Technology News
Bioprocessing collaboration
Sep 30, 2008Funding for Avacta and Manchester Institute of Biosciences collaboration
Professor Roy Goodacre at the Manchester Institute of Biosciences, as part of collaborative work with Avacta, has won BBSRC funding to develop novel Raman technology for bioprocess monitoring. The funded project is expected to use Avacta's novel Raman noise suppression technology based on its Optim bioanalytical platform.
The edited BBSRC press release is given below.
BBSRC Media Office, 30 September 2008
Public-private research partnership announces £5M of projects to accelerate biopharmaceutical drug development
Bioprocessing research in the UK has received a £5M boost following today's announcement of nine projects to be funded by awards from the Bioprocessing Research Industry Club (BRIC). The projects aim to improve techniques for faster and more efficient development and manufacture of biological medicines.
BRIC is a BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council)-led partnership with EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) and the UK biopharmaceutical industry, with support from bioProcessUK, and was established in 2005 to fund the very best UK academics to carry out research to underpin the rapidly growing field of biological medicines. The aim is to both understand the bioscience underpinning bioprocessing and also to improve the tools for bioprocessing and accelerate development in this field. Funding has been awarded to university scientists to investigate three main areas:
1) Alternative Processes for the Recovery and Purification of Biopharmaceutical Products
2) Bioprocess Integration and Intensification for Biopharmaceutical Manufacture
3) Quantification and Characterisation of Products and Impurities in Biopharmaceutical Manufacture
The nine projects announced today are the third round of grants awarded by BRIC since it was launched and take the total value of research funded by the club to over £13M. The projects funded from the first round of grants have now been running for two years and will shortly be evaluated.
Dr John Birch, Chairman of the BRIC steering group and Chief Scientific Officer at Lonza Biologics, said: "The UK is a leader in bioprocessing and we must ensure that we stimulate innovative research in our universities that is applicable to manufacture of biopharmaceuticals. BRIC's funding of these nine projects will ensure that our academic capabilities are translated into real benefits for patients in the long-run."
Details of the Goodacre/Avacta project:
"Raman spectroscopy as a novel analytical bioprocessing tool for PAT"
Professor Royston Goodacre, University of Manchester Large scale biopharmaceutical production requires systems for the monitoring of quality control. This project at the University of Manchester aims to develop Raman spectroscopy as a tool for high-throughput monitoring of biopharmaceutical processes. Uniquely, this will provide a method of monitoring the structural integrity of biological therapies such as antibodies actually during synthesis.
30 September 2008
Enquiries:
Avacta Group plc Tel: 0870 835 4367 Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer Haggie Financial LLP Tel: 020 7417 8989 Nicholas Nelson / Kathy Boate WH Ireland Limited Tel: 0161 832 2174 David Youngman Novum Securities Limited Tel: 020 7562 4700 Henry Turcan / Michael Brennan
Notes to Editors:
About Avacta
Avacta was spun-out from the University of Leeds in 2004 by its current management team as a biophysics company, with the aim of combining the disciplines of physics and biology to develop innovative technologies and expert technical services to address needs in the pharmaceutical, defence and clinical diagnostics markets. Avacta has a core bio-analytical technology development programme addressing the needs of the biopharmaceutical sector to fully characterise their new products at the earliest stage in their development to reduce the risk of late stage failure. High value solutions in defence and clinical diagnostics are also being provided by these core bio-analytical technologies. A successful and growing part of the Avacta business model is its technical services arm, Avacta Analytical Ltd, which is focused on providing leading edge contract research to the biopharmaceutical and healthcare/personal-care materials sectors. Avacta listed on AIM in August 2006 through the reverse takeover of Readybuy plc which changed its name to AvactaGroup plc.
Please click on the PDF icon to read the full article: