Biochemical Engineering

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The facility is well equipped with upstream and downstream processing units and various utilities for production of high value/ low volume and low volume/ high value products. It has been used in house for development of protein therapeutics (e.g., recombinant streptokinase and recombinant staphylokinase), enzymes (e.g., α-amylase, alkaline proteases, laccase, xylanase), bioactives (cerulomycin, antimicrobial peptides) and other chemicals/ biochemical (ethanol, pullulan, bacteriorhodopsin, sophrolipids) and offered to other academic and industrial clients for bioprocess optimization and scale up and production of therapeutic proteins for toxicology studies and clinical trials.

Major Instrument Facility (MIF)

Biochemical Engineering Research and Process Development Center (BERPDC), a fermentation facility, funded Jointly by DBT and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was established in 1986 in the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) chandigarh. It is one of Indias largest and most sophisticated centers for research in technology development, process optimization and scale up in the field of biochemical engineering. The center is equipped with state of the art facilities to carry out cutting edge research in the area of fermentation technology and is backed by excellent analytical facilities. The fully computerized pilot plant, for complete scale up and optimization is among the best of its type in India.

The facility has been catering to the fermentation requirements of various users from the Industry and other research and development establishment. The main objective of our fermentation facilities are to do research and provide services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. This unit of IMTECH has developed and transferred technology on biochemical processes and biopharmaceuticals like natural streptokinase, recombinant streptokinase, recombinant staphylokinase, urokinase, thermotolerent yeast for alcohol production, alkaline protease and alpha amylase. Few of those technology have already been commercialized. At present fermentation scientist are working on new generation thrombolytics and technology platforms on high cell density bacterial and yeast fermentation, exopolysaccharides like pullulan, xanthum gum, bacteriorhodopsin and biosurfactants.

Facilities

Fermentation
Downstream Processing
Bioincubators (Including cGMP facility for biopharmaceuticals)

Fermentation

Lab Scale Fermenters
5L Fermenter	7.5 L Fermenter	15 L Fermenter

Pilot Scale Fermenters
150L Fermenter	500 L Fermenter	Utilities

Downstream Processing Facility

Lab Scale
Cell Disruption System High pressure Homogenizer Dyno Mill	Cell Separation System Batch Centrifuge
Membrane Filteration System Hollow fiber membrane TFF : Micro, Ultra	Protein Purification Chromotography system for protein purification.

Pilot Scale
Cell Disruption system Continuous High pressure Homogenizer	Cell separation system Continuous centrifuge
Membrane Filteration system Microfiltration Ultrafiltration	Protein Purification Chromotography system for parameter optimization.

Bioincubators (Including cGMP facility for biopharmaceuticals)


Bioincubator I	Bioincubator II	Bioincubator III

Technologies Developed

Achievements

Transferred high efficient alcohol technology to McDowel &Co, Bangalore.
Transferred natural streptokinase to cadila Pharmaceuticals, Ahmedabad.
Transferred recombinant alkaline protease and alpha amylase to Celestial Labs, Hyderabad.
Transferred recombinant streptokinase production process to Shasun Drugs and chemicals, Chennai.
Transferred clot specific streptokinase CSSK, Nostrum Pharma USA.
Transferred PEGylated clot specific streptokinase to Nostrum Pharma USA
Transferred recombinant streptokinase technology to Epygen, Mumbai.

Technology under development

Microbial production of pullulan
Microbial production of sophorolipids
Colour shift protein film.

Industrial Collaboration

I. Industries We Served

Nostrum Pharmaceuticals
DSM, Netherlands.
McDowel & Co, Bangalore
Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Ahmedabad.
Biologicals Evans Limited, Hyderabad.
Shasun Drugs and chemicals, Chennai.
Strides Acrolabs, Bangalore
Kopran Drugs
Epygen Biotech, Mumbai
Symmetrix Biotech Pvt Ltd, Mumbai.
Backons Industries Ltd, Mohali.
Max-GB, Ropar
SPIC, Chennai.
Punjab Agro Industries Limited, Chandigarh.
Transgene Biotech, Hyderabad.
Dabur India Ltd, Ghaziabad.
Vam organics Ltd UP.
Bigtec, Bangalore
Celestial Labs Ltd, Hyderabad.
M/S Praneet Environ Tech, Chandigarh and others.

II. Ongoing Industrial Projects


Natural streptokinase from M/S Cadila Pharma Ltd	Recombinant streptokinase from M/S Shasun chemicals and drugs

Jobs Undertaken

Strain Improvement
Feasibility studies of Fermentation process
Media and process Optimization
Fermentation scale up
Downstream Processing
Inhouse technology development
Teaching and Human resource development
Contract, Consultancy and Sponsored projects.

Contact

Director
Institute of Microbial Technology
Sector 39A, Chandigarh 160036
Telephone +91-172-2690785, 2690684
FAX +91-172-2690585, 2690132
Email :director[at]imtech[dot]res[dot]in

Equipment Usage Cost

Equipment	Cost /day Basis (pro rata basis)
Ultra/Microfiltration Unit	TBD
Ulrafiltration with tank	TBD
Chromato graphic Systems
AKta Process (system I)	TBD
AKta Avant system with accessories andcold cabinet	TBD
Acta Purifier	TBD
Homogenizer	TBD
Fermenters
Fermenter 5L (Bioflo 110)	TBD
Fermenter (40 L)	TBD
Bioflo 115	TBD
Scigenics 5 L	TBD
Scigenics 50 L	TBD
Scigenics 500 L	TBD

Note: the equipment usage charge is only one component of the total project cost and total project cost will be calculated case to case basis as per “CSIR Guidelines for Technology Transfer and Utilization of Knowledgebase-2017”. For any further information write to: headpmbd[at]imtech[dot]res[dot]in