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Funding award for industry-led research

UCD Conway researchers have been awarded €2 million funding from Enterprise Ireland for an industry-led research project on the application of process analytical technology to industrial cell culture bioprocesses (BioPAT).
 
Professor Brian Glennon, UCD Conway & UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, will lead the project in collaboration with Professor Mohamed al-Rubeai, UCD Conway & UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering as well as collaborators from other Irish institutions; Professor Ian Marison (DCU), Professor Nigel Jenkins (NIBRT) and Mr John Alderman (Tyndall National Institute).
 
A major challenge for the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry is to develop systems for automated manufacturing quality control. The traditional approach is to rely on extensive laboratory testing at the end of the process. This is highly inefficient and can lead to increased costs, high levels of product rejection and increased energy consumption.

This project aims to develop process analytical technology (PAT) systems and methods to provide a reliable means of collecting process information in real-time.

This will allow companies to make informed decisions on specific processes in the knowledge of what is actually happening in the bioreactor at a given time, rather than waiting until the end of a very expensive process to discover that a problem existed. A specific objective of the project is to develop viable products for subsequent commercialisation in Ireland and abroad.

The impetus for the project has come from extensive consultation with the biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland and abroad. An industrial steering committee has been set-up with representatives from Irish and international companies including Wyeth, Centocor, BioUetikon, PharmEng, Luxcel, Genzyme, ABB, Pfizer, Schering-Plough.