IMSL to build production facility thanks to Regional Selective Assistance

Integrated Magnetic Systems Ltd (IMSL), a biotechnology company based in Dundee, Scotland, announced that it is expanding into Unit 20 at the Prospect Business Centre and converting it into a Protein Production Facility.

A Scottish Enterprise Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant of £59,000 will support the company’s investment of £168,000 to expand its operations and create four new jobs.

“As you can imagine, the specialised equipment for a production lab - incubators, sonicators, presses, centrifuges - is very expensive”, says Dr Eddie Blair, Chief Executive at IMSL. “We estimate that the equipment alone will cost about £168,000. And it will take four people to run the equipment within the Production Facility.

“When we plugged those capital expenditures and salaries into our planning model, we concluded that we couldn’t afford it. But without that infrastructure in place, we’d have to turn down customers and contracts. Scottish Enterprise provided the solution, through this RSA grant, by contributing £59,000 to our equipment needs.”

Julie Brady, IMSL’s Scottish Enterprise account manager said, “IMSL is a great example of an innovative Scottish company with international growth ambitions, and, by working alongside the management team, we can help them achieve these ambitions faster.

“Our relationship with IMSL started with a project to develop the founding technology, together with commercialisation assistance to create the company and a SMART: Scotland award to help with the feasibility of the technology. With the RSA award in place, the company can now focus on scaling up production to open up new commercial opportunities in the near future.”

Dr Blair continued, “This grant provides the assistance we need to build a Production Facility that enables us to supply large quantities of magnetic proteins to our customers around the world. Without this aid, IMSL would struggle to meet demand, thus missing opportunities, disappointing customers and risking failure. Instead, in a few months’ time, IMSL will enter the lucrative market of recombinant protein production, offering a unique and useful biotechnology product, invented in Scotland and staying in Scotland.”

Asked to explain what IMSL’s Production Facility will actually do, Dr Jamie Love, Chief Operations Officer, replied, “We need a lot of specialised biotech equipment to make magnetic proteins. To get the best yields from our bacteria we must swirl them at hundreds of RPMs (revolutions per minute) and maintain them at a temperature that cannot deviate by more than a degree.

“To get the bacteria to release the fusion protein, we use high energy, high frequency sound waves or squeeze them very hard. To collect the protein, the material is spun at tens of thousands of RPMs, creating a pulling force tens of thousands of times more powerful than Earth’s gravity. After that, the protein is purified through a series of “columns” that separate its different parts into a series of pure fractions. And then we magnetise it!”

IMSL uses genetic engineering to stitch together a “fusion gene”, made from two genes that would otherwise produce two separate proteins. One of the genes codes for a protein that specifically binds a target molecule. The other gene codes for a protein that naturally collects metal atoms - such as iron. The fusion gene is transferred into bacteria that then produce the fusion protein. IMSL’s scientists collect that protein, purify it and make it magnetic. These unique proteins can be used to capture, detect and purify molecules and cells for research or diagnostic use and, further down the road, magnetic proteins may be used to kill cancer cells or support regenerative medicine.

“We really needed to invest in a proper Production Facility” said Dr Prabs Dehal, IMSL’s Chief Scientific Officer, senior author of the research paper, “Magnetizable antibody-like proteins”, and first named inventor on several patents and applications covering the methods of using magnetic proteins. “Our small-scale, bench-top production runs were enough to prove the technology works, and good enough to get the attention of several global biotech suppliers, but it would have been impossible for us to make magnetic proteins at the required larger-scales in our current lab.”