Univercells Technologies, a global provider of next-generation biomanufacturing technologies, and the National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) in Dublin, Ireland, have announced a collaboration to address the need for training in cell and gene therapies (CGTs) using next-generation technologies for viral products manufacture. The intermediate capacity scale-X™ carbo system from Univercells Technologies, featuring a fixed-bed bioreactor and in-line concentration, will be introduced at the Dublin facility for hands-on demonstration and training to support continued education and workforce sustainability.

Demand for viral vectors has grown to new heights as the clinical pipeline of CGTs continues to multiply. There are significant limitations with existing technologies to support manufacturers from research to commercial phases. Anticipating the great capacity and cost constraints will require dedicated manufacturing technologies to rapidly optimize, scale-up and deliver these products. This rapid growth of CGTs together with the complexities of the manufacturing process has resulted in an urgent shortage for highly skilled CGT manufacturing staff. The intensified bioreactor will play a critical role in helping to upskill newcomer to expert level biopharmaceutical professionals and researchers and eventually leveraging such scalable technologies to bridge the clinical gap.

“Across the industry, developers and manufacturers are looking for next generation technologies. They require purposefully designed tools that apply the principles of intensification, integration and semi- or fully continuous processing to overcome the existing barriers to discovery and commercialization in viral manufacturing,” said CEO of Univercells Technologies, Mathias Garny. “Our scale-X product series is a uniquely intensified and automated solution that can help to bring advanced therapies to the market using reliable, reproducible processes with increased capacity in a decreased footprint. We are honored to have it featured at a respected institute like NIBRT and contribute to training the workforce that will drive manufacture of the advance therapies of tomorrow.”

John Milne, NIBRT Training Director commented, “We are always looking out for the latest bioprocessing innovations to accomplish our mission of supporting the biopharmaceutical industry with access to the most advanced technologies for research and training. The scale-X carbo system is the ideal intermediate-scale system to train on process development, optimization, and scale-up principles through R&D to commercial capacity. The scale-X carbo system will help our team to deliver cutting edge training and research collaborations in viral vector development.”

NIBRT will employ the fully operational scale-x carbo bioreactor for dedicated cell culture and viral manufacturing training courses for academia and industry experts from quarter 3 2021. Details will be available on www.nibrt.ie/training and interested parties can register for a demonstration via training@nibrt.ie.