Imaging & Characterisation

Through our world-leading facilities - Royce Discovery Centre and Royce Translational Centre - we are able to probe the structure, composition, and mechanical properties of all materials.

RINGs of DNA damage in human cells caused by the typhoid toxin underlying typhoid fever
On

The Henry Royce Institute Imaging and Characterisation facilities at The University of Sheffield host state-of-the-art equipment able to probe the structure, composition, and mechanical properties of all materials from macro down to nanoscale. The Henry Royce Institute Imaging and Characterisation facilities at The University of Sheffield host state-of-the-art equipment able to probe the structure, composition, and mechanical properties of all materials from macro down to nanoscale.


Equipment

X-Ray

Nanocharacterisation

Electro Microscopy

MagneticTribology

Basic Characterisation


The Researcher Concordat and The University of Sheffield

Dr Alice Pyne, Future Leaders Fellow, Head of our Nano Characterisation Lab, and Senior Lecturer, shares what the Researcher Concordat means to them.


Head of the Nano Characterisation Laboratory: Dr Alice Pyne

Alice is a Senior Lecturer in Polymers & Soft Matter and head of the Henry Royce Nanocharacterisation laboratory.

Her research focusses on developing high-resolution Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging methods for structural characterisation of biomolecules in solution. She has pioneered single-molecule imaging studies of the DNA double helix, including unique time-resolved imaging at the atomic scale, showing DNA molecules twisting and “dancing” in ways that had not previously been imaged.

Alice has a keen interest in bioimage analysis, and has developed an automated image analysis pipeline, TopoStats, that combines AFM image correction, molecule identification, and tracing into a single tool.

Centres of excellence

The University's cross-faculty research centres harness our interdisciplinary expertise to solve the world's most pressing challenges.