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CSIRO’s Biomedical Materials Translational Facility (BMTF) helps medtech companies turn new discoveries into market ready products.

As the global population ages and emerging markets seek improved health care, the medical technologies and pharmaceuticals (MTP) sector is growing fast. According to CSIRO's MTP Roadmap it's expected to be worth almost $3 trillion globally by 2025.

Australia is home to more than 500 companies working in the MTP sector. Many of these are small and medium enterprises, which sometimes struggle to transition from R&D and initial offering, to a sustainable product.

CSIRO's Biomedical Materials Translational Facility (BMTF) has the equipment, expertise and experience needed to help medtech companies develop their product at pilot scale.

What facilities aren't available in house can be accessed through our M2 partnership with Monash University, providing access to high resolution biomedical imaging, as well as cell therapies and regenerative medicine.

[Music plays and Monash University, CSIRO and Monash Health Translation Precinct logos appear]

[Image appears of a piece of robotic medical equipment in operation and then the image changes to show Dr Gordon McPhee talking to the camera and text appears: Dr Gordon McPhee, Monash Health Translation Precinct]

Dr Gordon McPhee: The translational phase is something that’s often referred to as the “Valley of Death” for potential medical treatment.

[Image changes to show a person operating equipment in a clean room and the camera zooms in on the person’s face and then on to their gloved hands working inside the equipment]

It’s where you are in a research environment, you have promising results that you need to trial in humans, in phase one clinical trials in humans and that step has traditionally been very expensive, with clean room space being very limited.

[Image changes to show Michael De Veer sitting in an office and talking to the camera and text appears: Dr Michael De Veer, Monash Biomedical Imaging]

Dr Michael De Veer: And that’s where Monash MedTech comes in, definitely.

[Music plays and images move through of a robotic arm working inside a clean room and then the image changes to show a person operating a computer]

[Image changes to show Dr David Haylock talking to the camera and text appears: Dr David Haylock, CSIRO Manufacturing]

Dr David Haylock: As a collective it really does provide all the things that a small manufacturing enterprise would need to develop products in the medtech sort of sector.

[Images move through of a piece of robotic equipment moving backwards and forwards over plastic trays and then the image changes to show Dr David Haylock talking to the camera]

The BMTF is CSIRO’s key contribution. Our people have great capabilities.

[Image changes to show a computer screen displaying different medical images of a human head]

So, apart from the infrastructure we have people with extensive expertise in polymers, surface coating technology, biofabrication and biocompatibility testing.

[Camera zooms in on an image looking down on the human head]

Dr Michael De Veer: Imaging is great.

[Image shows a computer screen display image showing a female operating the PET MRI scanner and then the image changes to show the female actually operating the equipment]

Everyone knows seeing is believing.

[Image changes to show computer screen displays of a female operating the PET MRI scanner and then the image changes to show Dr Michael De Veer talking to the camera and text appears: Dr Michael De Veer talking to the camera]

Probably the most exciting new piece of equipment we’ve got is the new PET MRI that SIEF funded, which is right next to us.

[Image shows a female operating a computer behind Dr Michael De Veer and then the camera zooms in on the screens and images she is working on]

That’s a great piece of kit. Simultaneous PET and MRI.  So, we can really image for a long time and get very high-resolution PET images as well as those really beautiful, high resolution MRI images.

[Camera zooms out again to show Dr Michael De Veer talking to the camera]

We really can go from that pre-clinical model and scale right up to human imaging. So, we sort of offer that full suite of imaging.

[Camera zooms in on the imaging on the computer screen again and then the image changes to show Dr Gordon McPhee talking to the camera]

Dr Gordon McPhee:  We are a translational hub. We like to take advanced research to the clinic.

[Image changes to show two female workers in the certified facility and the camera zooms in on one of the females squirting liquid into specimen jars]

We have a rather unique assortment of equipment within the cell therapies platform here all housed in an ISO 8 certified facility.

[Image changes to show a female seated with her hands inside gloves working in the Biospherix ex-vivo GMP isolator while Dr Gordon McPhee looks on]

One of them is the Biospherix ex-vivo GMP isolator for biological processing and expansion of cell therapy products.

[Images move through of Dr Gordon McPhee’s face as he watches, Dr Gordon McPhee working on a computer in the facility, the computer screen and then Dr Gordon McPhee working on the computer]

We also have a G7 3-D bioscaffolder as well, which we operate in a class 2 bio safety cabinet, designed specifically to take advanced research through to a pre-

clinical setting.

[Image changes to show Dr Michael De Veer talking to the camera and then the image changes to show a female working in a clean room facility and writing on a specimen jar]

Dr Michael De Veer: Behind the scenes there we’re all working together, pulling together to give the company the best output. So, they get all of our intellectual input but realistically without having to separately engage with us all.

[Images move through of the female’s face, a hand operating the control board on a piece of equipment, a female looking at the piece of equipment and Dr David Haylock talking to the camera]

Dr David Haylock: All of that capability is very expensive typically and often out of the scope of small manufacturing enterprises. Well we offer that sort of enormous infrastructure, very important infrastructure so they can develop prototypes and enable them to take the next step in product development.

[Music plays and images move through of a plastic tray and a piece of robotic equipment lifting the plastic tray and moving it]

[Text appears: Science and Industry Endowment Fund, This infrastructure is supported by SIEF]

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Our equipment

The BMTF has a PC2 laboratory for high throughput biological testing and materials evaluation; as well as an ISO 7 clean room for materials synthesis, processing, fabrication, and surface coating. It also includes a wet lab for standard chemical processes and a robotically controlled high temperature furnace room for preparing ceramic biomaterials.

Our equipment includes:

  • Cell culture robotic platforms
  • Wet chemical synthesis facilities (batch, microwave and continuous‑flow)
  • Polymer synthesis and purification facilities
  • Polymer processing equipment (extrusion, moulding and 3D printing)
  • Polymer coating equipment (UV grafting, spin, spray, dip and parylene coating) 

Use this service

We support businesses at all stages of the translation pathway, and at all stages of growth. We can tailor projects to meet your immediate and long‑term goals.

We can address most aspects of manufacture from fundamental materials design and testing, coating development through to gathering the biological data required for preclinical evaluation.

We have various collaboration models for access which include fee‑for‑service and partnered research and development.

To start the conversation, please contact us at bmtf@csiro.au.

Contacts

Dr Helmut Thissen

Team Leader (Manufacturing)

Location

Clayton central precinct
Research Way
Clayton
Vic 3168

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