Sartorius and McMaster University to ‘perfect’ antibody manufacturing process

McMaster University and Sartorius have teamed up to improve the efficiency of chromatography in the large-scale manufacture of antibody and virus-based treatments.

The collaboration sees Sartorius Stedim Biotech and McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada partner to advance manufacturing processes used for antibody and virus-based treatments such as COVID-19, genetic disorders, and cancer.

“Through collaboration and partnerships with universities, Sartorius drives innovation for technological breakthroughs that lead to better health for more people,” a spokesman for Sartorius said.

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“The current state of art in downstream purification is not very efficient at high capacity and we intend to improve the ability of that process to be efficient—especially in light of variations that happen during the manufacturing process. Because Sartorius is a global leader in downstream purification and manufactures a large number of the purification technologies used in typical biopharma processes and McMaster’s research in this area is renowned, the partnership will be mutually beneficial.”

McMaster’s team will use Sartorius’ multi-column chromatography system to ‘perfect’ a more efficient process for the purification of therapeutic viruses at a cheaper cost than currently available. In turn, this aims to provide more affordable treatments to a wider range of patient needs.

According to Sartorius, its chromatography system uses parallel processing strategies enabling the process to be more resourceful and cost-efficient.

“The partnership will involve undergraduate students as well as graduate students [and] some will serve as lab assistants,” Sartorius told us.

Four years

The partnership will initially run for four years with associate professor of Chemical Engineering David Latulippe and professor of Chemical Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Nonlinear and Fault-tolerant Control Prashant Mhaskar leading the project with Sartorius.

The partnership looks to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which have been outlined by the United Nations and designed to provide a better future for both planet and people.

No financial details have been disclosed.