£1.6m grant success for bioprocessing research

13 Oct 2011

The University of Manchester has secured two project grants worth a total of £1.6 million from the Bioprocessing Research Industry Club (BRIC).

Funding for a multidisciplinary project by Robin Curtis, Professor Jeremy Derrick, Jim Warwicker and Professor Alan Dicksonwill be used to address the problems associated with the process of biopharmaceutical aggregation.

The study – a collaboration between the Faculty of Life Sciences and the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science – is entitled, ‘Understanding and predicting aggregation in biopharmaceuticals – an integrated approach towards improvement in bioprocess yields.’

The second BRIC project grant has been awarded to Professor Hans Westerhoff, Professor Roy Goodacre and Professor Alan Dicksonto investigate the predictability of biopharmaceutical protein production.

Entitled, ’Predictable Protein Production,’ the research is a collaboration between the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, the School of Chemistry and the Faculty of Life Sciences.

In additon, two research groups at the University have been awarded BRIC PhD studentships: ‘Protein burden in overproduction’ (Westerhoff, Dickson, Snoep, Warwicker)with industrial partners at Fujifilm Diosynth Technologies; and ‘Controlling liquid-liquid phase separation in antibody formulation’ (Warwicker, Curtis) with Medimmune.

“These grant and studentship awards build on the previous BRIC funding successes and reflect the emergence of integrated industrial and academic research programmes in bioprocessing co-ordinated through the activities of the University’s Centre of Excellence in Biopharmaceuticals,” said Professor Dickson.

BRIC was established in 2005 by the BBSRC, EPSRC, bioProcessUK and a consortium of industrial partners to address the research challenges in bioprocessing.