SBIR Phase I: Asymmetric Block Copolymer Membranes for Ultrafiltration

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目通过开发具有卓越性能的新型膜来满足生物制药制造商的分离需求。目前可用于分离治疗性蛋白质的膜具有广泛的孔径变化，导致分离的额外昂贵的处理步骤。TeraPore的专利膜技术能够生产具有均匀孔径的高通量膜，其尺寸针对医学中使用的蛋白质，从而实现更便宜，更有效的分离。该行业的客户需求取决于要分离的特定分子，需要一套孔径可调且可重现的膜。这项可行性研究将表明，改变用于制造膜的聚合物的分子结构可以有效地控制这种孔径。这项研究的结果将使TeraPore能够制造各种膜产品，并专门设计聚合物，从而生产出满足特定客户需求的膜。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力包括生产高利润率的膜产品，这将显着提高治疗性生物分子的加工效率。2011年，美国生物制药加工中的膜技术市场为24亿美元，并且以超过10%的速度增长。鉴于TeraPore膜可能带来的性能进步，该公司打算通过涉及TeraPore膜加工的高价值、高利润生物制药产品的分离/纯化应用，通过生物制药加工市场进入市场。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project addresses separation needs of biopharmaceutical manufacturers by developing novel membranes with exceptional performance. Currently available membranes used to separate therapeutic proteins suffer from broad pore size variations, resulting in additional expensive processing steps to the separations. TeraPore's patented membrane technology enables the production of high throughput membranes with uniform pores with sizes targeted to proteins used in medicine, resulting in cheaper, more efficient separations. Customer needs in this industry are dependent on the specific molecules being separated, requiring a suite of membranes with tunable and reproducible pore sizes. This feasibility study will show that changing the molecular structure of the polymers used to make the membranes can control this pore size effectively. The outcome of this research will allow TeraPore to make a variety of membrane products and specifically design polymers that results in membranes that address specific customer needs. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project includes the production of high margin membrane products that will significantly improve efficiency in the processing of therapeutic biomolecules. The US market for membrane technology in biopharmaceutical processing was $2.4B in 2011 and is growing at a rate of over 10%. Given the performance advances possible with TeraPore's membranes, the company intends to enter the marketplace through the biopharmaceutical processing market through separation/purification applications involving high value, high margin biopharma products processed by TeraPore's membranes.