The development of vaccines and gene therapies as well as other biologics essential for worldwide disease treatments is heavily relying on viral manufacturing. The biotechnology industry constantly innovate in stainless steel and single-use manufacturing technologies for processes improvement and production efficiency. To overcome the challenges experienced with conventional technologies Univercells via its subsidiary Univercells Technologies has developed and commercialized a portfolio of breakthrough scalable manufacturing technologies enabling a continuous and automated viral production from Proof of concept to commercial scale manufacturing. The optimization of single-use technologies has enabled a drastic reduction in CAPEX, COGs and footprint while increasing production capacity.
José Castillo
As founder and CTO, José is the architect of highly efficient production processes that will make biologics available and affordable for all. The goal is to disrupt the industry and become the leader of comprehensive manufacturing solutions. Previous accomplishments include Artelis start-up, where he designed and developed bioreactors that transformed industrial operations – the iCellis system being now considered as standard in the vaccines and gene therapy industry. The technology was industrialized at ATMI LifeSciences and Pall Lifesciences, where José was Cell Culture Technologies Director. Prior to Artelis, José was Head of Viral Vaccine Industrialization at GSK Vaccines. Jose’s has a background in Chemical Engineering, a PhD in Applied Sciences from ULB and an entrepreneurship degree from Solvay Business School (Belgium).