Bio-industry commercialization the focus on new partnership

Saskatoon, SK – The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) have formed a partnership they say will help Canadian firms to translate research and development from the lab to the marketplace.

The partnership’s focus will be on local and national biotechnology and bio-manufacturing industries and in the development of new bioproducts for niche markets and bio-manufacturing processes and products for the agricultural and health industries as well as the energy, mining and minerals sectors.

They also say the partnership will enable each organization to meet the increasing demand for fermentation services, to expand current service offerings and decrease client wait times while accelerating the commercialization of products.

SRC has provided contract biomanufacturing service providers since the 1990s, and is well positioned through this partnership to build critical mass to advance innovation in biomanufacturing including the areas of biomass development, biocatalyst and bioprocessing, as well as fermentation and microbial synthesis.

Its biosafety level 2 fermentation facility is well equipped for process development, scale-up, optimization and manufacturing of microbial technologies, upstream production, downstream processing and product analysis and it is further supported by an advanced genomics infrastructure.

“As Canada’s premier research and technology organization, NRC is an essential partner to drive innovation across Canada, by translating research and technology into jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity for Canadians. This partnership will greatly benefit the goals of NRC’s bio-based specialty chemicals program where 50% of the focus revolves around fermentation and microbial synthesis.” Dr. Roman Szumski, VP, life sciences, NRC.