Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF)

The Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF) is the Biotechnology Research and Education Program's modern bioprocessing laboratory dedicated to the development and scale-up of biotechnology products and processes. With over 1000 fermentations conducted since 1998 alone, the BSF has accelerated the R&D of local biotechnology leaders such as Human Genome Sciences, NIH and MedImmune, as well as growing Maryland start-ups such as Martek Biosciences and Digene Corporation.

The BSF's capabilities include:

• Fermentation
• Cell culture
• Separation
• Purification
• Product analysis
• Challenging problems such as biopolymers, turbulence and multiphase fluid dynamics, biosensors, process analysis and control, and both metabolic and biochemical engineering.

BSF Advantages

• A unique facility in Maryland not restricted by current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) requirements
• Production processes are directly transferable to partners operating under cGMPs (required for FDA-approved clinical trials), such as Cambrex Inc. and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
• The BSF enables small manufacturing companies to offer extended capabilities to major pharmaceutical (Big Pharma) companies out-of-state
• BSF researchers are some of the best in Maryland: the last seven BSF graduates were each offered jobs at Human Genome Sciences

BSF Equipment

• Bioreactors from 2 to 250 Liters
• Process centrifuges
• Cell disruption
• Tangential flow filtration
• Chromatography
• Freeze drying

Companies and Government Labs Utilizing the BSF
Private Companies:

• 3-Dimension Pharmaceuticals
• Action Products, Inc. (Hagerstown)
• Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc. (Kensington)
• Advanced BioNutrition (Columbia)
• Athena Environmental Sciences Inc. (Baltimore)
• Atto Instruments, Inc. (Rockville)
• Brassica, Inc. (Baltimore)
• Becton Dickinson Microbiology Systems (Cockeysville)
• Bioscience Contract Production Corporation (Baltimore)
• Biosys Inc. (Columbia)
• Biospherics, Inc. (Beltsville)
• Biotechnology Research Labs, Inc. (Rockville)
• Cambrex (Walkersville)
• Cambrex (Baltimore)
• CarboMed
• Cell Trends, Inc. (Middletown)
• Chesapeake Biologicals (Baltimore)
• Chesapeake PERL (Savage)
• Chitin Works, Inc. (Cambridge)
• Claragen, Inc. (College Park)
• Crop Genetics International, Inc. (Columbia)
• Digene Corporation (Gaithersburg)
• Dynagen, Inc.
• EntreMed, Inc. (Rockville)
• Environmental Elements, Inc. (Baltimore)
• Enzion, Inc.
• Gene Logic, Inc. (Rockville)
• Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Rockville)
• ID Biomedical
• Igen, Inc. (Rockville)
• Igene, Inc. (Columbia)
• Instrument Research Company, Inc. (Columbia)
• Innovative Biosensors (College Park)
• IOMAI (Gaithersburg)
• ISP Mineral Products, Inc. (Hagerstown)
• Kemp Biotechnologies, Inc. (Frederick)
• LifeTechnologies/BRL/Gibco, Inc. (Rockville)
• Magenta, Inc. (Baltimore)
• Martek Biosciences Corp. (Columbia)
• MedImmune, Inc. (Gaithersburg)
• Meso-Scale
• Microbiological Associates (Rockville)
• Midland Reagent Company
• Molecular Oncology, Inc. (Gaithersburg)
• New Earth Sciences, Inc. (Cambridge)
• New York Blood Center
• Oceanix (Baltimore)
• Oncologix, Inc. (Rockville)
• OncoImmunin, Inc. (College Park)
• Oncor, Inc. (Gaithersburg)
• Organon Technica
• Orphan Medical
• Paragon Biotech, Inc. (Baltimore)
• PerImmune, Inc. (Rockville)
• Procter & Gamble (Baltimore)
• Proneuron Co. (Rockville)
• Proteinix, Inc. (Rockville)
• Prozyme, Inc.
• Puresyn, Inc
• SRCHEM, Inc. (Elkridge)
• Ventenna Medical Systems (Gaithersburg)
• Wheaton Science

Federal Government:

• National Institutes of Health
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Naval Research Laboratory
• US Army, Edgewood Research Development and Engineering Center (ERDEC)
• US Army, Walter Reed Research Institute
• United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, Martinsburg, WV

Academic:

• University of Maryland
  • Center for Vaccine Development
  • Animal Science
  • Biochemistry
  • Microbiology
  • Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
• University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute
  • MBC
  • COMB
  • CARB
  • CBR
• University of Virginia
• Duke Medical
• Ain Shams University, Cairo
• The University of Trieste
• University of California, Irvine

In addition to the preceding, the BSF has provided education/ training courses to the following:

• Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
• CIA University
• MedImmune, Gaithersburg, MD
• University of Maryland Undergraduate Classes: BSCI 223, BSCI 288, ENCH 437, ENCH 482, ENCH 648, ENBE 489, ENBE 499
• University of Maryland Fermentation Workshop
• University of Maryland Purification Workshop

Read about BREP success stories