Public Funding for Samastar Ltd

SAMASTAR is transforming the bioprocessing sector with its innovative automation technology, designed to streamline monitoring in industrial biotechnology, a key sector for the production of medicines, biofuels, food and beverage and other bio-based products. This technology addresses the challenges of labour-intensive monitoring practices in industrial fermentation, enhancing R&D efficiency and streamlining the supply chains. It will also reduce single-use plastics for sustainable industrial manufacturing contributing to net zero goals by 2045\. With a focus on remote monitoring and advanced analytics, SAMASTAR's technology is set to revolutionise bioprocessing automation in the Scottish, the UK and global markets. Furthermore, it will accelerate and enhance the efficiency of R&D to convert diverse biomass feedstocks including whisky co-products, food processing by-products, forestry, marine and agricultural biomass into valuable bioproducts, aligning with the Biorefinery Roadmap for Scotland to build a sustainable future. SAMASTAR's technology will position Scotland and the UK as global leaders in advanced bioprocessing technology and contribute to the industry's sustainable and economic growth.

Cultivation of biological cells and microorganisms is essential in bioprocessing for producing high-value therapeutics, vaccines, biofuel and food and beverage products. Constant monitoring and controlling of the fermentation process in real-time are essential for optimisation, efficiency, and reproducibility. Cultivation vessels are either equipped with invasive sensors or require manual samplings to keep the culturing process under control. This introduces a contamination risk and does not allow remote monitoring outside the lab. Moreover, this invasive and labour-intensive process burdens the workforce, affects efficiency, increases cost, leads to contamination risk and is not eco-friendly due to the consumption of many single-use plastics. Implementing an innovative non-invasive and affordable monitoring device to automate the monitoring of cultures remotely and in real-time will eliminate the invasive and off-line manual monitoring. This will facilitate remote tracking, especially during lab access restrictions like the COVID-19 situation or fire alarms to increase productivity and decrease costs. We envisage future monitoring systems for culturing vessels to exploit state-of-the-art engineering biology and optical sensing technologies to seamlessly monitor the cultivation process remotely and in-real time. This will significantly decrease contamination enhancing precision fermentation and scale-up to accelerate R&D and research breakthroughs. This project will have a huge impact to optimise manufacturing, and enhancing workforce efficiency, reproducibility and accuracy than ever before. Our solution will reduce lab plastic waste, decrease cost and maximise profit to create a significant economic and environmental impact. Our business offers job opportunities for students and graduates focusing on women and ethnic minorities to support the local economy and enhance diversity and inclusiveness in the biotech industry. This ambitious project thus provides a timely opportunity for the UK to remain at the forefront of innovations in biotechnology. Our disruptive technology will transform the bioprocessing landscape to advance health care and industrial production.