The funding funds the manufacturing and development of advanced cell therapies in the Asia-Pacific region while researching the Quantum® Cell Expansion System.
Singapore’s Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies has announced the winner of the Advanced Therapy Manufacturing & Innovation (ATMI) grant for the Asia-Pacific region from Seoul National University College.
Dr. Chung-Gyu Park, professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea, is the 2020 Asia-Pacific ATMI (Advanced Therapy Manufacturing and Innovation) grant winner. Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies offered the 2020 ATMI Grant of US $ 50,000 to promote the manufacture and development of advanced cell therapies in the Asia-Pacific region and to support creative research into novel applications with the Quantum® Cell Expansion System.
Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies is a leading global provider of devices and products that collect and process blood and cells. Quantum is part of the company’s growing presence in cell and gene therapy. Quantum is an automated cell culture device that simplifies labor-intensive manual tasks associated with cell culture flasks and helps improve the reproducibility and scalability of the cell culture process to meet scale manufacturing requirements.
Park will use the grant for his work producing exosomes associated with treatments for patients with autoimmune diseases. He believes the Quantum System can help improve the overall productivity and efficiency of exosome production while reducing batch-to-batch variability and the risk of contamination compared to manual cell culture.
“This collaboration will accelerate our exosomal research from in vitro small animal studies to human clinical trials for the treatment of autoimmune diseases,” said Park. “My team and I look forward to working closely with scientists from Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies to ensure the success of this project.”
The ATMI Grant 2020 is intended to advance translational research and process transfer, process development and the novel application of cell and gene therapy technologies in order to further expand clinical manufacturing potential. This includes a year-long research collaboration between Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies and Professor Park’s team. In addition to the financial award, Professor Park will be provided with a Quantum device and up to 12 disposable sets for use in connection with the ATMI project.
“We are delighted with the quality and the impressive number of submissions for this opening grant. Prof. Park’s work has the potential to unlock new treatments for so many patients, ”said Jim Beltzer, PhD, senior manager of global strategic medical affairs for Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies.
The ATMI grant was open to applicants from universities, research institutes, academic centers, hospitals, and biotech companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
The winner was selected by the Medical Affairs Department of Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies. Considerations included the applicant’s scientific, clinical value and track record.
