The study of enzyme reactions using physical methods has had a long history within the Department. A Custom-built stopped flow apparatus was made in the School Workshops, according the Gutfreund design, and used to characterise the actomyosin ATPase by Clive Bagshaw's group in the early 1980's. 

Custom-built stopped flow based on 1970's design of Prof H. Gutfreund, University of Bristol

The capabilities were expanded in the late 1980's under the Molecular Recognition Initiative of the SERC which funded further rapid-reaction facilities in the form of a custom-built pressure-jump apparatus, as well as the purchase of an Applied Photophysics stopped-flow instrument. These were used to study chloramphenicol acetyl transferase in collaboration with Prof W. V. Shaw's group, dihydrofolate reductase by Prof Gordon Robert's group, and protein interactions of the cytoskeleton in collaboration with Prof. David Critchley's group. The Molecular Enzymology Group (MEG) was subsequently established in 1998 through a joint initiative between Clive Bagshaw, Tony Maxwell and Nigel Scrutton and Wellcome Trust funding which laid the foundation of the current facilities. Prof Maxwell and Prof Scrutton carried out pioneering work on DNA gyrase and proton tunnelling in dehydrogenases, resepctively, within MEG. Since then, MEG continues to flourish with a move to the Henry Wellcome Building which brought Prof Emma Raven's group into the West wing. Further commercial equipment has been introduced since the arrival of Dr Mohammed El-Mezgueldi, while custom-built instruments continue to be developed to allow novel experiments to be performed in the area of single-molecule enzymology. In 2009, the stopped-flow and temperature-jump facilities were upgraded with a grant from the Wellcome Trust, who also sponsored a new modular lifetime spectrofluorimeter and high-specification spectrophotometer.

An Applied Photophysics SF17MV stopped flow apparatus used in the study of chloramphenicol acetyl transferase 1989

Pye Unicam SP8 spectrophotometer retired after 28 years of service

SLM 8000 spectrofluorimeter - semi-retired but still functional after 19 years service