Professor Smith is a spectroscopist and inorganic chemist with a long track record of research in resonance Raman and surface enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS). Before joining the company he was a full time academic at Strathclyde University where had periods of office as Head of Inorganic Chemistry and Head of Department. He still retains a part time research position at Strathclyde. His particular expertise is in the understanding of SERRS and in developing informative and sensitive analytical methods which use SERRS detection. He has close to 300 published papers and with G Dent has published a book entitled Modern Raman Spectroscopy – A Practical Approach.

Duncan Graham obtained his BSc Honours in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 1992 and his PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry in 1996 under the direction of Prof. Tom Brown investigating the use of modified oligonucleotides to inhibit HIV. He then moved to the University of Strathclyde where he joined the group of Prof. Ewen Smith as a postdoctoral fellow to examine the use of surface enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) for DNA analysis with Zeneca Diagnostics. Breakthroughs during that period of research lead to the award of a five-year David Phillips fellowship from the BBSRC to examine the area of DNA analysis by SERRS. In 2002 he won the RSC's Analytical Grand Prix Fellowship which provided funding for another period of five years to further develop his chosen area of using synthetic chemistry to create and develop new methods of bioanalysis using optical spectroscopy. In 2004 he was awarded the SAC Silver medal for the 'Innovative synthesis of new analytical reagents for sensitive and selective analysis' and in 2005 he was presented with the Nexxus Young Life Scientist of Year award. He was appointed a lecturer in 2002, promoted to senior lecturer in 2003 and to professor in 2004. In 2005 he was cofounder of the Strathclyde Centre for Molecular Nanometrology which operates jointly between the Departments of Chemistry and Physics and exploits the natural synergy in molecular manipulation and optical spectroscopy for the study of biological systems on a nanoscale. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007.

Karen Faulds obtained her BSc Honours in 1998 from the University of Strathclyde in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry and her PhD in Chemistry in 2003 under the supervision of Ewen Smith. This involved the development of surface enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) for the detection of drugs of abuse during which she published the first quantitative detection of amphetamine by SERS. She then moved to a postdoctoral position with Duncan Graham in 2003 to evaluate the use of SERRS for the detection of DNA. During this time she demonstrated the first quantitative detection of DNA by SERRS and showed the technique was more sensitive than fluorescence. She was appointed as a proleptic lecturer in March 2005 and took up her full time position in April 2006. Her main interests are in creating new methods of bioanalysis that can be used in molecular diagnostics. The focus of this research is the use of modified oligonucleotides to generate functionalised nanoparticles that can act as nanobiosensors.