Your bioprocess, engineered for GMP — consumables, hardware and software built around your process, not the other way round.
Why MSAT as a Service
Esco Aster is the first CRDMO to offer Manufacturing Sciences & Technology from biosciences/biotools to cGMP as a fully integrated service. MSAT aaS turns your unique User Requirement Specification (URS) into a validated, turnkey process solution that scales from preclinical to commercial manufacturing.
MSAT aaS removes that bottleneck. Our MSAT team works in parallel with technology transfer and process development, engineering the bridge from preclinical lab processes to clinical and commercial production so your process can scale up or scale out linearly.
What you receive:
- A turnkey, GMP-ready process — bespoke single-use gamma-irradiated consumables, automated hardware and 21 CFR Part 11-compliant software, designed to your URS and validated for use.
- Ownership of your process — you retain the full BIP of your customized process whilst we turn it into a cGMP scalable solution that is also able to meet your cogs target.
- One accountable partner — a single point of contact backed by our in-house engineering, with our development scientists, our ISO 13485 single-use factory, cGMP CRDMO, Quality and regulatory provides rapid closed loop feedback for prototyping hardware, consumables within a GLP/cGMP environment and a vetted network of specialist vendors.
- A domain-agnostic team — we focus on the best solution for your bioprocess, whatever the modality or technology it needs.
Embedded at every stage, from concept to cure
Our MSAT teams are built into Esco Aster's idea-to-exit service offering, so engineering decisions are made
where they matter rather than retrofitted at the end.
- Lab automation and CRD — automating research and development workflows for consistent, reproducible data.
- Technology conversion— converting bench processes into closed, scalable, GMP-ready unit operations.
- cGMP production — supporting clinical and commercial manufacturing on our linearly scalable platforms.
- Point of care — automated drug preparation for compounding pharmacies and clinical sites.
- Quality control testing — process analytical technologies (PAT) and real-time, in-process quality control.
What we do
Open-to-closed process conversion
We convert open lab-bench processes into closed processes using single-use technologies, from standard consumables to custom single-use bottles and caps fitted with single-use connectors. Our materials work extends to single-use sensors, chemical and surface treatments, and sub-visible particulate analysis, so consumables can be designed particulate-free from the start.
Specialized single-use mixers
Mixing is a critical unit operation for neoantigen cancer vaccines (peptide and lipid nanoparticle, LNP) and other nucleic acid therapeutics. We design custom single-use mixers for LNP formulation, fragile cells, and the emulsification of neoantigen peptides with oil-based adjuvants, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate and optimize mixing before hardware is built.
Automation and mechatronics
We turn manual processes into automated ones for scale-up, providing front-end engineering design (FEED) with physical mock-ups. This matters most for fragile cells such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), where consistency, reproducibility and repeatability depend on removing operator variability. We then work with specialist engineering partners to build these systems, often as closed systems within isolators, integrated with your SCADA.
Imaging and in-process quality control
We develop imaging systems and computerized in-process quality control, giving real-time visibility of critical quality attributes during manufacturing.
Automation and mechatronics
We convert adherent cultureware processes (roller bottles, cell factories, microcarriers) into packed-bed bioreactors, and automate the remaining adherent workflows using robotics and AI. The aim is fewer process steps and less reliance on single-use consumables where they add cost without adding value.
Autonomous labs and biomanufacturing
As a deep-tech partner, we convert manual laboratory operations into autonomous labs, and manual biomanufacturing operations into autonomous biomanufacturing.
Tide Motion® platform trackrecord.
Our patented Adherent Cell Tide Motion® platform is the manufacturing backbone and trackrecord that MSAT aaS engineers around. Its gentle, cyclical rise and fall of culture medium through a packed bed of macroporous carriers alternates cells between nutrition and aeration with minimal shear, which is why it suits fragile adherent cells and their derivatives.
