Our Services

Accelerate your R&D using our Bioprocessing Scale-Up Centre. Our highly skilled team have a range of expertise spanning upstream process optimisation, downstream processing and data analysis to support you on your innovation journey, from small-scale culturing to semi-pilot scale production.

Expert advice is readily available from our team to assist with all aspects of project development, identification and securing of funding, to full technical delivery and reporting.

The Innovation Centre programme was established to help companies through the ‘valley of death’ commonly occurring at technology readiness levels (TRLs) four to seven. Looking specifically at TRLs in industrial biotechnology, generally the development path follows the process below:

Speak to us about your requirements

If you have a scale up enquiry, please complete the form below and send to scaleup@ibioic.com

Bioprocess scale-down is an essential tool for continued process development and optimisation. We offer cost-effective services for multidimensional scale-down studies to help better understand the critical process parameters of your process, enabling rapid optimisation without the need for pilot-scale runs or extensive experimentation. 

Strain Characterisation & Phenotyping 

Our high-throughput technology allows us to help you efficiently develop robust and reliable processes by screening media components and microorganisms under a broad range of conditions. 

With in-depth knowledge, and a host of different bioreactors and fermentation methods, we offer a flexible scale-up environment to allow you to optimise your process and achieve better yields of product, from biomass to fine chemicals and proteins.

Bioprocessing & Bioproduction 

Our team can develop your process at a range of volumes to allow you to comparatively assess your product yields and establish an optimised procedure. 

Whether it’s running in fed-batch mode for high optical densities and separation by continuous centrifugation, or a simple batch fermentation followed by batch centrifugation under sterile conditions, we can tailor the up-scale to fit your bioprocessing goals. 

The development of downstream processing (DSP) for efficient and cost-effective product recovery is an essential element of any bioprocess, regardless of scale.

Harvest & Cell Disruption 

We offer a range of harvest options, including whole broth recovery as well as separation of biomass from media and cell disruption for intracellular product recovery.

Filtration & Purification 

We can help you determine the best method for filtration and purification of your compound of interest whether you are working with 0.5 L or tens of litres of culture.  Where more control is required, we can perform microfiltration and ultrafiltration at this scale. 

Analytical Services 

We can provide online measurements such as optical density, as well as offline biochemistry profiling, to help you better understand your process and get the most from your cells. Our analytical services can be tailored to specifically suit what you want to monitor within your process, anything from nutrient depletion to product formation and toxin build-up.  

Drying & Packing 

Our services extend to drying and packaging to enable us to deliver your final product in the form that works for you. 

IBioIC Bioprocessing Scale-up Centres – Legal Status, Modes of Operation and Terms & Conditions

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) is hosted by, and forms part of, the University of Strathclyde.  It operates two scale-up centres, one of which is based at the University of Strathclyde (RapidBio) and the other at Heriot-Watt University (FlexBio).  The scale-up centre staff are either employees of the University of Strathclyde or Heriot-Watt University, the salaries of the latter being paid by IBioIC. Both centres work dynamically, requiring crossover of staff both on a laboratory basis and a higher level technical support & management, supported by IBioIC.  This explains why the Terms & Conditions for scale-up centre projects need to be three-way including the client, the University of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt University. Detailed below are our standard Terms & Conditions of engagement with clients with a brief description of their applicability.

• Direct-use project – clients visiting either scale-up centre to use equipment directly

• Short duration project – scale-up centre staff operating equipment on behalf of a client for short periods

• Research services project – scale-up centre staff executing longer duration projects with multiple work packages and sign-off of a work order contract