Three Southwest Virginia biomedical companies that need sterile space for manufacturing will be part of a modular cleanroom pilot program.
A $100,000 grant from economic development initiative GO Virginia and $221,500 in non-state money will fund the project, according to a GO Virginia news release. Cancer-fighting businesses Tiny Cargo Co. and Acomhal Research, both in Roanoke, and Blacksburg-based equine therapy specialist Qentoros will use the modular space at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, in Roanoke.
Cleanrooms are crucial for making circuit boards, medical equipment, optical products, pharmaceuticals and more in a contamination-free environment with heavily filtered air pumped into and out of the space.
The modular room is one part of this collaboration among Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, Verge, Virginia Tech, Montgomery County and Roanoke. The partners will work toward surveying regional and statewide cleanroom needs in life science and biotechnology industries, according to the news release.
Spencer Marsh, Tiny Cargo’s chief scientific officer, credited Fralin Biomedical with identifying the need. In the news release, he said that cleanrooms will help GO Virginia’s Region 2 retain startups and foster growth. The Region 2 companies that require them don’t have access here, he said. Marsh’s company and the others will use the modular room to create sterile products for clinical trials.
“Modular cleanroom spaces may be able to fill this need and can be installed within existing facilities at a much lower cost than full-scale new construction,” Marsh said.
Tiny Cargo works to corral milk exosomes to transport therapeutics to humans dealing with radiation treatment for cancer. The exosomes, cells’ cargo-delivery system, might also treat other diseases.
Qentoros makes Bio-Ply, which its website says is proven to promote healing and reduce inflammation in horses with musculoskeletal injuries.
Acomhal Research is developing drugs to treat primary cancer tumors in hopes of lowering recurrences and metastasis, according to its website.
The three companies were selected last year to be the first cohort for the Johnson & Johnson Innovation JLabs virtual residency, in a Johnson & Johnson and Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center collaboration.