The same Tide Motion principle runs from seed preparation at 0.1 L packed-bed volume to production at 5,000 L packed-bed volume, bioequivalent to about 50,000 L in suspension, with closed, automated cell harvesting throughout. Because the core technology stays the same at every scale, scale-up is linear and the process does not need to be redesigned between clinical phases.
First proven in commercial human and animal vaccines, Tide Motion has since been applied to clinical-grade stem
cells, exosomes and extracellular vesicles, cell and gene therapy, and cell-based nutrition. MSAT aaS extends
that track record: we take your adherent process off roller bottles, microcarriers or multilayer flasks,
transfer it onto Tide Motion, and wrap it in the custom consumables, automation and in-process controls it needs
for GMP.
From prototype to product: commercializing your innovation
We take prototype devices, single-use consumables and client-patented tools and turn them into real-world,
GMP-ready products, applying our chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) know-how and using them in our own
clinical and commercial manufacturing.
- Rapid prototyping to full-scale supply — from early prototypes and expanded early-access programs to full contract manufacturing in our ISO 13485 single-use factory.
- Open innovation platform — collaborators can commercialize their single-use technologies on our proven cGMP Infinity Bioreactor / Incubator, which connects to a wide range of consumables.
- Flexible partnership models — fee-for-service engineering, or co-development under a joint development and joint ownership (JDJO) venture co-creation model, where Esco Aster can act as a source of strategic capital and the jointly developed IP is spun out or exclusively licensed.
This builds on Esco Aster's role as a bioinnovation venture accelerator: we help bring your intellectual property into real devices used in the clinic.
Our interdisciplinary team
Our dedicated MSAT team brings together bioprocess engineers, materials scientists and machine builders who are fluent in cleanroom environments.
| Discipline | What it brings to your process |
|---|---|
| Bioprocess engineering | Process gap analysis, scale-up and scale-out, tech transfer |
| Mechanical design and machine building | Custom hardware, mock-ups, isolator-integrated systems |
| Electrical, controls and instrumentation | Sensors, control loops, SCADA integration |
| PLC and software programming | 21 CFR Part 11-compliant control software |
| Materials science: single-use plastics and coatings | Particulate-free consumables, surface and chemical treatments |
| Automation and mechatronics | Manual-to-automated and autonomous operations |
| Computational fluid dynamics | Simulated mixing and flow before hardware is built |
| Medical device and system integration | Prototype-to-product commercialization under ISO 13485 |
| Quality control | PAT and real-time in-process testing |
| Lean Six Sigma (DMAIC) | Fewer process steps, lower cost of goods |
| Intellectual property | Protecting and structuring the IP you develop with us |
How an MSAT aaS project runs
- Process gap analysis — we map your process and identify critical process parameters (CPPs), critical quality attributes (CQAs), critical material attributes (CMAs) and where process analytical technologies (PAT) belong.
- Process and block flow diagrams — we lay out the current and target process end to end.
- User Requirement Specification and Design Qualification — we draft the URS and DQ with you.
- Engineering design — we deliver general arrangement (GA) drawings and P&IDs, with functional, hardware and software design specifications (FDS, HDS, SDS).
- Build, test and validate — we prototype, build with our vendor network and single-use factory, and validate the solution for GMP use within our GLP and cGMP Facilities.
- Transfer to manufacturing — the validated process moves into clinical or commercial production, at Esco Aster or at the site of your choice.
Why Esco Aster
- MSAT inside a CRDMO — engineering sits next to process development, cGMP manufacturing and QC, not in a separate vendor.
- Our own platforms and factory — the patented Tide Motion® bioreactor family and an ISO 13485 single-use factory, so designs become supply, not just drawings.
- Idea-to-exit support — consultancy, CMC, GLP Tox, clinical development and strategic capital under one roof when your program needs more than engineering.
- Your IP, your supply chain — every engagement is structured so you keep ownership of the process you paid to build.
Ready to engineer your process for GMP? Share your URS or describe the bottleneck, and our MSAT team will propose a solution path.