ATMI, Inc., Danbury, Conn., opened a laboratory for applications development and testing.

Located inside its Bloomington, Minn., manufacturing facility, the lab supports process operations using the full ATMI LifeSciences portfolio of single-use bioprocess solutions, including bioprocess vessels, bioreactors, mixers and its fill/finish platform.

The site is a duplicate of ATMI's original laboratory located in Brussels, Belgium, and is part of the company's strategy of implementing interactive, long-term customer support along with their innovative single-use disposable technologies. The new 100-square-meter, fully-equipped lab entails 15 global application specialists and scientists that are dedicated to working on customer bioprocess development efforts.

"The new location is a clear reflection of ATMI's strategy to provide comprehensive bioprocess solutions and invest in customer support," says Mario Phillips, senior vice president and general manager. "The laboratory is fully equipped with ATMI technologies and equipment to perform cell culture, and it is staffed by experts in the field. The team at this site has extensive experience in cell culture bioprocesses development and scale-up, as well as more than 20 protein, virus and cell production processes that have been developed in ATMI's proprietary bioreactors. The team will be fully focused on understanding the challenges that customers are faced with and applying their technical knowledge to offer guidance."

The new lab features development and operations support in a round-the-clock format. Customers taking advantage of the lab can benefit from the ability to develop and optimize processes, test bioprocess applications, scale-up individual cell culture processes for technical transfer, learn through demonstrations how ATMI technologies work and receive any further training that may be needed.

"ATMI's single-use technologies can often be considered disruptive because they are bringing innovative new concepts to life," says Richard Bhella, director of applications. "Customers often tell us they want to integrate our technologies, but don't know how. These laboratories are important because they provide full customer support from our application and scientific staff, and act as a cornerstone of innovation for ATMI. They provide direct access to our newest technologies."