Timothy Sangster

European Head of Chromatographic Bioanalysis for the Pharma sector
Timothy Sangster headshot

Overview

Charles River Laboratories, a fast-growing CRO with 70 facilities in 16 countries. The Edinburgh, Scotland site is home to a groundbreaking team of scientists who specialize in utilizing mass spectrometry. Tim Sangster is the European head of chromatographic bioanalysis for the Pharma sector in Edinburgh and relies on his fleet of SCIEX analyzers for his multifunctional team’s work.

The Challenges

  • The demands of a large multifunctional team doing both regulated and non-regulated workflows in the same facility.
  • Constant client auditing & meeting client deadlines.
  • All instruments working at capacity, the majority of time.
  • Programs that need enhanced sensitivity.
  • “Our workhorse instrument is the API 4000™, which still, in my mind, is one of the best instruments SCIEX has ever made. It’s a joy, and I love it; robust work horse, we have 10 on site.”

The Solution

  • 90 scientists in 4 multifunctional groups, under 1 roof provides a huge advantage, enabling non-regulated and regulated groups to collaborate, to achieve enhanced scientific decisions.
  • Constant auditing for Charles River means that incredibility robust processes are a must, and this is where SCIEX instrumentation comes to the fore.
  • Uptime and service is very important to this facility and SCIEX offers direct support that Charles River can trust, which translates to maximum system uptime.
  • Global capability, utilizing our network of laboratories in US, Canada and the Netherlands to give us greater capacity, experience and flexibility to support our clients.

Type of Organization

CRO (Contract Research Organization) providing basic research, drug discovery and process manufacturing services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government and academic organizations.

  • “Capillary Microsampling is the way forward for us in the pre-clinical arena. Having the enhanced sensitivity of the QTRAP 6500 gives us the flexibility to be able to do this; it’s a real focus for Charles River and one of my passions.”

Goals

  • Use microsampling to reduce sample size and refine toxicology study designs.
  • Use LC-MS workflows for the robust analysis of macromolecules.

SCIEX Products

  • 31 SCIEX Triple Quads – Edinburgh
  • 3 QTRAP® 6500 Systems
  • Several API 3000™ & API 4000™ Systems
  • SCIEX QET 4500
  • Analyst® software
  • CRL global Cohort in excess of 70 instruments in Europe and North America
  • “Analyst® software is validated for all of our platforms, and it is, of course, much better for consistency across the departments to stay with a single supplier.”