INTENSO

"Gaining Productivity, Cost Efficiency and Sustainability in the Downstreaming Processing of Bio Products by novel Integration and Intensification strategies"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The European Life science and chemical industries increasingly depend on effi-cient, sustainable, and cost-effective bioprocessing platforms to remain competi-tive. A critical assessment of current bottlenecks during (bio) manufacturing clearly indicates that the recovery and purification of biologicals in large scale in responsible for many inefficiencies.

INTENSO proposes an evaluation of the current situation of the downstream processing scenario with the aim of identifying inefficiencies and concomitantly introduce a debottlenecking overarching strategy. The later will be build up on the basis of a multidisciplinary approach, which considers opportunities to im-prove the process technology and underlying chemistry / biology and materials science at the same time. INTENSO will work alongside 4 technological axes, targeting promising and up-coming technologies and tailoring such technologies to the manufacturing of various classes of (bio) products. Intensification of individual unit operations and global process integration, as well as, dovetailing with fermentation / cell cultivation will be employed to the mentioned end.

INTENSO will target new classes of (bio) products like Monoclonal Antibodies (Mabs), pDNA (e.g. for genetic vaccination), Virus Like Particles (VLP) or nano-plexes. All the mentioned new products are part of most industrial R&D pipelines and offer an excellent opportunity to introduce innovative bioprocessing.

The results of the project are expected to contribute to the understanding of current industrial downstream processing practice, to the definition and alleviation of current inefficiencies, to the development and / or implementation of novel technologies, and to more efficient / sustainable and cost effective (bio) manufacturing. Various technologies will be studied utilizing a nano-to-process strategy so as to introduce integration / intensification during bioprocessing.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Researchers are revealing key areas for improvement in the manufacture of bioproducts.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Biomanufacturing involves converting biological resources into products like biopharmaceuticals, enzymes, biofuels and vaccines. A critical and expensive step is recovering highly pure samples efficiently from the biological source.

The EU-funded http://intensoproject.eu/ (INTENSO) project was set up to identify bottlenecks in these downstream processing methods, and to find solutions applicable to a wide range of products. Researchers are concentrating on bioproducts that form part of most industrial research and development pipelines in order to reduce inefficiencies and costs.

They placed emphasis on protein purification from cell or fermentation cultures, developing techniques to separate or capture desired proteins from other cell components. These techniques are economical, can be scaled up and may be applied to several fields, including the recovery of biopharmaceuticals, environmental remediation and enzyme purification.

Another focus point is the capture of large molecules such as virus particles. These have traditionally been hard to purify, but INTENSO researchers are investigating two potential methods.

The first involves separating molecules based on size using porous rod structures known as monolithic columns. The second, earmarked for vaccine production, makes use of disposable cartridges to which large molecules are adsorbed directly from crude extracts.

For these technologies to have a sustainable effect on all forms of biotechnology, the INTENSO team will factor in economic, environmental and social impacts. They will consider legal constraints, government policies, operating costs and profitability, as well as the effects on the environment and the technology's end users.