Dr Sean Feast on revolutionising the biological separations industry
Precision Chroma, the University of Canterbury’s latest spinout company led by Sean Feast, manufactures 3D printed chromatography columns to separate biologics cheaper, faster, and easier. This simplifies the purification of the DNA, RNA, viruses, and antibodies used in vaccines and cell and gene therapies.
Falling for chromatography
While studying chemical and process engineering at the University of Canterbury, Sean did a module on bio separations with Professor of Chemical Engineering, Conan Fee, and fell in love with the chromatography process.
After graduating, Sean took a job as a manufacturing tech at Thermo Fisher using chromatography to separate bovine plasma in their protein separation unit. Enthused about chromatography research and development, Sean decided to do a Master’s degree and called Conan to ask if he had any interesting chromatography projects on the go.
Conan told Sean about an idea to use his 3D printed chromatography columns to separate out viruses for gene therapy. Sean’s ears pricked up.
“There were so many different aspects of biology to tackle, some really great engineering problems to solve, a lot of unique challenges and unexplored areas. I loved everything about it. After my PhD, Conan offered me an eight-month post-doc research fellowship as a part of the MBIE-funded Endeavour Research Programme on 3D Printed Porous Media for Process Engineering. I spent most of my time commercialising the technology to the point where we can bring it to market.”
Ground-breaking for the medicinal therapeutics industry
The standard chromatography process passes liquid through a column filled with packed spheres, like sand on a beach. The liquid passes through the random gaps in the particles. Each pass separates out elements, until you’re left with the molecules you want.
Sean points out the problem with traditional chromatography is that no real design has been applied to optimise the process. “It happens to work. It’s good enough, but it’s slow, complex, and quite wasteful. Every pass loses more of the biological molecules you need.”
Precision Chroma’s new 3D printed columns are a complete game-changer. Sean and his partners have applied engineering design principles to improve on the traditional method, dramatically reducing the number of complex steps required, increasing the overall efficiency of the process. The 3D printed columns fit into existing hardware so there’s no requirement to update expensive equipment, and the flow channels in the columns are optimised to speed up separation, capturing more valuable biological material from each pass.
The net result is a cheaper, faster, more efficient process which has the potential to completely disrupt the way we develop therapeutics in the future.
Making gene therapy more affordable
Sean gets fired up talking about how 3D chromatography columns can advance gene therapy. “Before gene therapies existed, a lot of genetic diseases were untreatable. Now there are cures, but the biologics required for treatment are very complex to produce. We believe with our technology we can cut that complexity and reduce the massive production cost.”
Biologicals to repair or replace missing genes are produced in a long, complex process. The molecules needed for gene therapy are grown inside cultured cells. Once you’ve enough cells you break them open to extract the biologics you want. But in doing this, you release other molecules into solution. The challenge is extracting the biologic you need from this molecule soup. The traditional chromatography process typically involves 10 steps. Every step, you lose precious amounts of your desired biologic.
Precision Chroma columns can perform chromatography at the same time as removing solids and clarifying the solution, minimizing the time it takes to extract a target biologic, and increasing yield.
Bringing the technology to market
In January 2022, the University of Canterbury partnered with Bridgewest Ventures through the Callaghan Innovation Deep Tech Incubator scheme to fast-track the global commercialisation of their ground-breaking biotechnology.
Sean explains why they selected Bridgewest Ventures as a partner.
“Bridgewest have been fantastic. They really see the value in our tech and how it fits their portfolio of transformative biotechnologies. They’re purposely expanding their pool of biotech talent, so all the companies can benefit from one another and Bridgewest’s global biotech manufacturing connections. Bridgewest have a great ecosystem of manufacturing companies willing to talk to us about using our columns. So being with Bridgewest has been amazing in terms of connections.”
Precision Chroma are now hiring a team to upscale their technology. This year they plan to shift to pilot scale and then commercial scale, while also testing their columns for plasmid purification. By the close of the year, they intend to have a product they can bring to market.
They’re targeting organisations manufacturing biologicals at scale. These companies tend to use the same biologic separation processes from discovery through to commercial scale. Sean explains “Therapy development processes are FDA approved. If the manufacturer makes a change to a process, they have to go back through that costly FDA approval process. Our goal is to get in the door early and encourage manufacturers to use our columns from the beginning so they can see the benefits right from the start.”
New Zealand as a biomanufacturing centre of excellence
Sean’s keen for Precision Chroma to be a New Zealand success story all the way. He says, “I’d love to see our technology developed and produced in New Zealand as an export product we can all be proud of. There's no reason we can't do it all here, we've got such great people, and we’re building a biotech industry. We can take control of the future of our great ideas.”
“Kiwis are great at problem solving and coming up with solutions that are not only effective, but novel. It’s really important for New Zealand to cement our legacy of innovation and we’re in a great position to get into biotech. We've got fantastic talent and research. Now it's about getting that research into a commercial setting. Having Bridgewest to support and develop commercial opportunities is the clear pathway people need to get their research out there being used.”
Bridgewest’s goal is to create a biomanufacturing centre of excellence in New Zealand. Our pharmaceutical and biological manufacturing experience gives us a global network and the infrastructure to support biotech ventures like Precision Chroma. If you’ve a biotech idea ready to take to market, talk to us about joining our growing biotech portfolio.
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