University of Houston joins $10 million biopharmaceutical manufacturing project

The University of Houston is part of a $10 million effort by the National Institute for Innovation in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing (NIIMBL) to help capture key opportunities for innovation in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

Among the eight new technology and workforce development projects selected for funding by NIIMBL is one from the lab of Richard Willson, Huffington-Woestemeyer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UH. Willson’s project proposes a new mix-and-read antibody measurement system that uses fluorescent materials to determine the amount of antibody present in a sample.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of antibodies, the molecular soldiers produced by immune cells that attack foreign invaders in the body, such as pollen or bacteria, and mark them for elimination. Since the development of laboratory manufacturing of antibodies more than 20 years ago, their popularity in medical treatments has soared, and about six of the world’s ten best-selling drugs are antibodies.

And yet, scientists are working on the intricacies of manufacturing.

“During manufacturing processes, it is important to know the concentration of antibodies in your sample and this measurement should be made several times during a typical manufacturing process,” said Willson, who is no stranger in the fluorescent products sector and is a pioneer. the use of light sticks to detect biological threats for the US Navy. A few years ago, he developed a fluorescent material (or reagent) that emits one color of light when excited by another color of light.

“The advantage of this reagent is that it fluoresces more in the presence of antibodies, and you can determine how much antibody is present in a sample by using it,” Willson said. “Together with our industry partners Genentech, Agilent and Bristol Myers Squibb, we believe this could be a useful tool for people doing everything from culturing the cells that make antibodies to determining antibody concentrations before purify them.

Since the institute’s launch in 2017, NIIMBL has awarded 123 member-led technical, workforce development, and Global Health Fund projects worth approximately $111 million. Willson led the University of Houston’s effort to join the organization, and this is the first grant the University has received from NIIMBL for technology development. Funding for the Willson project is $200,000.

The Willson team includes Katerina Kourentzi, research associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Houston; Yan Chen, Agilent; Midori Greenwood-Goodwin, Genentech/Roche; and Mathura Raman, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

“A truly distinctive feature of this project is its close connection to industry,” Kourentzi said. “We have received a lot of advice from our industry partners who are volunteering to work with us through NIIMBL.”