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ATDBio is an independent company based at Southampton University, founded in 2005 by Prof. Tom Brown, a leading nucleic acid chemist, and Dr Dorcas Brown, an expert in oligonucleotide synthesis.
Working in the field of nucleic acids research, Tom and Dorcas received many enquiries from researchers around the world frustrated with the general lack of quality in oligos they were receiving. Tom and Dorcas started making occasional oligos for free, as a favour to friends, who found that these oligos worked in experiments where other oligos had failed. The number of requests increased, and ATDBio was born.
At ATDBio we still put quality first, and believe that our attention to detail combined with years of experience and a knowledge of the latest developments in nucleic acids chemistry enables us to provide an unrivalled service.
Collectively, Prof. Tom Brown and Dr Dorcas Brown, the founders of ATDBio, have over 50 years' experience in nucleic acids chemistry; and Tom and Dorcas still respond to our customers' queries today.
Prof. Tom Brown is one of the world's leading nucleic acids chemists. He began working on nucleic acids in the late 1970s, during his PhD at Bradford University, before moving to Oxford University and then Cambridge University, where he worked with Dr Olga Kennard, OBE, FRS, a pioneer of DNA crystallography. In 1985 Tom was appointed to a lectureship in Biological Chemistry at Edinburgh University, where he was subsequently promoted to Reader and then Professor of Nucleic Acids Chemistry. He moved to a Chair in Chemistry at Southampton University, where he is now Professor of Chemical Biology.
Throughout his career, Prof. Brown has pioneered many new technologies in the chemistry and biology of nucleic acids, including the development of Scorpion primers in collaboration with DxS Ltd. More recently, several high profile publications have resulted from Prof. Brown's research on the use of click chemistry in DNA and RNA ligation, including the use of click chemistry in oligo synthesis.
The constant stream of innovations has a direct impact on the service ATDBio provides to its customers. When customers ask us for tricky oligos, we can often suggest new ways of making them based on research that has not even been published, all without compromising on quality.
Prof. Brown has published over 250 papers and patents in the nucleic acids field, and his research group is more active now than ever. He has won several prizes including, most recently, the Royal Society of Chemistry Nucleic Acids Chemistry Prize (2007) and the Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Award (2009). Tom is a serial entrepeneur, having founded three successful companies: Oswel Research Products, ATDBio and PrimerDesign.
Dorcas Brown completed a PhD at Bradford University before moving to Oxford and Cambridge, where she developed methods for oligo synthesis, and then Edinburgh. She established Oswel Research Products Ltd with Tom at Edinburgh University in 1985 and worked as Lab Manager at Oswel, overseeing a move to Southampton, until the company was sold in 2001. In 2005. Dorcas and Tom started ATDBio, where Dorcas is lab manager.
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