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Advancing innovation in biotechnology

The UK’s National Industrial Biotechnology Facility

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CPI aims to accelerate and enable your biotechnology innovation by supporting the design, development, optimisation and demonstration of bespoke manufacturing processes specific for your product. 

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We have worked with a wide range of organisations from across the world including large multinational corporations, small-medium enterprises and start-up companies as well as internationally renowned universities.

We are a UK government-backed, independent facility and can support your biotechnology projects from inception to commercial scale, through fully tailored services and expert knowledge of bioprocess innovation. We have extensive laboratories and a dedicated facility for pilot and demonstration-scale with expertise in scaling biotechnologies for multiple markets and industry sectors. 

Our work is FSSC 22000 certified for scale-up and manufacturing approaches for the production of animal feed.

Our technologies

We use our technical expertise, industry know-how and dedicated facilities to help you to keep up with the ever-changing demands from the consumer and to drive innovation across the product supply chain.

Our bioprocess capability is used across both microbial fermentation development and mammalian cell development. 

Our open-access facilities at Wilton, UK, along with our state-of-the-art gas fermentation labs utilise specialised scaled-down and high-throughput systems to accelerate the development and optimisation of your bioprocesses before scale up to maximise the yield, purity and quality of your product.

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    Enabling innovation

    We have extensive expertise in scaling biotechnologies for multiple markets and industry sectors. We support biotechnology projects from inception to commercial scale, through fully tailored services and extensive knowledge of bioprocess innovation.

    We can help you with...

    Developing a natural nitrogen-fixation technology for agriculture
    Azotic Technologies
    Scaling up the next generation of bioplastics
    Biome Technologies
    Developing a scalable process for proprietary enzyme production
    Oxford Biotrans

    Let’s innovate together

    Speak to a member of our team today

    Contact us
    Jenny Readman

    Jenny Readman

    Business Development Manager

    Connect

    Host strain and bioprocess development

    We offer strain characterisation for a broad range of microorganisms, using our knowledge and experience to test their robustness and suitability for scale-up and commercial applications. 

    We will support you to develop and select a robust, scalable production strain most suited to the rigours of the scaled production environment. This minimises the risk of failure at scale and provides confidence in commercially relevant titre, productivity and yield data. 

    By validating a microorganism under process-relevant conditions, we can reduce the time, risk and cost associated with process development and scale-up. We work closely with you to inform and validate genetic modifications required on the organism, ensuring the host strains are stable, robust and suited to scaled fermentation.

    Pilot and demo scale fermentation

    We offer fermentation capability from 1ml high-throughput screens in micro-titre systems through to multiple laboratory and pilot scales of up to 10,000L demonstration scale vessels, all with appropriately scaled DSP facilities and knowhow. Our high throughput, automated systems allow integration of a rapid screening approach to your project, accelerating process development and allowing a cost-effective way to find an optimal solution for your product. 

    Working with our customers, we have also enabled bespoke design and construction of unique demonstration facilities, complementing our own multipurpose equipment and enabling multi-tonne scale operation. 

    Process scale-up and scale-down

    Process scale-up and scale-down enables evaluation of an organism’s performance under the stress and limitations of industrial-scale fermentation and DSP. Testing an organism under ​“scale-down” conditions in the laboratory is a very cost-effective way to validate strain performance and process economics while ensuring the system performance remains commercially relevant. Our investment in this platform capability allows you to focus on the critical process parameters and drivers for a successful transition to pilot and demonstration-scale. 

    Downstream processing

    We have the expertise and facilities to fully develop your fermentation and associated downstream processing (DSP). Employing our extensive industry knowledge, we will optimise feedstock and fermentation parameters to efficiently progress from laboratory into pilot or demonstration facilities. 

    DSP can account for up to 70% of the cost of an industrial bioprocess. At CPI, we ensure DSP issues are considered from the outset, alongside organism and fermentation development. Utilising our new £1M scale-down facility, we ensure optimal and scalable unit operations are employed to isolate and purify the target compound.

    Unique gas fermentation

    Gas fermentation utilises low-cost gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen as feedstocks. It requires specific capabilities, in comparison to conventional fermentation, as these gases need specialised equipment and handling due to their toxicity and/​or flammability. 

    Having invested extensively in C1 gas fermentation capability at laboratory and pilot scale, we are uniquely skilled in the design, development and validation of fermentation processes using gaseous C1 feedstocks at all scales of development.

    Process engineering design

    Our chemical engineering group use their extensive knowledge of process design to identify key factors that will determine the financial viability of your biotechnology process. We review and develop processes and plant designs to meet best industrial practices, ensuring they are developed within safe operational parameters from the outset. 

    Modelling and simulation

    The chemical engineering group has extensive knowledge of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and mass-transfer modelling to improve process understanding and therefore optimise process performance. 

    Our understanding of equipment performance at various scales, coupled with in-house scale-down methodology and process modelling, significantly mitigates process risk during scale-up. Processes modelled to predict performance across various scales of operation can be more rapidly and reliably developed through to commercial operations. 

    Novel Food Innovation Centre

    We use our technical expertise, industry know-how and dedicated facilities to help you to keep up with the ever-changing demands from the consumer and to drive innovation across the product supply chain.

    Our experienced team of scientists, engineers and project managers can support you with a comprehensive suite of services and expertise, including:

    Our bioprocess capability is used across both microbial fermentation development and mammalian cell development. 

    • Bespoke downstream process development
    • Upstream process development
    • Problem definition, data modelling and DoE
    • Cell line & media optimisation
    • High throughput robotic systems e.g Ambr
    • Analytical development
    • Bioreactor design modelling
    • Proof of concept and validation

    Our open-access facilities at Wilton, UK, along with our state-of-the-art gas fermentation labs utilise specialised scaled-down and high-throughput systems to accelerate the development and optimisation of your bioprocesses before scale up to maximise the yield, purity and quality of your product.

    Let’s innovate together

    Speak to a member of our team today

    Contact us
    Jenny Readman

    Jenny Readman

    Business Development Manager

    Connect

    Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC)

    FSSC 22000 Food Safety Management Systems

    ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems

    CPI is your innovation partner to make your ideas a reality.