Labs and Groups
BMC VMF Group
BMC VMF Group
Team Leader
Jennifer Quizi
Investigator, Cancer ResearchWhat We Do
Our group manufactures biologic or ‘living’ drugs, specifically virus-based therapies.
The goal of the BMC-VMF is to provide our partners both within Canada and abroad, with access to affordable viral therapy development and GMP compliant manufacturing capacity in support of early phase clinical research. We take a collaborative and product-focused approach to each and every project we work on, leveraging our existing, validated processes and technology platforms to develop tailor-made vector manufacturing solutions.
As a contract development and manufacturing organization and Core Facility of the OHRI, our focus is on process innovation- discovering new and better ways to manufacture different types of viruses such that they are suitable and safe to be tested in the clinic. To ensure continued, affordable access to the therapeutic viruses we make, we invest in developing new manufacturing innovations like customized cell lines, to maximize virus yields and therefore reduce the cost associated with their manufacture.
Currently, biologics are among the most costly and complex therapies to make. They require specialized facilities and equipment, with long process durations, expensive raw materials and most importantly, a team of highly qualified personnel (HQP). In the field of biologics, the process IS the product, and since the process isn’t possible without the people, our group understands first-hand, the need to actively participate in the training of the next generation of biomanufacturing HQP. This is why we are home to the first-ever, hands-on biomanufacturing training opportunity in Canada called CanPRIME. Much like the innovations we support, we work closely with our partners, in this case our students, to customize this training program to continually meet the needs of our students and the bio sector in Canada.
To learn more about my group’s capacity and types of products we manufacture, please visit the BMC’s website.
The goal of the BMC-VMF is to provide our partners both within Canada and abroad, with access to affordable viral therapy development and GMP compliant manufacturing capacity in support of early phase clinical research. We take a collaborative and product-focused approach to each and every project we work on, leveraging our existing, validated processes and technology platforms to develop tailor-made vector manufacturing solutions.
As a contract development and manufacturing organization and Core Facility of the OHRI, our focus is on process innovation- discovering new and better ways to manufacture different types of viruses such that they are suitable and safe to be tested in the clinic. To ensure continued, affordable access to the therapeutic viruses we make, we invest in developing new manufacturing innovations like customized cell lines, to maximize virus yields and therefore reduce the cost associated with their manufacture.
Currently, biologics are among the most costly and complex therapies to make. They require specialized facilities and equipment, with long process durations, expensive raw materials and most importantly, a team of highly qualified personnel (HQP). In the field of biologics, the process IS the product, and since the process isn’t possible without the people, our group understands first-hand, the need to actively participate in the training of the next generation of biomanufacturing HQP. This is why we are home to the first-ever, hands-on biomanufacturing training opportunity in Canada called CanPRIME. Much like the innovations we support, we work closely with our partners, in this case our students, to customize this training program to continually meet the needs of our students and the bio sector in Canada.
To learn more about my group’s capacity and types of products we manufacture, please visit the BMC’s website.
Research Activities
Our research focuses on manufacturing enabling activities, such as process and assay development, for therapeutic viruses.
Process Development
We have capacity and experience with a variety of both upstream and downstream approaches to optimize virus growth and purification including:
- Adherent bioreactors (static culture and fixed bed bioreactors like iCELLis)
- Suspension bioreactors (1-200L)
- Tangential flow filtration (TFF)
- Chromatography
As part of our process development approach, we also implement cost and time-saving strategies such as Design of Experiment (DoE), a multi-factorial, statistical approach that rationally tests combinations of factors most likely to impact process parameters using as few experiments as possible. All of our process development equipment is purposefully scaled to what is used in our GMP production suites to ensure seamless technology transfer for projects destined for manufacture.
Assay Development
We specialize in the development of product-specific assays such as potency and identity for the therapeutic viruses we manufacture using the following approaches:
- Western Blot
- ELISA
- PCR
- Titer by plaque assay
- Functional titer by transduction and qPCR
Selected Publications
1 - Natasha Kekre, Kevin Anthony Hay, John R Webb, Ranjeeta Mallick, Miruna Balasundaram, Mhairi K Sigrist, Anne-Marie Clement, Julie S Nielsen, Jennifer Quizi, Eric Yung, Scott D Brown, Lisa Dreolini, Daniel D Waller, Julian Smazynski, Nicole S Gierc, Bianca C Loveless, Kayla Clark, Tyler Dyer, Richard Hogg, Leah Mccormick, Michael Gignac, Shanti Bell, D Maria Chapman, David Bond, Siao Yong, Rachel Fung, Heather M Lockyer, Victoria Hodgson, Catherine Murphy, Ana Subramanian, Evelyn Wiebe, Piriya Yoganathan, Liana Medynski, Dominique C Vaillant, Alice Black, Sheryl Mcdiarmid, Michael Kennah, Linda Hamelin, Kevin Song, Sujaatha Narayanan, Judith A Rodrigo, Stefany Dupont, Terry Hawrysh, Justin Presseau, Kednapa Thavorn, Manoj Lalu, Dean A Fergusson, John Cameron Bell, Harold Atkins, Brad H Nelson and Robert Holt (2022) “ CLIC-01 Clinical Trial: Manufacture and Distribution of Non-Cryopreserved CAR-T Cells for Patients with CD19 Positive Hematologic Malignancies”
2 - Donald Bastin; Jennifer Quizi; Michael A Kennedy;?Rebecca?C Auer;?Natasha?Kekre (2022)
“Current Challenges in the Manufacture of Clinical Grade Autologous Whole Cell Vaccines for Hematologic Malignancies”. Cytotherapy. In Press
3 - Quizi, J and Megan Mahoney (2020) Canadian Science Policy Centre, 2020 Conference Editorial, “CanPRIME- A Novel and Necessary Model for Integrated Training to Support Canada’s Biomanufacturing Ecosystem”.
2 - Donald Bastin; Jennifer Quizi; Michael A Kennedy;?Rebecca?C Auer;?Natasha?Kekre (2022)
“Current Challenges in the Manufacture of Clinical Grade Autologous Whole Cell Vaccines for Hematologic Malignancies”. Cytotherapy. In Press
3 - Quizi, J and Megan Mahoney (2020) Canadian Science Policy Centre, 2020 Conference Editorial, “CanPRIME- A Novel and Necessary Model for Integrated Training to Support Canada’s Biomanufacturing Ecosystem”.