The Intelligent Bio-Manufacturing Center is one of the six core platform laboratories at the Institute, dedicated to advancing intelligent manufacturing technologies for industrial bioprocesses. The laboratory focuses on critical aspects such as strain production capacity validation, fermentation process development and optimization, product separation and purification process development and optimization, and the pilot scale-up of biomanufacturing processes. By integrating big data and artificial intelligence technologies, the Center develops innovative methods, technologies, and equipment to significantly enhance the efficiency of existing biomanufacturing processes, which aims at shortening the time required to transition high-performance strains from the laboratory to industrial production. The Center boasts over 100 units of fermentation optimization and separation purification equipment and has established a comprehensive pilot platform for biomanufacturing. This platform integrates high-throughput strain performance verification, intelligent medium selection and optimization, efficient fermentation process development, and product separation and purification. It also includes eight pilot-scale digital fermentation lines, and a flexible, digital fermentation product separation and purification workshop. The Center’s interdisciplinary team comprises 22 experts, including 4 senior specialists and 18 professionals with master's degrees or higher, with expertise in fermentation engineering, biochemistry, separation engineering, automation, and artificial intelligence. Committed to modernizing traditional fermentation industries through automation and intelligence, the Center provides comprehensive support for the efficient industrialization of synthetic biology innovations.
The platform laboratory provides comprehensive process support and development services for fermentation and product separation and purification. By integrating bioprocess big data and artificial intelligence technologies with fermentation and separation engineering, the lab advances key technologies in intelligent sensing, decision-making, and execution for industrial bioprocessing. It offers services such as rapid strain performance evaluation, media optimization, process optimization, scale-up, and process package development. The lab also supports the efficient industrialization of synthetic biology innovations, driving the growth of strategic emerging industries in bio-manufacturing. It offers flexible service models, including "shared kitchen ", "shared chef ", and "contract development-style", to meet diverse user needs.
The platform's director, Prof. Jianye Xia, is a Principal Investigator and doctoral supervisor. He is a recipient of the CAS's “Hundred Talents Program”, and a Tianjin municipal leading talent. He also serves as the deputy director of the Biochemical Engineering Modeling and Control Specialized Committee of the Chinese Society for Microbiology. He has led or participated in nearly 10 research projects, including the 863 Program, the 973 Program, the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation projects, and the Sino-Dutch international cooperation project. He proposed a fermentation process scale-up methods based on integrating reactor flow field with cell physiology, which has been successfully applied in several domestic biomanufacturing enterprises in China. Group Web