Sartorius, McMaster open Canadian bioprocessing hubSartorius, McMaster open Canadian bioprocessing hub

The automation laboratory, located at the university’s Faculty of Engineering, is a training and development hub for bioprocess modelling, simulation, and advanced control. 

The facility was funded by Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF), a Canadian initiative managed by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The organization aims to enhance the bioscience infrastructure of postsecondary institutions and research hospitals by providing advanced tools, innovative research spaces, and biocontainment facilities. BRIF is part of the Government of Canada's biomanufacturing and life sciences strategy against future pandemics. 

“This partnership enables McMaster University and Sartorius to explore and industrialize innovative bioprocessing solutions together with partners from the biopharmaceutical industry,” Oscar-Werner Reif, chief technology officer, Sartorius said. 

“In this state-of-the-art facility young researchers from academia and the industry will jointly develop innovative modelling and predictive control solutions that help to simplify and accelerate biomanufacturing processes – ultimately driving faster developments of improved therapies that will be accessible to patients around the world.”  

Moreover, McMaster researchers got an additional Alliance Grant funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for a four-year collaboration with Sartorius. 

“We are deeply grateful to Sartorius for their generosity and vision. Training our graduate and undergraduate students on the highly specialized equipment in the Bioprocessing Automation Lab is critical to the growth of Canada’s biomanufacturing economy, which is currently experiencing a severe talent shortage,” said David Latulippe, principal investigator on the Alliance Grant. 

Bioprocess vendor Sartorius joined the McMaster Advanced Control Consortium (MACC) in 2019, and in 2021 the institutions partnered to develop a better manufacturing process of antibody and virus-based treatments for diseases such as COVID-19, cancers and genetic disorders.  

The researchers at the Canadian university used Sartorius’ chromatography system to produce biotherapeutics, scientists use a bioreactor with specialized cell lines and customized growth media. According to the German-based company, its multi-column chromatography system uses parallel processing strategies to make the process more resource and cost-efficient. 

The firm did not respond when contacted by this publication.