ReMDO collaborates with SAS in New RegeneratOR Testbed with Advanced Smart Manufacturing Capabilities

Alliance designed to optimize complex manufacturing processes and accelerate regenerative medicine development

The Regenerative Medicine Development Organization (ReMDO) and analytics leader SAS are collaborating on the ReMDO RegeneratOR Test Bed, a novel regenerative medicine endeavor in North Carolina. The joint effort will provide smart manufacturing capabilities within ReMDO’s Test Bed facility to help companies optimize their environmental conditions and parameters to obtain maximum product yield while minimizing variability, contamination and cost.

The RegeneratOR Test Bed – a  “manufacturing-in-a-box” concept – will allow companies to access equipment and resources to fully optimize manufacturing processes. The joint endeavor will serve as an economic development driver, helping to accelerate the growth of startups and scale up mid-to-large-sized companies with innovative and emerging technologies through access to state-of-the-art biomanufacturing equipment, industry expertise, talent, and training programs to support novel prototyping and commercial product development.

SAS’ expertise in IoT analytics and smart manufacturing – applying data analytics to improve and automate manufacturing and prototyping – will be offered to companies in the Test Bed to advance the regenerative medicine ecosystem. SAS also brings decades of experience in the life sciences industry, providing innovative technologies to help companies improve the development, manufacturing and commercialization of life-saving therapies.

“Regenerative medicine has been called the next evolution of medical treatments, and SAS is excited to play a role in this innovative and important project,” said Udo Sglavo, Vice President, Advanced Analytics R&D at SAS. “SAS’ IoT division and the Advanced Analytics Center of Excellence will apply our related industry expertise, proven software solutions and data analytics techniques to the RegeneratOR Test Bed to advance manufacturing potential and help achieve better outcomes.”

The RegeneratOR Test Bed comes from two driving forces of the regenerative medicine field: the RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO), a non-profit foundation headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, that is dedicated to advancing the field nationwide, and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), the largest regenerative medicine institute in the world.

Joshua Hunsberger, PhD, Chief Technology Officer of ReMDO, said that SAS’ technology will be a game changer for startup companies. “Smart manufacturing capabilities will be available for any company in our Regenerative Medicine Hub. These services will help companies optimize and predict the best manufacturing processes that could save time and money.”

Anthony Atala, MD, Director of WFIRM, credits SAS for trusting the vision. “We believe the Test Bed, through its collaboration with SAS, has a lot to offer in terms of helping these companies be successful, and, at the same time, we can advance the regenerative medicine field nationally.”

The RegeneratOR Test Bed is one of three focused areas that operate through ReMDO’s RegeneratOR, a first of its kind in regenerative medicine to promote biomanufacturing scale-up and automation to make technologies more affordable and speed up the translation to clinical practice. The other two focus areas are the Innovation Accelerator, which supports innovation from research to commercialization for regenerative medicine companies of all sizes, and the Workforce Development program that connects an educational ecosystem of colleges, university programs and technical schools with biomanufacturing staff, engineers, and research leaders to train highly skilled biomanufacturing technicians and researchers.

The RegeneratOR is a key component of the regenerative medicine ecosystem called the Regenerative Medicine Hub (RegenMed Hub) and is positioned to be a national leader in regenerative medicine innovation, based in the Innovation Quarter.

About the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine: The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is recognized as an international leader in translating scientific discovery into clinical therapies, with many world firsts, including the development and implantation of the first engineered organ in a patient. Over 400 people at the institute, the largest in the world, work on more than 40 different tissues and organs. A number of the basic principles of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine were first developed at the institute. WFIRM researchers have successfully engineered replacement tissues and organs in all four categories – flat structures, tubular tissues, hollow organs and solid organs – and 15 different applications of cell/tissue therapy technologies, such as skin, urethras, cartilage, bladders, muscle, kidney, and vaginal organs, have been successfully used in human patients. The institute, which is part of Wake Forest School of Medicine, is located in the Innovation Quarter in downtown Winston-Salem, NC, and is driven by the urgent needs of patients. The institute is making a global difference in regenerative medicine through collaborations with over 400 entities and institutions worldwide, through its government, academic and industry partnerships, its start-up entities, and through major initiatives in breakthrough technologies, such as tissue engineering, cell therapies, diagnostics, drug discovery, biomanufacturing, nanotechnology, gene editing and 3D printing. 

About the RegenMed Development Organization: The mission of the RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO) is to accelerate the discovery and translation of regenerative medicine therapies. ReMDO is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that manages a clinical translation initiative that includes thought leaders, representatives from leading US research centers, government representatives, and companies of all sizes. ReMDO conducts research to de-risk technologies and speed up the translation of regenerative medicine to clinical practice and to the global market. ReMDO manages the world’s first and only professional organization dedicated solely to advancing the regenerative medicine field, the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society (RMMS), and the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Innovation Consortium (RegMIC), which manages a private-public partnership of industry and academic members focused on scaling up technologies.