it well.

As a former pharmacologist, Malcolm remembers using laborious methods like organ baths to see how compounds added to a piece of ‘live tissue’ would cause it to contract or relax and how this activity could then be ‘blocked’ using an antagonist. “Nowadays,” he says, “things have moved on - the introduction of robotics, automation, state-of-the-art analytics, and the packaging of the data has completely changed how experiments are run at Diamond. Users can now optimise both the time and outputs of their experiments.”

The accelerated advancements in the ecosystem around Diamond and the wider Harwell have evolved enormously. Firstly, at Diamond with the introduction of new complementary approaches such as cryo-EM and Fragment Screening for drug discovery, and a range of complementary services for crystallisation. These all work hand in hand with the wider scientific facilities all co-located on one campus. “The diversity of capabilities at Diamond and Harwell is superb and works across sectors perfectly.”

DISCo was developed with the objective of engaging from the start with industry. "Elizabeth Shotton, Head of Industrial Liaison at Diamond, and her industry team have been very open to trying different ways of working to align with industry needs and this has been key to Diamond’s success; this has grown stronger year on year. The clear commitment from industry for a facility like Diamond sends a clear signal internationally to global companies that the UK is serious about business, and this acts as an anchor for good science. We are seeing yearly increases in user numbers and the fact that Diamond has so many repeat customers from industry is a testament to the efficient processes that they evolved over many years."

A key asset for Diamond is the dedicated, close-knit industry team who support this research. Malcolm emphasises how “nice it is to be able to pick up the phone and speak to a friendly person who is both a specialist in their field and has the experience of working with industry so can help with any challenges.”

During his time at Diamond Malcolm has seen three CEOs: Gert Materlik, who was there from the start of Diamond and set out a clear plan for the operational deployment of Diamond; Andrew Harrison, who was a great advocate of Diamond worldwide for both users and at the cabinet level; and the current CEO, Gianluigi Botton, who has done a great job in plans to take Diamond to the next level and deploy Diamond II. He has been amazing at engaging with both staff and users to bring them on this exciting journey.

“I have great faith in Diamond and its work with industry,” says Malcolm. “For industry to be still engaged in DISCo and Diamond after 20 years, we must be doing something right! I will be keeping a close eye on developments at Diamond both as a trustee of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and through personal interest, and I am excited for the next stage of its development. I’d encourage anyone, even if just exploring their options, to get in touch with the industry team and have a chat to see how they can help. The expertise in Diamond’s industry team is second to none and with an open attitude and advanced capabilities, pretty much anything is possible!”