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Genopole platforms and infrastructures

GATEX: biomanufacturing to scale

In 2024, Genopole reached a new strategic milestone with the launch of GATEX, a preindustrial biomanufacturing platform meant to accompany biotech start-ups as they pass through the scale-up stage, one of the most critical in their development. Operated entirely by Genopole, this infrastructure, the first of its kind in Île-de-France, is designed to validate strain robustness, refine fermentation processes and prepare businesses for industrialization under rigorous technical conditions.

GATEX, for "grow and test" plus an exponent "X" to symbolize increases in volume, embodies a true passageway—a "gate" thus—between laboratory R&D and industrial production. By giving start-ups access to state of the art fermentation equipment, and in so doing, sparing them from heavy early investments, GATEX eases the structuration of their projects upstream of scale-up.

Since April 2024, the platform's equipment has grown to offer a complete technical itinerary:

  • A culture media preparation lab compatible with industrial ingredients.
  • A bacteria or yeast preculture room, for reproducible preliminary cultures.
  • A high-throughput screening lab equipped with an automated pipetting system and a Biolector XT microfermentor able to test up to 960 culture conditions.
  • A progressive upscaling workshop with Multifors 2, Biostat B (2–5 liters) and Biostat C Plus (up to 20 liters) fermentors

The first company to use the service was Nutropy, a specialist in precision fermentation derived dairy alternatives. For Nutropy Cofounder and CSO Maya Bendifallah, "The equipment at GATEX responds perfectly to our needs. We are satisfied with both the service and quality and reliability of the materials."

960
culture conditions can be tested by the lab.
€820m
amount of support provided by the Île-de-France Region for GATEX (in addition to the €2.280 million invested in 2022).

With €820,000 in support from the Île-de-France Administrative Region, GATEX has launched its first, 70 m² phase. Going forward, the project has set the objective of reaching capacities of several hundred liters by 2027. Its multi-sector positioning—health, food & agriculture, cosmetics—reflects the range and upscaling needs of biotechs using precision fermentation. Whether start-up, SME, small cap or research center, the platform is open to all, either occasionally or in the setting of strategic accompaniment.

For the innovation ecosystem, GATEX is a key element aimed at ensuring a successful move from proof of concept to industrialization and moreover setting the foundations for a more agile, rapid and sustainable biomanufacturing sector in France.