In the past year, there has been a lot of hype surrounding organic manufacturing — from growing cell-based meat to microbe-powered drug manufacturing. But none of synthetic biology’s darlings are without a key piece of equipment: a bioreactor. As the world debates how best to implement bio-powered manufacturing, Stamm Biotech is already rethinking its main tool.
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Established in 2014, Stämm Biotech is developing a desktop-sized bioreactor that is quite different from the tanks, tubes and knobs traditionally seen in industrial or even benchtop bioreactors. The Buenos Aires-based company just announced a $17 million Series A round; combined with previous seed and pre-seed rounds, this brings the total to $20 million.
To understand what tribes do, you need to know what a bioreactor typically looks like and what̵ ;s going on inside it. Basically, industrial-scale bioreactors are huge, sterilized tanks. These tanks are filled with the medium needed to grow a specific cell type or microorganism, which can either produce the desired product or be the product itself.
These cell cultures are stirred with a motorized instrument, kept at the right temperature with coolants, and supplied with the right amount of oxygen (or lack of oxygen) to support their growth. You can also do this process in a disposable bag instead of a tank, which reduces the time it takes to resterilize a tank before you can grow something else.
Essentially, what Stamm has done is cut the tank, agitator, and pipes out of the equation entirely. Instead, it is developing a unit that 3D prints a dense network of microchannels that guide cells through the nutrients and oxygen they need. The movement itself acts as a stirring movement.
These channels are designed with the software component from Stamm. You can think of the whole process as “CDMO”. [contract development and manufacturing organization] in the cloud,” Yuyo Llamazares, Stamm’s co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.
“We found this disconnect between the will to develop a biological product and the capabilities of tools on the market. That inspired us to take on this problem,” he said.
There is already a lot of interest in the field of biomanufacturing, based on the idea that growing things in cells is the next wave of manufacturing, from biopharmaceuticals to chemicals, textiles, fragrances and even whole cuts of meat.
For example, Ginkgo Bioworks, which went public with an a $15 billion valuation, is a company that is particularly bullish on both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical applications of biomanufacturing. But evidence of such world-changing manufacture has slowly leaked out. (And at the time of writing, Ginkgo’s market cap was closer to $7.24 billion)
None of the promise of biological manufacturing can actually take place without the bioreactors. Stämm’s approach is to make the reactor smaller by using microfluidics.
Currently, the company claims it can reduce the size of a biomanufacturing facility by two orders of magnitude. But it’s still operated on a smaller scale than most large bioreactors. Stamm’s bioreactors can achieve a capacity of around 30 liters, not the thousands often seen on an industrial scale. (The company in question claims its core concept can be scaled up to around 5,000 liters).
Despite the potential of the technology, Stamm is still in the early stages of commercialization. It is currently working with a European biopharmaceutical company focused on manufacturing biosimilars and says it has five potential new partners in the pipeline. The company plans to move to “pilot scale” in 2022.
Llamazares said that new partnerships are currently the most important factor for Stamm Biotech success. “We want to interact with as many partners as possible firsthand and understand how the product we’re developing can help further,” he said.
If you dig a little deeper into the business side of things, Stamm is still working on some kinks. When I asked Llamazares the cost of one of the units, he didn’t give a dollar. Stamm wants to get customers used to working with microfluidic bioreactors as opposed to the traditional machines, he said. Meanwhile, the price of the machines and services is not fixed.
“We’re exploring different business models and how to interact with customers at this stage,” he said.
For this round, Stamm Biotech plans to double the number of employees to around 200 and to expand its international presence. The company will also continue to refine and develop its microfluidic bioreactors and the tools needed to control them.
New investors in the round include lead investor Varana, Vista, New Abundance, Trillian, Serenity Traders, Teramips, and the Decarbonization Consortium. They join existing investors Draper Associates, SOSV, Grid Exponential, VistaEnergy, Teramips, Cygnus Draper and Dragones VC who also participated in the round.
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