Press Release Horizon Europe Grant BioProS
NecstGen Joins Major New Collaboration Project to Create Biointelligent Sensor for Improved Biomanufacturing
As part of the Horizon Europe framework, NecstGen has joined an international consortium, that will work to develop Biointelligent Sensors for real time in production measurement and control of therapeutics including Cell and Gene Therapies. The biohybrid sensor technology will help optimise biomanufacturing and so deliver exciting new technology. It is funded with over 6 million euros as part of the European HORIZON programme, started on 1 July 2022, and will run for 48 months.
NecstGen joins as an organisation with expertise in the development and manufacturing of Cell and Gene Therapies. A fundamental and key part of delivering the safe and efficacious therapeutics of tomorrow is to understand how the systems and processes to manufacture them are performing. In the project NecstGen will work to develop an example manufacturing system on which new technologies can be developed and tested.
The convergence of technical, informational, and biological systems are the basis of biointelligence. This new paradigm opens up a huge innovation space globally. Because Europe is at the forefront of manufacturing excellence, BioProS will make a significant contribution to sustainable and resilient manufacturing processes in the EU. Digital and bio-based process chains have the potential to revolutionise many industries and ensure their competitiveness.
The goal of BioProS is to optimise the production processes for therapeutic viruses through better quality control. A biohybrid sensor technology monitors cell-based virus infection cycles in real time. For this purpose, optical sensor technology is combined with cell-based measurement principles. Within BioProS, a platform technology is being developed that can be adapted to several specific substances and virus types. This allows applying it in different industries and production environments. Since such a platform technology is complex, numerous European partners from different disciplines such as biology, engineering and mechanical engineering or computer science are involved.
Seven partners from five countries are represented in the BioProS consortium: BICO Group AB, Sweden, NecstGen, the Netherlands, Fraunhofer (IPA and IGB), Germany, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, EurA AG, Germany, ElveSys, France and Politenico di Milano, Italy. The consortium gathers all the necessary expertise under its roof and forms the basis for international partnerships. In close cooperation with other European initiatives and with the support of an industrial advisory board, the project partners want to realise the vision of biointelligent manufacturing and demonstrate the applicability of disruptive technologies in an industrial setting. This will foster research for biointelligent methods and global applications while guaranteeing technological sovereignty for Europe in the long term.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-27: Development of technologies/devices for bio-intelligent manufacturing (RIA)) under grant agreement No 101070120.