Buffer Stock Blending System

Buffer solutions are a critical piece of the manufacturing process of therapeutic proteins and other biomolecules. The traditional way to make and use buffers is space- and resource-intensive, creating operational bottlenecks that impact efficiencies and costs.

NIIMBL led a core team of engineers from industry through a period of two years during the pandemic to optimize the initial design and conduct all the testing and data analysis at the NIIMBL headquarters. This project brought together a diverse team of experts from NIIMBL and BioPhorum member communities including Asahi Kasei Bioprocess, Avantor, Biogen, Biotech Design LLC, Cytiva, GSK, Janssen, Lonza, Merck, MilliporeSigma, Pall Corporation, PM Group, Rockwell Automation, Sanofi, Takeda, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The full-scale, prototype Buffer Stock Blending (BSB) System will potentially significantly reduce capital investment and manual operation costs, reduce the number and volume of buffer, and decrease time for buffer manufacturing. The open-source model provides a flexible solution using mass flow control for small batch process to provide an on-demand supply of buffer solutions directly to the biomanufacturing process.