Innovate UK-funded biotech company accelerates cheaper drug and vaccine manufacture after biocomputer breakthrough

UK-backed biotech company Innovate has pioneered a biocomputer feat, accelerating the development and manufacture of cheaper medicines and vaccines.

BiologIC Technologies, inventor of the world’s first biocomputer, has developed 3D printed “lab-on-a-chip” platforms – miniature devices that integrate multiple laboratory functions on a single chip.

This enables faster, more efficient and cost-effective analysis of biological samples, with applications ranging from drug testing to point-of-care diagnostics.

Thanks to Analysis for Innovators (A4I), a grant-funding program run by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, BiologIC has access to the expertise and cutting-edge equipment of the National Measurement Laboratory (NML) hosted by LGC.

As a result, the Cambridge-based company has made a huge leap in its understanding of how the plastics used in 3D printing chips interact with biological applications.

It is now able to demonstrate greater biocompatibility and stability for a “lab on a chip” which means that drug manufacturers and contract, design and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) can now accelerate the work required before developing minimum viable products, which will eventually lead to drugs and vaccines. Fastest and cheapest in the market.

Commenting on BiologIC’s trial of the A4I program, Dr. Colin Parker, Chief Scientific Officer of BiologIC Technologies, said, “Without access to the cutting-edge analytics and, more importantly, global expertise in NML made possible by the A4I funding, it will likely take us several years to achieve Same thoughts.

“We’ve really taken the learning we gained from the grant and applied it in real time. We have several active projects, where we’ve directly applied our new knowledge to improve customer outcomes. This grant has directly increased our understanding, which has had an immediate impact, and greater commercial success.” .”

In order for BiologIC to support its customers in developing and manufacturing high quality biological products, it first had to understand the chemical interactions between 3D printed materials and biological samples.

“Because they are 3D printable materials, they are very interactive,” Parker explained. “And so, part of Biologic’s know-how is how to take those materials and process them to make them biocompatible. But that’s a very complex, very slow process.”

But the leading technology company – which has been bringing the products to market since 2020 – did not have the funds or the specific expertise required to fully investigate these interactions.

“Our customers are trying to mass-produce advanced biological products with strong reproducibility,” Parker added. “The greater understanding of our materials through the A4I grant allows us to standardize and simplify our production methodologies, delivering repeatable results at a lower cost.

“Personalized medicines by nature do not have economies of scale, and price tags can run into the millions of pounds per patient. The BiologIC platform provides a paradigm shift in the automation technologies required to enable disruptive economies and democratize access to these new therapies.”

The BiologIC platform is already generating value for advanced developers on customer sites. The BiologIC team works closely with customers to create custom configurations of its platform, addressing customer challenges including maximizing yield, process strength and scale.

The Analytics for Innovators (A4I) programme, run by British innovation agency Innovate UK, helps companies access the latest research and development and expertise in skills and equipment at nine national measurement centers across the country. Grant funding also extends to all or some of the costs of the project.
Simon Yarwood, Director of Knowledge Transfer – Industrial Technologies, A4I at Innovate UK KTN, said: “The BiologIC transformation is another success story that A4I has created. It is an effective demonstration of how companies can increase their productivity and competitiveness by solving challenging technical analysis-type problems. which she may have been struggling with for some time.

And we offer them some unique partner organizations, like NML, who have world-class skills and unique facilities. This allows them to look at problems in a new way, and then help solve them.”

A4I has been operating since 2016 and has nine National Centers of Excellence in Measurement, addressing challenges that impact existing processes, products or services. Across nine rounds of funding, it has supported more than 250 businesses resulting in over £600m of benefits for those businesses, such as increased productivity and turnover, reduced waste and the creation of new high-skill jobs.