From portacabins to Nobel Prizes: Malcolm Skingle’s journey with Diamond

Looking back at the remarkable progress with Malcolm Skingle CBE as he retires as chair of Diamond’s Industrial Science Committee (DISCo).

Malcolm Skingle has seen huge changes in his 20 years as chair of Diamond's Industrial Science Committee (DISCo). A pivotal figure in DISCo, set up to facilitate engagement with industry, he started out meeting in a portacabin in 2004 with David Clark from the EPSRC and Gert Materlik, Diamond's founding CEO, before the facility even existed.

Malcolm says: “It quickly became obvious what an asset a home-based facility like Diamond could be for the UK science and the business community.  The goal was to ensure the potential and power of this technology was shared with industry as well as academia. I felt compelled to drive forward the business case to secure funding for what would be a key national resource. Now Diamond not only rivals those in other countries but stands at the cutting edge, which was especially clear during the COVID pandemic.”

Commenting on how he's watched Diamond take a key role in generating data to underpin the Structural Genomics Consortium and contributing to the Protein Data Bank, and Diamond’s contribution to a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold, the AI that predicts protein structures, he states: “This is something which couldn’t have happened without Diamond and now forms a key part of its research pipelines. In my diverse career, only two places have given me a real buzz and made my hair stand on end - one is walking through Westminster and the other is Diamond.”

Malcolm has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 40 years, sitting on many external bodies and advisory groups and was awarded a CBE in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of his contribution to the pharmaceutical industry. David Clark, a former Director of Research and Innovation at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), pointed out how valuable Malcolm’s role was: “He was able to ask all of the difficult questions that potential users might want answering.”

Malcolm recalls the early days when teams of people came to Diamond with a collection of crystals and would do eight-hour shifts to conduct experiments. A team would then follow and work on it for two to three days. “No one wanted the night shift, of course, but someone inevitably drew the short straw. We’ve now transitioned to a seamless model whereby you can mail in your samples to be uploaded by the Diamond team, change samples, and collect data remotely – from your back bedroom if you want to.”

He explains that today there are a whole range of options available to collect and analyse the data; users can either do this themselves, with help from the Diamond team if required, or they can do it on your behalf. Adding, “Diamond has listened to industry and made it both simple and flexible to access their advanced capabilities, enabling industrial research, in particular drug design and material science, to move forward at a monumental pace."

As a former pharmacologist, Malcolm remembers time-consuming methods used in the past to understand how different substances interact with live tissues. “Nowadays,” he says, “things have moved on - the introduction of robotics, automation, state-of-the-art analytics, and the packaging of the data has completely changed how experiments are run at Diamond. Users can now optimise both the time and outputs of their experiments.”

He highlighted that the ecosystem around Diamond and the wider Harwell campus have evolved enormously and all work hand in hand with the wider scientific facilities all co-located on one campus. For example, at Diamond the introduction of new complementary approaches such as cryo-EM and fragment screening for drug discovery, and a range of complementary services for crystallisation.

DISCo was developed with Elizabeth Shotton, Head of Industrial Liaison at Diamond, and her team. Malcolm credited them with being very open to trying different ways of working to align with industry needs. “The clear commitment from industry for a facility like Diamond sends a clear signal internationally to global companies that the UK is serious about business and acts as an anchor for good science. We are seeing yearly increases in user numbers and the fact that Diamond has so many repeat customers from industry is a testament to the efficient processes that they evolved over many years," he comments. Current DISCo members range from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca  and GSK to National Nuclear Laboratory and Rolls Royce.

“I have great faith in Diamond and its work with industry,” concludes Malcolm. “For industry to be still engaged in DISCo and Diamond after 20 years, we must be doing something right! I will be keeping a close eye on developments at Diamond both as a trustee of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and through personal interest, and I am excited for the next stage of its development. I’d encourage anyone, even if just exploring their options, to get in touch with the industry team to see how they can help. The expertise in Diamond’s industry team is second to none and with an open attitude and advanced capabilities, pretty much anything is possible.”

