Biomanufacturing

Optimising cell factories for the biotechnology industry

Biomanufacturing refers to the use of living organisms or their components to produce commercially viable products such as biological medicines and therapies (molecules, cells, tissues), vaccines, biochemical catalysts and biofuels.

Biomanufacturing is a global, technology-driven marketplace in which the UK has to be competitive.

In ChELSI we are utilising our inherently multi-disciplinary skill-base to develop new solutions for bioindustry that can speed the delivery of new bioproducts to the market - from more efficient cell factories to advanced design and processing strategies for biomolecular products. The majority of this work is funded by the EPSRC, BBSRC and a diverse network of industrial and academic partners.

Professor David James laboratory is one of the few academic labs worldwide that conducts research into bioprocessing based on mammalian cell factories.

Dr Robert Falconer research studies small molecule interactions with proteins and the hydration shell around proteins. The aim is to determine how small molecules interact with proteins and their hydration layer, and how this influences the thermodynamics of protein unfolding, protein-protein interactions and drug long distant interactions with protein binding sites.

Dr Tuck Seng Wong's research focuses on engineering biomolecules (proteins, peptides and nucleic acids) using an amalgam of protein engineering and advanced biophysical techniques. ChELSI researchers are implementing this algorithm to redesign or to tailor biomolecules’ properties for industrial and pharmaceutical applications.

Dr Stephen Wilkinson's lab has developed computational models of monoclonal antibody production in CHO cells that are based on experimental data, which has enabled the identification of targets for cell engineering to remove production bottlenecks.