Agilent x Imperial
Bringing a top instrument-maker to the world’s best innovators
The Suite
The Agilent Measurement Suite (AMS) brings Agilent Technologies to a world-leading university (ranked 1st in Europe and 2nd in the world by QS) and more than 1,000 science businesses in its ecosystem. Through its new model of industry-university collaboration, the facility is accelerating everything from research into infectious diseases to the development of batteries that will power the energy transition.
Under the management of a professional operational team, the Suite provides researchers and companies with self-service access to advanced analytical science tools and hands-on training that allows them to carry out measurements that would otherwise be out of their reach.
It also provides opportunities to Agilent, which include directly engaging future customers, validating its technologies on high-impact frontier applications, and building a user base of researchers, students and innovators who are deeply familiar with its instruments.
The Suite's user base extends from the Imperial campuses to four innovation clusters that form the WestTech London innovation ecosystem. And because Imperial is Europe’s most international university, with collaborators in 190 countries, it provides Agilent with brand visibility that extends from London to the rest of the world.
To reinforce these benefits, the Suite provides technical advice, regular training sessions (430 delivered to date), external customer and partner visits (400+ tours to date), and has helped secure acknowledgements for Agilent in journals such as Nature , along with national television exposure on the BBC, HBO and Sky News.
Imperial and Agilent are now positioned to use continued expansion of WestTech London to bring Agilent to an even wider industrial and academic user base.
What happens when you combine technical capabilities far beyond a typical academic lab with the deep expertise and curiosity of a world top‑ten university?
Our partnership with Agilent is providing the answer: not just groundbreaking research, but a world-changing innovation ecosystem. With Agilent as a driving force in the rapid growth of WestTech London, I’m excited to see what we can achieve next.
Metrics since 2019
1,200+
Users supported
500+
Projects
400+
Customer and partner visits
10,000+
Walk up samples analysed
430
Training sessions
£200m+
Funding supported
The AMS sits at the heart of the new White City Campus, which itself anchors a larger west London innovation ecosystem.
The AMS sits at the heart of the new White City Campus, which itself anchors a larger west London innovation ecosystem.
A growing ecosystem
The AMS has already been pivotal in Imperial’s journey to build a new London ecosystem for deep technology innovation, and is now set to be central to the emergence of a global powerhouse.
The Suite was first opened in 2019 as part of the Molecular Sciences Research Hub, which was the largest 21st century investment in a London university building, and an important early milestone in Imperial’s multi-billion expansion into the White City neighbourhood.
The White City Campus today houses thousands of researchers in fields such as public health, chemistry, materials sciences, medicine, and bioengineering, and hundreds of deep tech startups and scale-ups.
It also now anchors a wider White City Innovation District, launched with local government, which provides homes for many more science businesses including the new UK headquarters of Autolus, L’Oreal and Novartis. This district has helped generate over 13,000 new jobs and £6 billion of investment to date.
The AMS has played a key role in driving this growth, not only by attracting researchers and companies, but by underpinning their own bids for funding and investment. The Suite has now hosted over 1,200 users from companies and academic labs, and supported successful bids for over £200 million in research funding and venture capital investment.
Examples include large-scale academic research programmes such as the Fleming Initiative, which is using £100 million from philanthropists and partners such as GSK to tackle antimicrobial resistance, the £30 million Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, £40 million in Centres for Doctoral Training in chemical biology and next-generation chemistry, the AI for Chemistry hub, and investments in startups such as Multus.
White City’s growing status as an internationally leading innovation district has been driven by multi-user facilities such as the AMS.
This success has fuelled increased ambition by Imperial. Following the launch of its new strategy, Science for humanity, the university now anchors WestTech London, which spans four clusters across west London and connects with a UK-wide network.
WestTech London is home to 1,000 frontier innovation businesses with £9 billion turnover, and this is expected to reach 1,900 businesses with £26 billion turnover by 2030 on current growth rates, and more with the intended investment.
This growth will provide Agilent with further opportunities to increase its brand visibility, showcase its technology, and directly engage future customers.
Having been on campus from the beginning, the company is well positioned to become the default analytical platform for thousands of academics and science businesses.
The £167 million Molecular Sciences Research Hub, which houses the AMS, was one of the first buildings at the White City Campus.
The £167 million Molecular Sciences Research Hub, which houses the AMS, was one of the first buildings at the White City Campus.
The campus also contains dedicated buildings for new and growing science businesses, such as Scale Space, an 18,500m2 facility launched with Blenheim Chalcot designed for scale-ups.
The campus also contains dedicated buildings for new and growing science businesses, such as Scale Space, an 18,500m2 facility launched with Blenheim Chalcot designed for scale-ups.
Imperial's newest space for growing businesses, Grapht Works, was launched in March 2026 by London's Deputy Mayor for Business, Howard Dawber OBE. It offers space for pilot-scale manufacturing.
Imperial's newest space for growing businesses, Grapht Works, was launched in March 2026 by London's Deputy Mayor for Business, Howard Dawber OBE. It offers space for pilot-scale manufacturing.
