Josephine Bunch is a fellow at the National Physical Laboratory. She is Chair of Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

and the Co-Director of the National Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry Imaging.

Education

Bunch completed a PhD sponsored by

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

in 2005. Her thesis, "Detection and imaging of pharmaceutical compounds in skin by MALDI-MS", used mass spectrometry.

Research

Bunch was a postdoctoral researcher at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

, where she was awarded an Enterprise Fellowship to commercialise imaging using mass spectrometry. She joined the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, leading a large multi-disciplinary group using

MALDI In mass spectrometry, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is an ionization technique that uses a laser energy-absorbing matrix to create ions from large molecules with minimal fragmentation. It has been applied to the analysis of ...

Mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used ...

. She remains an honorary senior research fellow at the

. She also holds a Chair in Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry at

. She joined the National Physical Laboratory in 2013, where she became responsible for research in

metrology. In 2017 Bunch was funded by

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

's ''Grand Challenge'' to map tumours at a molecular and cellular level. She came up with the idea when listening to a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

program about the

Grand Challenges. The investment was worth £16 million, and uses mass spectrometry imaging techniques to study breast, bowel and pancreatic tumours in "unprecedented detail. She spoke about the project at the Hay Festival and presented their project at the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Summer Exhibition. She is part of a COST (

European Cooperation in Science and Technology The 'European Cooperation in Science and Technology'' (COST Association) is running an EU-funded programme which enables researchers and innovators to set-up their own research networks in a wide range of scientific topics, called COST Actions. ...

) Action on mass spectrometry imaging.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunch, Josephine Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University British women physicists Fellows of the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom) People educated at Headington School