(399a) Reflections on Enabling a Better Biomanufacturing Ecosystem: Ambic and Beyond...

Engineering was developed to address the problems that were encountered by the chemical industries as these expanded for large scale production. A similar challenge exists in the biotechnology industry as technologists seek to improve production efficiencies, lower costs, and produce both small and large lots needed for personalized medicine. Unfortunately, recently, there has been a major disconnect between the challenges encountered by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and the problems and methodologies used by the academic community. This has been perhaps exacerbated by a lack of understanding about the major challenges in industry due to protection of advanced process technology. A number of institutes are now looking to bridge the divide between what the industry needs to address 21^st century challenges and what academics can contribute to this effort. This presentation will demonstrate some of our efforts and those of our colleagues to address the major innovation challenges in biomanufacturing through organizations such as AMBIC and NIIMBL. By creating a broad community of engineers and scientists to work together on common precompetitive issues, we are transforming the landscape of biomanufacturing research in the chemical engineering ecosystem for the coming decades.