Swiss life sciences company Lonza today opened its Israeli Collaborative Innovation Center (CIC) in Haifa's new Life Science Park.
With 1,000 square meters and a staff of 15, Lonza's CIC seeks to leverage Israel’s scientific strengths in areas such as engineering, software and cell/molecular biology to provide the Basel-based multinational with opportunities to gain additional know-how and capabilities. The CIC will have three focus areas: expression systems and synthetic biology; cell and gene therapies; and data acquisition and analytics.
Lonza Pharma&Biotech segment COO and CIC chairman Marc Funk said, ““Israel has established itself as a point of convergence for digital technologies, engineering and life sciences, providing new solutions for healthcare in particular. We want to expand this potential to reimagine the development and manufacturing of future medicines by working with academic institutions, teaching hospitals and startups.”
The CIC has a dedicated Lonza R&D team in Israel, who will work with local industry and academic experts through collaborations and sponsored research. Lonza has already signed memorandums of understanding and conducted talent scouting at Tel Aviv University, Technion R&D Foundation and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Several projects are currently underway including with the Center for Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, a leader in the field of CAR-T therapies. Lonza and Sheba will be working together to evaluate and test the Cocoon manufacturing technology, a patient-scale, closed and automated cell-therapy manufacturing system.
The CIC is managed by Dr Frida Grynspan- Gotlieb.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 20, 2018
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