A fermentation pilot plant in Saskatoon will give small research companies a chance to do research they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford, say industry officials.
“This gives private industry the chance to move products from a 100-millilitre beaker on a lab bench to near production scale facility trials without making a huge investment in their own fermentation facility,” said Steve Acres, president and CEO of Biostar Inc.
The $4.8 million pilot plant was officially opened last week by industry officials and representatives from the two levels of government that paid for the facility, located at the Innovation Place technology park at the University of Saskatchewan.
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Biostar is one of the first businesses that will use the new Saskatchewan Research Council pilot plant to reproduce organisms for the development of livestock vaccines.
Another Saskatoon-based firm, Philom Bios, will be the first business to contract the services of the pilot plant, using the facility to develop seed inoculants.
“Developments like this put more money in farmers’ jeans and help support growth and wealth in our community and our province,” said John Cross, head of Philom Bios.
He said the pilot plant will accelerate the movement into the “next generation of biotechnology products.”
During the opening ceremonies last week, federal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale said the investment of $3.4 million from the Canada-Saskatchewan Agri-Food Innovation Fund was money well spent by taxpayers.
Another $300,000 was provided by the province’s Strategic Initiatives Fund, while start-up costs of $1.1 million came from SRC.
“We need to support the new technologies that will allow Saskatchewan and Canada to compete around the world,” Goodale said. “Innovation Place needed this investment and it will pay off for all people of Saskatchewan.”
Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow said the ebb and flow of commodity markets have created an ever greater need for the type of research that will be done at the plant.
“This type of equipment … will benefit Saskatchewan farmers. Our farmers need every advantage,” said Romanow.
Fermentation is used to reproduce hundreds of millions of tiny organisms or to purify them once they are created. What this means to farmers is the ability of scientists to create new biotechnical products such as bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides and livestock biological products such as vaccines.
