Collaborations between the Academic Setting and the Industrial Client:
The Biotechnology Pilot Scale Fermentation Facility at The University of British Columbia
Originally Published in CanBiotech BioMed Outsourcing Newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 1, September 2002

By the University of British Columbia Biotechnology Fermentation Facility
Brian Mayson, Scientist

North America’s present knowledge based economy is continually challenging the biotechnology industry to evolve and adapt to changing industrial demands.  Biotechnology research has traditionally utilized a multidisciplinary approach, allowing knowledge to be drawn from  numerous diverse fields, blurring the distinctions between the different academic areas of study.  With this comes a continually increasing emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaborations that often extend beyond the university platform.  Universities continue to build relationships with the scientific industries that they serve.  The collaboration between academia and industry allows for the exchange of research expertise and the sharing of research tools, ultimately advancing the pursuit of knowledge and innovation.  The development of these strong ties between academic institutions and industry is mutually beneficial; industry has the unique opportunity to draw from the substantial knowledge base contained within the academic institutions, while academic researchers gain access to the support that supplements funding from traditional sources.  

The Biotechnology Pilot Scale Fermentation Facility at The University of British Columbia is an excellent example of an academic facility that embraces these ties with industrial clients.  The fermentation facility is a state-of-the-art cell culturing facility that contracts its expertise and equipment to numerous academic and industrial researchers. The facility performs extensive contract work in the areas of biomass and protein production, fermentation optimization, fermentation scale-up and product separation and purification. 

The UBC Biotech Lab provides specific research tools and infrastructure unavailable to most small industrial labs or academic researchers.  By offering these contract services, the Biotech Lab enhances opportunities both within the university and the biotech community.  By keeping closely tied with industrial demands, the university is able to highlight its research and scholarship, while remaining on the cutting edge of biotechnology focuses and technologies.  The academic environment, in turn, is continually enriched and challenged by new and novel research ideas and issues.  

The fermentation facility provides expertise in microbial, yeast, insect cell, and mammalian cell culturing methods.  This broad experimental facilitates the training of students for the biotechnology industry and allows a wide range of academic and industrial projects.  Many long-term relationships are built between industrial and academic researchers and students trained within the fermentation facility, often resulting in an easier transition or carryover into job placement.  The Biotechnology fermentation facility also offers hands-on training workshops for outside researchers and companies.  These workshops cover the fundamentals of small-scale microbial fermentation, scale-up considerations, and fermentor design and set-up.  A specialized workshop on fermentation of the methanol utilizing yeast Pichia is also offered.  

The Biotechnology Laboratory at UBC has developed several new technologies in collaboration with industrial or academic partners addressing industrial needs.  Examples that have been commercialized include an on-line methanol monitoring and control system utilized in Pichia cell culture and the acoustic cell filter utilized in perfusion cultures of mammalian and insect cells.