M-Scan Ltd - The Company
M-Scan was founded in 1979 in the UK by Professor Howard R. Morris
as an independent company to provide consulting, analytical and
training services, particularly in chromatography and mass spectrometry
for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
In the early 1980s, the company pioneered the development of
specialist analytical services for the biotechnology industry
based on the then new Fast Atom Bombardment (FAB) mass spectrometry
technique. Their “MS MAPPING” concept was applied
industrially to checking the structure of engineered and native
proteins and has since been applied to a number of regulatory
level studies using both FAB and the newer techniques of ES and
MALDI.
M-Scan continued to grow throughout the 1980s; a laboratory opened
in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1988 (M-Scan Inc) and another
in Geneva in 1992 (M-Scan SA). Continued expansion led to the
opening, in Summer 2001, of a new purpose-built laboratory in
Wokingham, UK.
These M-Scan laboratories function as one group and are all GLP/cGMP
certified. The original Silwood Park building in Ascot, UK has
been completely refurbished as a research, training and conference
centre. In order to strengthen communication links with clients,
marketing offices operate in the U.K, Germany (2) and South Korea.
Throughout the past 25 years, M-Scan has continued to pioneer
the use of new techniques and aid in the development and application
of sophisticated instrumentation. Electrospray mass spectrometry
(ES-MS) and Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF)
are extremely powerful tools utilised by M-Scan’s scientific
team. In 1996, M-Scan Ltd installed the first research-grade Voyager
Elite MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer equipped with ‘Delayed
Extraction’ in the UK and subsequently upgraded it to the
Voyager STR. Our latest instrument purchases, the Q-Tof (a novel
geometry conceived by Prof. Morris in the early 1990’s as
potentially the best MS/MS configuration) and the Q-Star are state-of-the-art
technologies allowing us to perform de-novo sequencing at femtomole
levels for our Proteomics services.
M-Scan will maintain its commitment to GLP/cGMP and all other
elements of service vital to securing client confidence. In particular,
it will continue its investment in new research and method development
and new techniques and instrumentation as they become available
and proven.
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