Back in 1999, Paul Dupree and Len Packman from the Department of Biochemistry with Steve Russell, David Glover, Michael Ashburner and Cahir O’Kane from the Department of Genetics submitted a grant application to the BBSRC’s Investigating Gene Function Initiative. The application included 80 letters from fly research groups all over the UK in support of the need for two mass spectrometers and three senior research associates in computational biology, genomics and proteomics in Cambridge, where there was already a critical mass of proteomics research on the model organisms of Drosophila and Arabidopsis.
Kathryn Lilley was appointed in 2000 to run the new facility, which was quickly named the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics (CCP), followed by Mike Deery in 2001 as a research associate. The Lilley research group has grown hand in hand with the CCP’s core proteomics facility ever since their inception and they have mutually supported each other in growing a client base and facilitating cutting-edge research.
Over the 25 years, CCP has precured funding for 12 mass spectrometers, each more technologically advanced in terms of processing speed and sensitivity than the last. The latest machine, the Orbitrap Astral, was purchased this summer with funding from a BBSRC ALERT award supplemented by the School of Biological Sciences and the CCP. As with all the previous grants it was supported by co-investigators from throughout the Cambridge community. This new mass spectrometer can process samples in a fraction of the time that the previous one could and still yield significantly more protein identifications, which is just as well since CCP has supported over 2000 projects in the past 10 years.
CCP has contributed directly to over 300 publications since it began and now supports a global community of academic, industrial and biotech researchers. Happy Birthday!
Pictured from left to right, back row: Ashley Xaiver, Mike Deery, Steve Russell, Paul Dupree, Cahir O’Kane, Julie Howard-Murkin, Alex Lester, Yagnesh Umrania, Kishor Ingole
Front row: Aseel Marahleh, Renata Feret, Jemimah Abraham, Kathryn Lilley, Lisa Breckels, Cristina Sayago-Ferreira, Jacob Harmison, Nolan Liu