| Description | The Macromolecular Analysis Service Steering Committee is likely to have been established following an agreement between the Board of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, the Board of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and the Biochemistry Committee in 1971 that the operation of the new Macromolecular Analysis Service should be directed by a suitably constituted Steering Committee which would report to all three bodies. However, there are no surviving minutes of this Steering Committee before 16 July 1975
The Macromolecular Analysis Service analysed samples from University departments but also from NHS hospitals, other Universities, and industry, and dealt with amino acid and carbohydrate analysis, as well as protein and peptide sequencing.
The Steering Committee oversaw the work of the Service, and met around three times a year. Minutes of the Steering Committee typically contain progress reports on analyses; discussion of staffing, finance, and the delivery of equipment; and publicity for the service. They include copies of annual reports and financial statements, and copies of bids to the Equipment Committee.
Minutes of meetings held in 1976 contain discussion of possible changes in the organisational structure following the designation of the Centre for Materials Science as an Academic Service. The Steering Committee was asked to consider whether the Macromolecular Analysis Service should develop as a University service independently, or in some form of closer association with the Centre for Materials Science. Minutes of the meeting held on 24 February 1977 report that the committee agreed to reject closer administrative links. Minutes of the meeting held on 12 October 1977 discuss the decision to form a new committee, the Macromolecular Analysis Service Management Committee, following a change in the constitution of the Biochemistry Committee (see UB/COM/62), and a decision to rationalise the position of the Macromolecular Analysis Service within the University and to give it formal status. Membership of this new committee would be made up of the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering; the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry; a nominee of the chairman of the Committee for Materials Science; and a representative from each of the Departments of Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Experimental Pathology, nominated by the Heads of these Departments. Minutes of the meeting held on 30 November 1978 propose that the Macromolecular Analysis Service Management Committee should be a sub-committee of the Biochemistry Committee, though the service itself would not be part of the Biochemistry Department, and bids for equipment and maintenance grants for the Service would not be in competition with the Biochemistry Department. A further meeting of the Steering Committee was held on 27 March 1979 and an agenda and supporting papers survive, but no minutes
The first meeting of the Macromolecular Analysis Service Management committee was held on 11 March 1980. The committee discussed the same business as its predecessor, the Macromolecular Analysis Service Steering Committee.
The last surviving minutes of the Management Committee are for the meeting held on 26 February 1982, through there are surviving supporting papers for the meeting held on 23 September 1982. No later minutes have been transferred to the University Archives
The Macromolecular Analysis Service had become Alta Biosciences by the mid 1980s. See UB/COM/64 for minutes of the University Committee on Biotechnology for information about the development of biotechnology at the University in the 1980s and 1990s |