ENDS

For further information: please contact Diamond Communications: Lorna Campbell +44 7836 625999 : lorna.campbell@diamond.ac.uk

Diamond Light Source: www.diamond.ac.uk  X/Twitter: Diamond for Industry https://x.com/DiamondILO   

Find out more: Take a look at how industry is applying Diamond across different sectors to their research. Get in touch: Chat with Diamond’s industry team to see how they can help you with your next research project. Current industry members of DISCo https://www.diamond.ac.uk/industry/Meet-the-Team/Diamond-Industrial-Science-Committee.html

About Malcolm Skingle He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 40 years and has gained a wide breadth of experience in the management of research activities. He has more than 60 publications including articles on the interface between industry and academia.

He manages Academic Liaison at GSK managing staff in Stevenage and Philadelphia. His role involves close liaison with several groups outside the Company e.g. Government Departments, Research and Funding Councils, biotechnology companies and other science-driven organisations. He sits on many external bodies including the BBSRC Council, UKRI Infrastructure Advisory Committee and several UK University Department advisory groups. He also chairs several groups including the Diamond (synchrotron) Industrial Advisory Board, the Science and Industry Partnerships driving apprenticeships and the ABPI Academic Collaborations, Skills & Education (ACES) strategic leadership group.

Malcolm was awarded a CBE in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of his contribution to the pharmaceutical industry. To find out more about Malcolm, visit his LinkedIn profile.

Diamond Industrial Science Committee

As part of the process of engaging with the industrial science community, Diamond established the Diamond Industrial Science Committee (DISCo). 

The current membership of DISCo is:

Prof. Dave Brown, Vertex (Chair); Dr Andrew Barrow, Rolls-Royce; Dr Helen Blade, AstraZeneca
Dr Jonathan Booth, Johnson Matthey; Dr Cheryl Doherty, GSK ; Dr Andrew Doré, Charm Therapeutics; Prof. Peter Dowding, Infineum; Prof. Jonathan Hyde, NNL; Dr Andrew Johnson, Vital Chemical; Dr Olga Kazakova, NPL; Dr Jenny Moore, Syngenta; Dr Ellen Norman, RSSL
Dr Pamela Williams, Astex Pharmaceuticals

The Terms of Reference of DISCo are to: 

• Advise the CEO and Directors of Diamond on opportunities for industry to be engaged in research at Diamond, and the best means for promoting such opportunities;
• Identify industrial research priorities that will help shape the operational strategy of Diamond - including the best way to exploit the current suite of beamlines and to develop the case for investment in future beamlines;
• Develop best practice for industrial engagement with Diamond, including the nature of research collaboration agreements, the handling of IP and the dissemination of research outcomes;
• Carry out other tasks as agreed with the CEO and the Directors of Diamond.

Diamond Light Source provides industrial and academic user communities with access to state-of-the-art analytical tools to enable world-changing science. Shaped like a huge ring, it works like a giant microscope, accelerating electrons to near light speeds, to produce a light 10 billion times brighter than the Sun, which is then directed off into 33 laboratories known as beamlines. Additionally, Diamond offers access to several integrated laboratories including the world-class Electron Bio-imaging Centre (eBIC) and the Electron Physical Science Imaging Centre (ePSIC).  

Diamond serves as an agent of change, addressing 21st century challenges such as disease, clean energy, food security and more. Since operations started, more than 16,000 researchers from both academia and industry have used Diamond to conduct experiments, with the support of approximately 760 world-class staff. Almost 12,000 scientific articles have been published by its users and scientists.  

Funded by the UK Government through the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and by the Wellcome Trust, Diamond is one of the most advanced scientific facilities in the world, and its pioneering capabilities are helping to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research.   Diamond was set-up as an independent not for profit company through a joint venture, between the UKRI’s Science and Technology Facilities Council and one of the world’s largest biomedical charities, the Wellcome Trust - each respectively owning 86% and 14% of the shareholding.   d