Cell Manufacturing Consortium

Goal: Establish a collaborative public-private partnership that engages industry, academia, regulators, and other stakeholders in removing barriers to the advancement of the cell-manufacturing industry, thereby bringing new therapies and diagnostics to the healthcare market.

Lead: Georgia Research Alliance
191 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 849
Atlanta, GA 30303-1740

Award Number: 70NANB14H048

Federal Funding: $499,636

Project Duration: 18 months

Joined by nine founding partners, the Georgia Research Alliance will:

• Create a national consortium in the promising but nascent field of cell manufacturing,
• Identify and prioritize current technical challenges impeding progress,
• Create a clear roadmap that integrates research with development of commercially viable manufacturing processes,
• Identify future research directions and potential novel technologies to advance the cell manufacturing industry, and
• Develop mechanisms for addressing future needs for cell therapies and diagnostics.

Today, the market for cell-based medical technologies, such as antibodies and vaccines, tops $1 billion.In prospect are therapies that could improve the lives of patients with variety of serious diseases and conditions that are incurable today. These range from reversing paralysis caused by spinal-cord injuries to combating heart failure, to treating auto-immune diseases and cancer. Other anticipated uses include screening platforms for predictive and personalized medicine. Because of the many envisioned applications and predicted health benefits, the global market for cell-based medical technologies is expected to multiply several times over. However, cost-effective, large-scale manufacturing—or bioprocessing—capabilities necessary to produce these emerging therapies and diagnostic tools are lacking. This new consortium aims to position the United States as the leading developer of cell-manufacturing technologies and the chief authority on cell manufacturing standards, worldwide.

For project information: Amanda Schroeder, (404) 332-9770, ASchroeder [at] gra.org (ASchroeder[at]gra[dot]org)

Funded Partners:

• Aruna Biomedical (Athens, Ga.)
• Celgene Cellular Therapeutics (Warren, N.J.)
• Cellular Dynamics International, Inc. (Madison, Wis.)
• Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.)
• North Carolina State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
• RoosterBio (Frederick, Md.)
• University of California Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.)
• University of Georgia (Athens, Ga.)
• University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.)

AMTech Project Manager: Jean-Louis Staudenmann, (301) 975-4866, jean-louis.staudenmann [at] nist.gov (jean-louis[dot]staudenmann[at]nist[dot]gov)