Biomanufacturing

Biomanufacturing is the broad term used to describe the cell-based techniques, processes and services required to produce biopharmaceutical products for the biotechnology industry.

Scotland has one of the few true biomanufacturing clusters in the UK. It is characterised by the strength of the infrastructure, supplier organisations, service organisation and not least the existing base of biomanufacturing companies operating globally.  The full spectrum of services and support required by biotechnology companies is well catered for within a relatively compact geographical area providing efficiencies and savings between supplier and manufacturer. This is particularly important as Smart Biomanufacturing strategies are adopted by manufacturers in the future.

Edinburgh in particular is home to:

• Alba Bioscience
• Angel Biotechnology
• Intercell
• Millipore
• Heriot Watt University

The Department of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering

The departmenthas established itself as a leading centre for applying Process Intensification (improvement of process efficiency/effectiveness) strategies to biotechnology and pharmaceutical production. It aims to expand its facilities to allow greater flexibility and interaction with industry. The centre currently carries out interdisciplinary work involving its researchers from life science, chemistry and mathematics.

Biomanufacturing Research Centre

The centre aims to address the fundamental research difficulties encountered by the biotechnology sector during bioprocess development, equipment design and selection, scale-up and process intensification. Research temes include:

• Flexible biomanufacturing strategies – scale-up and intensification
• Metabolic engineering of bioprocess systems
• Technologies to speed up process development
• Development and validation of novel reactor technology
• Bioprocess enhancement via postgenomics methodology
• Biological systems modelling