The globalisation of our society means that there is an ever-increasing need, within homeland security, for reliable, real-time and sensitive detection of a wide range of substances that are a threat to our society. The chemicals to be detected range from explosives, through to illicit narcotics and chemical and biological agents. The ability to quickly and accurately measure these hazardous compounds, and distinguish them from a complex chemical environment, is vital to our nation's needs for its fight against crime and terrorism.Commonly used equipments for this type of security are often based on Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS), and which are often employed to screen people or objects. You may have experienced its application at airports if you had your laptop checked for traces of explosives, or if you walked through a Sentinel , used to screen people for trace amounts of explosives or narcotics. IMS is however, not only employed in transportation security, but also in military and civilian facilities.IMS operates by creating charged molecules (ions), which can either be positively or negatively charged. These ions migrate under the influence of an electric field with a mean constant velocity and collide with neutral molecules. Collisions and reactions (ion-molecule reactions) lead to the formation of other ionic species which may react with a trace gas. Changes in the resultant mobility of ions as they progress along an electric field are monitored and processed to try to identify any threat materials present.The IMS systems currently deployed have a number of limitations, including sensitivity and selectivity, which result in the technology not being fully exploited. The major limitation is low chemical specificity, restricting the type of compounds which can be readily detected. Many explosives and chemical threats just can not be detected. To overcome this requires a novel scientific approach, employing a detailed fundamental and phased research programme to understand the key chemical processes employed in IMS, and in particular to those occuring in the latest generation of drift tube systems being developed by Smiths Detection Ltd, Watford, UK. A systematic study is required which will investigate the ionization chemistry, the use of chemical dopants (to change the chemistry), and mode of operation (negative or positive ion mode, high or low electric field). An Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (ITMS), coupled to novel IMS systems, will be the main device employed to study the complex ion chemistry. One of the advantages of the ITMS is that structural information on the ions can be obtained. By utilizing and tailoring the ion chemistry it will be possible to refine, extend, and enhance the operation of IMS. Together with lead scientists and engineers working in the world's largest company which manufactures, develops and markets IMS systems, the UK based company Smiths Detection Ltd (website address: www.smithsdetection.com and http://trace.smithsdetection.com/), we will pursue a four year programme of research to achieve the above objectives. Through Smiths Detection Ltd, this should lead to the development of a unique instrument, increasing the dimensionality of current IMS systems, ultimately leading to a new generation of chemical detectors to be deployed to fight crime and terrorism and increase security within the UK.

In the year 2010 - 2011 the UK Border Agency (UKBA) made over 1,200 individual seizures of Class-A drugs totalling 3,000kg. In August of this year alone a record-setting 1.2 tons of cocaine was seized in one drug bust aboard a pleasure boat - an unusually high amount for one bust but a level of success the UKBA wants to maintain. There is a range of drug detection equipment on the market today, but each has its strengths and limitations, including sniffer dogs, which are often considered one of the most efficient and highly sensitive means for drug detection. The limitations of existing technologies include high levels of false alarms, low levels of sensitivity compared to sniffer dogs and high cost using disposable consumables. Specifically with regards to dogs, high upkeep cost and a dog's nature of getting tired or confused, and inability to act as evidence in a court of law, are all big issues. The team at City is proposing to develop a prototype real-time multi-drug sensing detection system to address the above challenge and this builds upon the success of the initial EPSRC project, where a novel, highly sensitive and selective optical fibre-based portable cocaine sensor, using the molecularly imprinting polymer (MIP) technique coupled with fluorescence signalling, has been successfully developed and evaluated. The Home Office CAST members were instrumental in identifying the need as an end-user for this new sensor technology exploitation and its associated new drug sensor development. They, together with advisors from Smiths Detection, are shaping the main deliverables of this proposal to ensure that it results in a commercially robust product. Initially the device will be developed to detect drugs concealed in hard-to-reach areas in vehicles or containers crossing borders, where currently sniffer dogs are frequently used to locate the illegal substance. However, the underlying technology is capable of meeting a much wider range of applications. This follow-on funding is vital for the team to develop the technology to a stage that it can be licensed to an existing manufacturer, currently supplying drug detection devices to the Border Security Agencies around the world. City's technology transfer team will be an integral part of this project, carrying out simultaneous market validation exercises and feeding back to the academic team on a continual basis. This intelligence will advise the product development process. The team will also work with the in-house Incubator to establish whether an additional or alternative route to market could involve creating a spin-out company capable of attracting seed investment.

The terahertz (THz) frequency region within the electromagnetic spectrum, covers a frequency range of about one hundred times that currently occupied by all radio, television, cellular radio, Wi-Fi, radar and other users and has proven and potential applications ranging from molecular spectroscopy through to communications, high resolution imaging (e.g. in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors) and security screening. Yet, the underpinning technology for the generation and detection of radiation in this spectral range remains severely limited, being based principally on Ti:sapphire (femtosecond) pulsed laser and photoconductive detector technology, the THz equivalent of the spark transmitter and coherer receiver for radio signals. The THz frequency range therefore does not benefit from the coherent techniques routinely used at microwave/optical frequencies. Our programme grant will address this. We have recently demonstrated optical communications technology-based techniques for the generation of high spectral purity continuous wave THz signals at UCL, together with state-of-the-art THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) technology at Cambridge/Leeds. We will bring together these internationally-leading researchers to create coherent systems across the entire THz spectrum. These will be exploited both for fundamental science (e.g. the study of nanostructured and mesoscopic electron systems) and for applications including short-range high-data-rate wireless communications, information processing, materials detection and high resolution imaging in three dimensions.

We will train cohorts of graduates from different scientific backgrounds together in a unique interdisciplinary programme that combines physical sciences, computer sciences and biomedicine and breaks down the boundaries between these disciplines. They will apply this interdisciplinary training to develop underpinning new physical science research to address three key UK healthcare challenges: - Rebuilding the ageing and diseased body - Understanding cardiovascular disease - Improving trauma and emergency medicine The research programme will be underpinned by a multi-disciplinary taught programme and enhanced by transferable and project management skills training, as well as Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement of Science activities. The CDT builds on our four years experience of CDT training of physical scientists at the biomedical interface and harnesses the existing and dynamic research community of excellent physical scientists, distinguished for their ability to and commitment to research at the life science interface, together with a team of leading biomedical scientists and clinicians, with whom there are already established collaborations. This new CDT represents an evolution in our activities and new biomedical foci, while retaining the expertise, ethos and track record of promoting a change in culture at the Physical Science / Biomedicine interface, and of nurturing the next generation of researchers to develop the skills and experience required to explore new physical sciences for biology and healthcare, without the perceived cultural and language barriers. The CDT addresses an identified need from our industrial partners for PhD scientists trained at the interface with biology and medicine, and able to communicate and research across these disciplines, such that they are flexible and innovative workers who can move between projects and indeed disciplines as company priorities evolve and change. This need is reflected in the involvement in and commitment to our bid from our industrial partners. They will co-fund students, offer placements and site-visits, deliver lectures as part of the training and monitor and advise on the training programme. The programme will also benefit from public sector involvement including the Diamond Light Source, local hospitals and Thinktank Science Museum.