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Cell Factory on chips: make Cell Therapies affordable and accessible to all patients

Project description

A step up for cell therapy manufacturing

There is a shortage of personalised cell therapeutics, such as CAR-T therapies. Globally, production levels only reach thousands of doses annually, hindering accessibility for patients in need. In response, an Austrian deep-tech company embarked on a project to scale up manufacturing capacity to hundreds of thousands of doses, cost-effectively and safely. The EU-funded Sarcura project will leverage automation, integration, miniaturisation, and modularity. Its innovative machine platform integrates advanced semiconductor technologies and microfluidic liquid processing systems. By providing comprehensive monitoring of cell count, viability, phenotype characterisation, it aims to achieve a 100-fold increase in cell therapy production. Overall, the project envisions an autonomous, AI-driven manufacturing system.

Objective

Sarcura GmbH, an Austrian deep-tech company founded in November 2019, will develop and market a machine platform for the industrial GMP manufacturing of personalised cell therapeutics, such as CAR-T therapies.

We will contribute to scale the global cell therapy manufacturing capacity of these lifesaving treatments from currently thousands of doses per year to hundreds of thousands of doses, cost effective and safe for all patients. Sarcura envisions to transform existing manufacturing paradigms by using leading-edge semiconductor technologies (such as integrated photonics) embedded in microfluidic liquid processing systems to bring bioprocess control to cellular level.

We believe that only by bringing together automation, integration (of additional functionality), miniaturization, and modularity we can achieve the required 100-fold increase in manufacturing capacity the cell therapy industry requires
Our initial focus is the development of a GMP ready, fully automated, industrial cell isolation device for the manufacturing of cell therapies. The device will include all necessary processing steps to handle the typical starting material of clinical cell therapy as well as provide integrated process analytics and quality control such as cell count, viability, phenotype characterization and other analytics

After launching the first single unit operation device for the Cell Isolation, further devices performing the Formulation, Gene Transfer and Expansion followed by an integrated end-to-end device will be developed. Finally, we aim to market an autonomous, self-optimising manufacturing system based on real-time manufacturing optimisation via AI driven (artificial intelligence) predictive process control.

Our product offer will include (a) desktop instruments, (b) single-use microfluidic cartridges, and (c) software and algorithms.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIE-2022-SCALEUP-02

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Coordinator

SARCURA GMBH
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 75 000,00
Address
PLOCKING 2
3400 KLOSTERNEUBURG
Austria

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Ostösterreich Niederösterreich Wiener Umland/Nordteil
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
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