Biomanufacturing

Support for HI³ and the four funded research programs through the CBRF and BRIF is part of a larger investment in Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy. The strategy aims to grow a strong, competitive domestic life sciences sector with cutting-edge biomanufacturing capabilities and to improve the country’s ability to respond to future health challenges.

HI³ – a coalition of 87 academic, hospital, research networks, industry, government, not-for-profit and community partners – was one of five national hubs established in March 2023 with CBRF funding.

Together, the four awarded programs will provide critical health intelligence data to guide the co-development of health threat surveillance platforms and next-generation precision interventions by the hub’s academic and industry partners, while building a highly skilled workforce to support Canada’s growing biomanufacturing and life sciences sector.

“Congratulations to HI³ and the collaborative teams behind these CBRF-funded programs. These four programs leverage the tremendous expertise of the �ؿ�ζSM's researchers and our partners in academia, hospitals, industry and other sectors to develop the talent, tools and data required to be at the forefront of emerging health threats,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“On behalf of the �ؿ�ζSM and HI³, I thank the government of Canada for its investment in building a strong domestic life sciences sector ready to take on the health challenges of today and tomorrow.”

One of the CBRF-funded programs is the Biomanufacturing Hub Network (BioHubNet), an immersive talent development program based at U of T and led by University Professor Molly Shoichet along with Darius Rackus, an assistant professor of chemistry and biology at Toronto Metropolitan University, and Gilbert Walker, a professor of chemistry at U of T.

“With world-leading scientists and researchers established across Canadian leading research institutions, Canada is home to a competitive and robust biomanufacturing and life sciences sector. We made a promise to Canadians that we would rebuild the domestic sector,” said François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry. “With this investment, our government is delivering on this promise by supporting the excellent innovations, collaborations and infrastructures necessary to rapidly respond to future public health threats and keep Canadians safe.”

The predicted supply of biomanufacturing workers is only enough to fill one-quarter of the positions that will be needed in the sector by 2029, according to a 2021 report from BioTalent Canada.

To address the shortage, BioHubNet will leverage its 26 industry and training partners – which include multinational and homegrown biotechnology companies, as well as five Ontario colleges and nearly $19 million in funding from CBRF – to develop a range of training programs and curricula that provide experiential, hands-on learning to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and others who are ready to transition to industry.

The program will also outfit entrepreneurs with the skills and resources they need to commercialize their lab-based innovations, further strengthening the translational pipeline. Over the next four years, BioHubNet will produce close to 1,000 highly skilled workers through micro-credential courses, industry internships, academic exchange placements and entrepreneurial training.

A central tenet underlying all BioHubNet’s offerings is a commitment to create more equitable and inclusive participation in the biomanufacturing and life sciences sectors through intentional recruitment and active support for trainees from under-represented groups.

“Canada’s future as a leader in bio-innovation depends on having highly qualified workers, yet the sector is predicted to face severe workforce shortages in the coming years,” says Shoichet, who is the Michael E Charles Professor in Chemical Engineering at U of T and scientific director of PRiME Next-Generation Precision Medicine, a U of T institutional strategic initiative based at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

“By expanding the pipeline of skilled research talent in Canada, BioHubNet will accelerate the translation of promising discoveries from bench to market and ensure that this country’s biomanufacturing sector continues to grow and attract further international investment.”

In addition to BioHubNet, three other research programs were also funded:

The Integrated Network for the Surveillance of Pathogens: Increasing Resilience and capacity in Canada’s pandemic response (INSPIRE) based at the University of Windsor. Co-led by Windsor professor Mike McKay and University of Guelph professor Lawrence Goodridge, the INSPIRE program leverages community-level wastewater surveillance data, infrastructure and expertise to monitor the arrival and spread of infectious threats. The program also received infrastructure funding from BRIF to implement technologies and processes across its network that will streamline wastewater surveillance efforts to be more rapid, agile and sensitive. Importantly, these infrastructure supports will expand wastewater monitoring capacity in northern Ontario and at the Windsor-Detroit border to strengthen supply chains.
The Prepare, React, Collect, Innovate, Share and Engage (PRECISE) Diagnostic Platform, based at Sinai Health and co-led by Jennie Johnstone and Anne-Claude Gingras – who are both faculty members in U of T’s Faculty of Medicine – will advance a comprehensive, streamlined approach for responding to emerging threats by driving the timely development of rapid diagnostic tools that will scale up testing capacity and reduce reliance on global supply chains.
The Pandemic Preparedness Engaging Primary Care and Emergency Departments (PREPARED) program, based at Unity Health Toronto and led by Andrew Pinto, who is a faculty member in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, aims to engage primary care clinics and emergency departments across the country to enhance disease monitoring, improve patient care and health system efficiency, accelerate the development of medical countermeasures and boost recruitment to clinical trials.

