Bioingenium, a company specialized in the development of bioprocesses and the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins, is expanding its R&D facilities in the Barcelona Science Park with the move to a new laboratory space. The company, which has 15 years of history and clients from more than 20 countries all over the world, aims to tackle a major growth and international expansion plan with the goal of becoming a strategic partner for biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

Bioingenium is a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) which was founded in 2006 to help pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biotech companies expand and develop bioprocesses to produce therapeutic proteins and vaccines for human and animal health.

“Bioingenium originated in academia. In fact, it’s a spin-off that was created within a research group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). In 2008, we decided to move to the Barcelona Science Park, in an environment of scientific excellence which has enabled us to continue to innovate, forge synergies and position ourselves as global experts in the development of bioprocesses and the production of therapeutic proteins”, says its CEO, David Resina.

Bioingenium recently moved to a new laboratory space to increase the area it occupies in the Park. “With the expansion of our R&D facilities, we want to even further improve our capacities, which will come with the purchase of new protein purification and fermentation equipment. And we are already planning to continue this growth in the forthcoming years”, Resina adds.

Experts in protein expression

The production of recombinant proteins, that is, proteins obtained from a species or cell line different to the original, is one of modern biotechnology’s most important contributions which has fostered the advance of biomedicine in fields like oncology, immunology, endocrinology, the development of new vaccines and the struggle against viral diseases, like the one caused by SARS-CoV-2.

Examples of recombinant proteins with therapeutic applications are human insulin and human growth hormone, obtained from Escherichia coli bacteria cultures or mammal cells.

Bioingenium is a global benchmark in the field of developing bioprocesses and producing therapeutic recombinant proteins, from the early stages to the production of batches for concept, efficacy or toxicology tests.

“Producing recombinant proteins is complex because many processes come into play which require different fields of knowledge, like molecular biology, biochemistry and engineering, plus it entails the use of a wide variety of equipment and methods. This complexity in the processes requires trained staff and lengthens development times, which proves to be an entry barrier for many companies. With the help of Bioingenium, these companies can afford to undertake these developments”, David Resina explains.

Bioingenium’s laboratories are equipped with three in-house tech platforms: Expression in bacteria, Expression in mammalian cells and Expression in the yeast Pichia pastoris, a field where Bioingenium is one of the global experts.

Its team has extensive experience and know-how in fermentation and culture processes (upstream) and purification processes (downstream), as well as in implementing and handling the instruments needed to produce and purify the proteins of interest in a flexible, and scalable way.

“Bioingenium is an ideal partner for biotech and pharma companies in the development of therapeutic proteins because of its flexibility, experience and communication with its clients. Our company has expertise transferring its recombinant proteins and antibodies to the lab bank on the production scale of grams with the utmost quality”, Resina highlights. Our main commitment is to turn our client’s project into a safe, scalable, reproducible and feasible process to meet their production needs, from the proof of concept (PoC) to the transfer to a GMP plant”.