The bioprocess pilot-scale facility in Uppsala, Sweden, has hosted fifteen national and international projects and more than 2000 study visits since its opening in 2018, states GE Healthcare.

The not-for-profit innovation center and a testbed for biomanufacturing concepts is celebrating its first anniversary of advancing science. It is an initiative between the Swedish Government and GE Healthcare Life Sciences to support collaboration between the public sector, business, and academia, and boost the commercialization of new technologies in the life sciences sector.

EUR 14.5 million invested

The Swedish government invested around EUR 10 million (SEK 100 million) through Vinnova, its innovation agency, while GE Healthcare Life Sciences infused around EUR 4.5 million (SEK 45 million). Testa Center is equipped with technology from GE Healthcare Life Sciences, including four cell culture and protein purification laboratories, where academia, biotech start-ups, and the industry can test discoveries, while keeping full ownership of intellectual property. Expanding across some 27,000 square-feet (2500 m2), Testa Center is located on the premises of GE Healthcare Life Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden.

15 projects have so far benefited from the technology and know-how at Testa Center

Fifteen projects from Scandinavia have so far benefited from the technology and know-how available at Testa Center. The projects range from scale-up and purification activities, educational programs, and digital verification to GE Healthcare Life Sciences programs and training. The first biotechnology company to run a project at Testa Center is BioLamina, which used the facility to scale-up its production capacity and deliver more reagents to its global customer base.

“The opportunity to set-up and scale-up our production process at Testa Center gave us the possibility to simultaneously design and establish the process in-house, which significantly shortened the project timeline,” says Ludwina Retzer, Head of Production at BioLamina.

Four additional projects are expected to start at Testa Center before the end of the year.

Photo: Testa Center

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