I’m proud to announce the initiation of a rapid sterility project, under the CEPI Analytical Innovation CfP. This one aims to reduce the sterility test to under 72 hrs allowing faster release of biological vaccine products.
📢 New CEPI-funded project will harness innovative microbial testing methods to accelerate vaccine sterility testing. CEPI funding of up to US$197,280 will support Swedish-based Symcel to develop a rapid sterility testing method for vaccines using its calScreener+ platform. Sterility testing—confirming that a vaccine batch is free from microbial contamination—can be one of the most time-consuming stages in vaccine release, often taking up to a month. Symcel’s approach uses microcalorimetry, a technique that measures tiny amounts of heat generated by microorganisms as they grow, to detect contamination in as little as three days 🦠 This innovation has the potential to cut vaccine release timelines, reduce manufacturing costs, and, therefore, make high-quality vaccine testing more accessible globally. Vaccine analytics, such as sterility testing, are the backbone of a fast, scalable, and safe vaccine manufacturing process, ensuring that vaccines are not only produced quickly but also reliably and safely. But current testing methods can be slow, resource-intensive, and susceptible to human error, potentially delaying vaccine release in an outbreak scenario, when speed is critical. By supporting technologies that reduce testing time from weeks to days, while also making processes simpler, and potentially more cost-effective, CEPI is strengthening global capacity to produce safe vaccines at speed. This is the second project to be awarded under CEPI’s Call for Proposals seeking to advance technologies that monitor vaccine manufacturing processes, ensuring quality, safety, global scalability and accessibility, all while accelerating product release, in support of CEPI’s 100 Days Mission.