10106271BiologIC - The use of predictive biology to accelerate development of customized bioprocessing platformsClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKAt BiologIC Technologies we are developing an automated bioprocessing platform that is a highly integrated, modular and configurable system for developing advanced biology products such as therapies. Our current focus revolves around providing bioprocessing solutions for diverse fields, including cell and gene therapies, RNA applications, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), and synthetic biology. BiologIC's patented architecture enables the configuration of different modules that can have different purposes depending on the bioprocessing application. We have created a library of these modules based on our current customer challenges and thanks to our digital tool chain we can also rapidly design new ones as our challenges evolve. Example modules from our library are small-scale bioreactors for cell growth, small-scale mRNA synthesis chamber, liquid handling module, gas dosing module, among others. Each module is like a lego block, depending on the application different modules come together to build the customized platforms. During the design and development of the modules we have encountered several challenges related to the complex biological interactions with the underlying physical forces and environmental variables that govern the bioprocesses such as fluidic dynamics, temperature, metabolites, pH, gas transfer and shear stress. We currently resort to conventional laboratory experiments whenever issues arise -- such as cell death resulting from shear stress generated by fluidic behaviours within the system. Nonetheless, relying on traditional laboratory experimentation demands significant time and resources, thereby elongating innovation cycles. To accelerate development, we would like to construct predictive models that enable us to simulate and validate our hypotheses in silico before moving to laboratory experiments. Additionally, we would like to use these simulations to predict how the biological organisms would behave when they are transferred from our small-scale platform to larger volumes in scale up systems. Using a predictive model with will enable us to help our customers reduce costs in their translation to manufacturing. This predictive model will enable us to quickly test and modify hypotheses using simulations, leading to faster advancements and novel solutions for our customers and shorter time-to-market for new products. As a lean start up, BiologIC currently doesn't have the in-house expertise or computer power to develop the predictive models neither advanced analytical capability to gather the robust datasets. We could only achieve these predicting analysis capabilities by collaborating with experts at leading facilities such as Astute Centre for Excellence.