ABOUT CLIFMAR

ClifMar is a small independent company. It is based at the University of Surrey. It was formed in 1985 to commercialize research which had been conducted within the School of Biological Sciences and Department of Chemical and Process Engineering of The University of Surrey. The initial research project had been conceived by Professor Roland Clift (Department of Chemical and Process Engineering) and Professor Vincent Marks (School of Biological Sciences) to develop "large-scale, continuous-flow, affinity purification technologies" for the separation of biological molecules. They succeeded in gaining a grant from the Wolfson Foundation, which in 1983 funded Dr. Peter Kwasowski (SBS) and then a few months later Dr. Kamran Beyzavi (CPE) to undertake the programme of research which led to its' first products.

Royalties from its first product, which is now used throughout the world to purify antibodies for therapeutic use, provided continuing core funding for ongoing research into novel purification techniques, and further development of its existing materials for new areas of use. Currently, the company is developing a number of rapid, sensitive and high-throughput immunoassay techniques for the measurement of growth promoting drugs and hormones; these assays rely on the use of ClifMar's immunoaffinity purification devices for the purification and concentration of analyte prior to analysis.