BlueBridge Technologies are thrilled to be partnering with Avectas and NIBRT National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training on a digitalised cell engineering therapy project led by Avectas. Avectas who are leading this consortium will invest €7.23m, including €4.4m awarded under the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund, to develop its proprietary cell engineering platform Solupore
BlueBridge Technologies are consortium partners with National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and will work synergistically on this innovative and ambitious project to disrupt the manufacture and delivery of cell-based therapeutics to patients.
Avectas’ project expands development towards commercialising an advanced large-scale, digitalised cell engineering platform optimised to manufacture ‘off-the-shelf’ cell-based therapies for cancer treatment. This project would support Ireland’s goal of being in the forefront of cell therapy manufacturing.The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) is a €500 million fund established under Project Ireland 2040 and run by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment with support from Enterprise Ireland.
Cell therapy is a rapidly evolving therapeutic approach for cancer. Immune cells are taken from donors, engineered to make them more effective and then administered to patients.The company said the new funding will allow it to expand its Solupore platform to manufacture next-generation allogeneic products that can be produced at scale for large numbers of patients.
Bluebridge Technologies will develop a digitalisation dimension for the platform through the project. We will design, develop, deliver and test software components to strengthen and support the manufacturing technology, highlighting the convergence of cell therapy manufacturing and digitalisation.
NIBRT will test and validate the platform in the context of an end-to-end manufacturing process and will facilitate technology adoption by situating the Solupore platform at their world-class facilities. All parties will work synergistically to disrupt the manufacture and delivery of cell-based therapeutics to patients. Avectas has previously won significant award support from the European Union (under the Horizon 2020 programme). The company is engaged in work programmes with several therapeutic companies and leading academic laboratories, including The Simon Laboratory at UC Davis, California, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) in Toronto and the new NK Cell Centre of Excellence at Karolinska Institute, Sweden.
Dr Michael Maguire, CEO of Avectas, said that cell-based therapies offer the extraordinary potential for the treatment of cancers.”We believe that our Solupore Platform will disrupt the current cell therapy manufacturing process and help make Ireland a world centre for this developing area,” he added.
Garret Coady, CEO of BlueBridge Technologies, added, “BlueBridge Technologies is delighted to be part of this project, which will showcase the power and promise of digital technologies that have the potential, not only to enable the delivery of novel therapies but to do so viably, at scale.”
We are looking forward to collaborating with Avectas and NIBRT on such an innovative and revolutionizing project.
