ISU infrastructure, industry partnerships to support new scale-up facility
In working with research and industry partners, the Biobased Products team – one of three state Bioscience Platforms based at Iowa State University – identified a critical gap to help advance innovative solutions and products from the lab to commercialization.
For the team to effectively support technology-driven economic development in Iowa, Biobased Products program lead Brent Shanks and chief technology officer Kevin Moore knew access to a scale-up fermentation facility was needed. To address this need, the team – a partnership with BioConnect Iowa and Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) – developed a proposal for a bioindustrial manufacturing scale-up facility.
A new biomanufacturing facility announced today by BioMADE, a U.S. Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institute, will make that proposal a reality and provide a pathway to market for biobased products. BioMADE is partnering with the ISU Research Park and Iowa State University on this collaborative initiative to install a multi-use fermentation facility at ISU’s BioCentury Research Farm.
