Erbi Biosystems joins cell manufacturing research initiative to develop the next generation of cell therapies
April 26, 2022, Boston, MA and Atlanta, GA: Erbi Biosystems has joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) to evaluate and advance cell therapy process development. CMaT is a consortium of universities, companies, and clinical collaborators brought together to develop transformative tools and technologies for the consistent, scalable, and low-cost production of high-quality living therapeutic cells. The center, launched in 2017 with a $20 million investment from NSF, aims to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and other disorders.
“Developing CAR-T and other cell therapy processes has so far invariably meant accepting a wide deviation in the final product. This collaboration will start the change that makes personalized biomanufacturing reliable and robust due to the tiny form factor that Erbi provides,” said John Bonham-Carter, Vice President of Business Development at Erbi Biosystems. “Scarce and expensive patient materials no longer restrict the velocity of development.”
“We are pleased to welcome Erbi Biosystems as a CMaT industry member. We will work with the Erbi team on evaluating their dose-scale reactor and demonstrate continuous monitoring and control capabilities,” said Krishnendu Roy, director of CMaT and the Robert A. Milton chair professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “Having Erbi on board will help advance our work and research of cell therapies. Our industry members play a key role in our mission – keeping patients first.”
About CMaT
CMaT’s vision is to transform the manufacture of cell-based therapeutics into a large-scale, low-cost, reproducible, and high-quality engineered system for broad industry and clinical use. CMaT will become a visionary and strategic international resource and an exemplar for developing new knowledge, transformative technologies, an inclusive well-trained workforce, and enabling standards for cell production and characterization processes.
About Erbi Biosystems
Erbi Biosystems develops high-performance novel cell bioprocessing technology that rapidly impacts the velocity of process development – allowing a higher rate of knowledge advancement. The technology is being extended into GMP cell therapy manufacturing, where it promises to drastically improve patient access due to the reduction in labor, open handling, and cleanroom requirements. Through high-intensity processing, the platform requires less than 10% of the existing footprint to deliver faster and higher-quality therapeutic processes.
Originally spun-out from MIT, in 2021 the company expanded into new facilities north of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company has systems installed worldwide, including in the US, Europe, and China, supported by a US applications team and regional distributors.
About Breez
Breez solves the problem of manual and low-density cell therapy processes, which are restricting patient access to new autologous and allogeneic therapies. The fully automated, sterile, single-use dose-scale bioreactor includes online sensing and controls that deliver sophisticated feeding strategies, cell concentration, and media exchanges resulting in performance that far exceeds the static and rocking bag reactors typically used today. The current 2mL volume can deliver up to 400M cells, sufficient for almost all development needs.
Media Contact for CMAT:
Carly Ralston,
Email: carly.ralston@research.gatech.edu
Phone: +1 (404)-385-7001
Media Contact for Erbi Biosystems:
Travis Foegler
Email: travisfoegler@erbi-bio.com
Phone: +1 (619) 450-9094
Related Links
https://cellmanufacturingusa.org/
