Bioprocess Sector

Dr. Bernard Massie
Tel.: (514) 496-6131
Fax: (514) 496-5143
E-mail: bernard.massie@cnrc-nrc.gc.ca
biography

Sector Fact Sheet (pdf)

The Bioprocess Sector of NRC-BRI, assists the biotechnology industry and the larger research community in developing, optimizing, and scaling-up bioprocesses. The Sector is internationally recognized as a centre of excellence. The Sector's multidisciplinary research team includes molecular biologists, cell biologists, microbiologists, chemical and biochemical engineers,. Bioprocesses use living cells and their components to develop innovative products. The Sector develops microbial, enzymatic and advanced cell-based processes from inception to industrial scale. These processes can then be used by industrial partners for the production of valued compounds such as bio-therapeutics, enzymes, green products and other biological products. BRI's unique bioprocess facility is equipped for the production of large amounts of drug target protein, in a biologically active form, for further studies along the drug development process. BRI's scientists and engineers also develop unique expression vectors, and use both fed-batch and perfusion strategies in the growth and production of recombinant proteins in bacteria, yeast, insect, and mammalian cells. For a specific protein, the Bioprocess research team can develop a novel, integrated recombinant production process and scale it up, through iterative processing, to optimize the yield and biological activity of the product. The Sector has patented several vectors currently used in preclinical trials of gene therapies.

BRI has built up cutting-edge infrastructure in order to support bioprocess development and optimization activities. These infrastructures make it possible for the Bioprocess Sector to support large scale industrial development of biopharmaceuticals and biologics, in rigorously controlled conditions.

The centrepiece of the Bioprocess sector is the Pilot Plant for Bioprocessing, the largest facility of its kind in Canada, which has computer-controlled fermenters of different sizes ranging from 3.5 L to 1500 L. The Pilot Plan also include a wide range of analytical equipment and instruments for supporting its fermentation and downstream processing.

The Sector has a Large Scale Biosafety Level-2 compliant Multi-Suites area for large scale operation of animal cell culture. The facility is equipped with bioreactors with scales ranging from 10 L to 180 L and all ancillary devices and instrumentation necessary for fed-batch and perfusion cultures, primary separation and purification of recombinant proteins and viral vectors.

The sector also operates a Flow Cytometry facility, a workstation allowing for single cell isolation and a Microscopy Imaging facility.