Researchers often tell us that working with the AMS is unlike any other analytical experience. Rather than sending a sample off and receiving data back, they’re involved at every stage – from method development through to interpretation. That’s incredibly valuable for training, confidence, and scientific rigour.
Research highlights
Tackling antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in which viruses and bacteria become resistant to current medicines, accounts for millions of deaths each year. The Fleming Initiative, a £100 million programme from Imperial College London, the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and partners is working to find vital solutions.
One project led by Professor Ed Tate with GSK and collaborators from across Imperial will test tens of thousands of molecules for their ability to penetrate E. Coli bacteria, aiming to produce a dataset that will reveal patterns that could enable the discovery new antibiotics. Traditionally, it would take ten minutes to screen each sample, prohibitively slow for a project of this scale – but this is overcome by Agilent’s RapidFire, a high throughput instrument usually found in industrial settings that can process a sample in ten seconds.
A new target for drug-resistant TB
Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the ten biggest causes of death worldwide, and is particularly prone to acquiring AMR. Researchers at Imperial and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, supported by Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines, screened thousands of molecules to find one that prevented the growth of TB bacteria.
Because the molecules they screened are not typically bioavailable enough to serve as drug candidates themselves, the key to the research was to discover how this molecule killed TB. Using metabolomics instrumentation in the AMS, the researchers discovered that it was by inhibiting an enzyme called PurF. The research, published in Nature, could open the door to new first-in-class drugs for TB.
Professor Ed Tate is a world-leading expert in chemical biology, serial spinout founder, and holder of a GSK chair. He's using an Agilent RapidFire to accelerate research into antimicrobial resistance.
Professor Ed Tate is a world-leading expert in chemical biology, serial spinout founder, and holder of a GSK chair. He's using an Agilent RapidFire to accelerate research into antimicrobial resistance.
The high-throughput analytical capabilities available through the AMS are enabling a step change in data-generation and analysis. It plays a critical role in the GSK–Fleming Initiative programme led by Professor Ed Tate, and the Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Innovator, led by Professor Andrew Edwards.
I’ve seen companies use the AMS to make one critical measurement – at a level of precision they could not achieve elsewhere – that unlocked a funding round, helped them to scale, or took a product to the next stage.
Innovation highlights
Animal-free cell growth media
The AMS model is designed to accelerate early-stage innovation, giving companies the tools and hands-on training needed to develop market-ready products.
Multus, an Imperial startup that develops animal-free media for applications such as cultivated meat, gained access to advanced analytical equipment through the AMS. Using both liquid and gas chromatography, the team were able to inform their early designs and train their own AI models effectively.
AMS not only provided access to advanced instrumentation but also provided expert guidance that helped them grow their business and close a $9.5 million Series A round.
Flow batteries for renewable energy
RFC Power is developing a next-generation flow battery that supports safer and more affordable renewable energy storage. At the AMS, researchers from RFC Power learned how to operate key instruments directly, gaining hands-on experience with equipment that would normally remain out of reach for early-stage companies.
This training enabled the team to analyse materials more efficiently and validate new chemistries with greater certainty – boosting the company’s mission to help drive a transition to 100% renewable energy.
The AMS has been central to how we design and optimise serum‑free media, moving us from trial‑and‑error to data‑led development and shaping our future platform choices as we scale.
The Multus team are developing animal-free growth media for cultivated meat, and have raised almost $10 million since using the AMS to support the early development of their products.
The Multus team are developing animal-free growth media for cultivated meat, and have raised almost $10 million since using the AMS to support the early development of their products.
The AMS hosts visitors such as Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, pictured at the Suite with Imperial's President Hugh Brady in 2023.
The AMS hosts visitors such as Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, pictured at the Suite with Imperial's President Hugh Brady in 2023.
Future opportunities
The AMS has become a cornerstone of London's deep technology community and has pioneered a new model of industry-academia collaboration.
Looking to the future, the Suite will pair Agilent’s advanced instrumentation and specialist expertise with Imperial's strategic aims to address the biggest challenges facing humanity. This will include powering a new phase of ecosystem expansion, while focusing on key strategic frontiers.
These include AI-enabled measurement science, the integration of automation with advanced analytics, and a renewed focus on translational life sciences, spanning diagnostics, therapeutics, and sustainable chemistry.
Collaborations with partners such as the Drug Discovery Hub and the Fleming Initiative will create growing opportunities to validate Agilent technologies in high-impact, frontier applications.
Backed by government initiatives such as Upstream London, the AMS will nurture a new generation of academics and R&D specialists ready to utilise Agilent’s state-of-the-art platforms throughout their careers.
From its position at the heart of WestTech London, the Suite will deepen its engagement with university spinouts, innovative SMEs, and global businesses, strengthening its role as a platform that helps researchers and companies tackle real-world challenges.
Together, Agilent’s technological leadership and Imperial’s scientific excellence will ensure the shared infrastructure provided by Agilent sits at the heart of a new phase of discovery, innovation and economic growth.
The continued partnership with Agilent and the renewal of the AMS will be important in sustaining and expanding these benefits, ensuring that Imperial remains at the forefront of training the next generation of scientific and engineering leaders.
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