The high-throughput screening core, called AUTOPILOT, is an automated analysis and cellular phenotyping platform. It is a breakthrough robotic facility which provides seamless end-to-end workflows in therapeutic and diagnostic research through automated liquid handling, nano volume acoustic transfer, flow cytometry and cell sorting, and high-content imaging with AI machine learning. These automated workflows can deliver comprehensive cell characterisation and profiles of phenotypic states in 2D and 3D systems.

AutoPilot brochure

The AUTOPILOT system will be managed by DCU’s Core Technology Team, please contact Una Prendergast ([email protected]) for further information.

NaPRO is a unique state-of-the-art testbed with new ‘smart’ process systems, which will allow to de-risk the scalability and manufacture of nano(bio)pharmaceuticals and facilitate the adaptation of these technologies to existing industrial facilities. NaPRO will enable the development of robust and scalable compliant methods of production of nanomedicines that enable progression from a small production scale (in the mg range) to a commercially relevant scale (in the kg range). Bringing the processes, process equipments and comprehensive characterization tools under one roof in NaPRO alloww for the development of next generation processes and manufacturing technologies to academic collaborators and pharma/biopharma industry, nationally and internationally, including drug developers. Based in the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick.

NaPro brochure

The ABCRF Process Flow Spectroscopy (ProSpect) facility offers state-of-the-art reaction analysis, allowing the direct observation of pharmaceutical process reactions as they occur. The suite of equipment consists of specially designed, integrated instrumentation adapted for direct real-time analysis of both batch and continuous reaction processes. Used together, these complementary techniques provide an unprecedented level of mechanistic insight. The facility, located in the ABCRF, the Pharmacy Building, UCC, operates within the SSPC and provides academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry with a platform for enhancing their understanding of chemical transformations and pharmaceutical processes – where improvements can lead to yield enhancements, shorter reaction times and reduced costs for the manufacturer.

ProSpect provides academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry with a platform for enhancing their understanding of chemical transformations and pharmaceutical processes – where improvements can lead to yield enhancements, shorter reaction times and reduced costs for the manufacturer.

The suite of instrumentation available within the ProSpect facility includes:

• Bruker Avance III 600 MHz NMR (ABCRF NMR Services) spectrometer in conjunction with a Bruker InsightMR flow tube, to enable direct analysis of reaction mixtures by NMR.
• Mettler–Toledo ReactIR 15 and FlowIR for in situ/inline IR analysis.
• Agilent 6530 Series Q-TOF LC/MS System.
• Agilent 1290 series UPLC.
• Perkin–Elmer Lambda 265 UV/Vis spectrophotometer, including a flow cell for reaction monitoring.
• Mettler–Toledo EasyMax workstation for batch chemistry.
• Vapourtec R-Series flow chemistry system for continuous flow processing.

BioPOINT is an industry-tailored infrastructure suite for biologicals process engineering, process development and biologicals analysis based at the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick. This suite of equipment will enable engineering studies into biological process optimisation and scale-up for mammalian and bacterial platforms for the production of biologicals including peptides, antibodies and therapeutic enzymes.

BioPOINT will enable three key areas for Biopharmaceutical industry and academia:

(1) production, (2) isolation (3) validation.