All four research programs reflect the hub’s extensive network of nearly 100 partners from academia, hospital, industry, public and other sectors. The programs leverage the collective resources and expertise of this network, including U of T’s position as a global leader in artificial intelligence, data, life sciences and engineering, and the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network’s strong track record of clinical impact and health-care innovation.

“Our goal at HI³ is to advance mission-driven, team-based science that will help Canada be more prepared, resilient and independent in the face of emerging health threats,” said Jen Gommerman, co-director of HI³ and a professor of immunology in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“As we support and grow these four research programs, we will continue to work closely with our hub partners and with our counterparts across the country to ensure that we have the capacity and resources needed to respond in a co-ordinated, effective and equitable manner.”

U of T partnership aims to strengthen Canada’s biomanufacturing talent

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 15:00:55 +0000

U of T partnership aims to strengthen Canada’s biomanufacturing talent

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/03/2023 - 11:00

Cutline

Supriya Shivanna works on a bioreactor in U of T Engineering’s BioZone, which, along with partners CCRM and U of T’s School of Continuing Studies, will offer a new set of microcredentials focused on biotech industry skills (photo by Neil Ta)

Tyler Irving

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Our Community

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

School of Continuing Studies

Subheadline

Three new microcredential courses will be administered through the School of Continuing Studies

The �ؿ�ζSM’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering has partnered with CCRM, BioZone and the School of Continuing Studies on a new set of microcredentials that will help workers across Canada’s biomanufacturing industry to upgrade or strengthen their skills.

Biomanufacturing refers to the industrial-scale production of many different products, including pharmaceuticals, vaccines, emerging products such as cell and gene therapies and even commodity chemicals and fuels. BioTalent Canada has estimated that by 2029, Canada may require as many as 65,000 additional workers in this sector.

“U of T Engineering already has a lot of experience producing highly-qualified personnel in the biotechnology space, as well as strong links with a large network of partners in this area,” says Julie Audet, a professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and vice-dean, graduate studies at U of T Engineering.

“We wanted to leverage these relationships to provide hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that can help people level-up their skills, whether they are already in the industry or thinking of moving into it.”

Audet and her collaborators – including CCRM, a not-for-profit organization that supports the commercialization of cell and gene therapies, and BioZone, a centre for applied bioscience and bioengineering research at U of T – received funding from the Ontario Microcredentials Challenge Fund to help develop three new courses covering a range of topics in biomanufacturing.

The courses, which are administered by U of T’s School of Continuing Studies, are:

Good Manufacturing Practice in Biomanufacturing (Fall 2023)
Quality Assurance Management in Biomanufacturing (Fall 2023)
Bioprocess Foundations (Winter 2024)

Learners enrolled in these courses will be eligible to apply for funding from the Ontario Student Assistance Program to cover the course fees.

Each course includes six hours of instructor-supervised asynchronous, self-directed learning modules, followed by another six hours of in-person interaction with operators and industry professionals at an Ontario biomanufacturing facility. That facility will be CCRM’s Centre for Cell and Vector Production (CCVP) for the first two courses. CCVP is a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-compliant facility built in partnership with the University Health Network to produce cells and viral vectors for in-human Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.

“CCVP is a leading biomanufacturing centre with 10 clean rooms and nearly 100 employees who are dedicated to the production of cell and gene therapies for clients around the world,” says Sarah Lepage, manager of training programs at OmniaBio, a subsidiary of CCRM.

“Learners will have the opportunity to tour the 20,000 square foot facility, interact with GMP operators, and help complete a live simulation of a cell manufacturing process. Participants will learn about how cell therapies are produced and the importance of the clean room environment in biomanufacturing.”

In the third course, students will visit BioZone to interact with researchers who work at the interface of biology and engineering, and who share a common vision: to use the most advanced and innovative biotechnology to address urgent societal needs in energy, environment and health.

“Manufacturing vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and other bioproducts at scale requires quantitative understanding of biological processes at both the cellular and bioreactor level,” says Christopher Lawson, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry and a member of BioZone who helped develop the Bioprocess Foundations course.

“This course will provide students with a basic skill set in quantifying cell growth, product formation and bioreactor operations, while also providing an opportunity to perform real fermentation runs with an 80-litre industrial fermenter housed within our BioZone laboratories.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the importance of having both the facilities and personnel to manufacture vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and other bioproducts,” adds Audet.

“But it’s not just about being prepared for the next crisis – it’s about leading the way forward. Canada has the capacity to be a strong player in the biomanufacturing sector, but other parts of the world are catching up fast. This kind of training will help ensure that we stay on top when it comes to translating the next generation of medical interventions from the lab to the marketplace.”

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