The LEGOMEDIC Consortium

DOI 10.1515/gps-2012-0078 Green Process Synth 2012; 1: 539–541 Network profile Steve Lanners* , Edith Norrant and Patrick Pasau The LEGOMEDIC consortium *Corresponding author: Steve Lanners, Department of Chemistry, – UCB Pharma is a global biopharmaceutical company University of Namur, 61 rue de Bruxelles, 5000 Namur, Belgium, with operations in about 40 countries and which e-mail: [email protected] had a global revenue of $ 3.2 billion in 2011 [ 2 ]. Its Edith Norrant and Patrick Pasau: UCB Pharma S.A., Chemin du research efforts focus on severe diseases, mainly in Foriest, 1420 Braine-l ’ Alleud, Belgium the field of CNS affections and immunology, using both chemistry and biology as driving forces for the development of new drugs. UCB Pharma has 1 Objectives of the consortium extensive experience in medicinal chemistry, process chemistry and manufacturing, including the research The initial idea for the LEGOMEDIC project took shape in use of continuous and microfluidic techniques for 2009, when scientists from UCB Pharma (Braine-l ’ Alleud, flow chemistry and wants to expand the latter to Belgium) decided to join forces with a group of smaller pilot and manufacturing scales. companies and research groups from universities in the – The Laboratory of Synthetic Organic Chemistry Wallonia and Brussels areas of Belgium, in order to study (COS), at the University of Namur, contributes the applicability of microreactor technology and con- its experience in asymmetric synthesis and flow tinuous processes to the manufacturing of active (bio) chemistry to the consortium [ 3 ]. It further expands pharmaceutical ingredients. The acronym LEGOMEDIC the know-how available at UCB Pharma and (for “ Le s G é n é rations d ’ O utils M icro/Milli E quipements will contribute to the upstream activities of the pour le D é veloppement et l ’ I ndustrialisation de C ompo- LEGOMEDIC consortium in the area of chemical s é s chimiques et pharmaceutiques ” – The Generation of entities, by developing synthetic strategies to active Micro/Milli Tools and Equipments for the Development compounds that are inherently appropriate for and Industrialization of Chemical and Pharmaceutical continuous microfluidic processes. Compounds) was rapidly coined. From this idea, grew an – The group “ Transfers, Interfaces and Processes ” ambitious research project, combining the complemen- (TIPs), at the Universit é Libre de Bruxelles, tary competencies of research groups in chemistry, chemi- specializes in the development of theoretical, cal engineering, molecular biology and even aerospace numerical and experimental approaches for the engineering, in order to study all individual aspects of a analysis of multiphase systems and the optimization continuous, microfluidic production process. and the design of industrial processes [ 4 ]. It is After an initial phase of project definition and increasingly active in the area of microfluidics. planning, the complete LEGOMEDIC consortium was Within LEGOMEDIC, it will especially focus on the financially supported in 2012, by a grant from the design of micro-crystallizers. regional government of Wallonia detailed below [ 1 ]. The – The Center for Protein Engineering (CIP), of the first aspects of LEGOMEDIC ’ s research agenda started in University of Li è ge, is a large research center that has September 2012 and will span 4 years. an extensive experience in the areas of molecular biology and microbiology, ranging from molecular modeling to functional genomics [ 5 ]. It will 2 The partners contribute its know-how in various areas of biology and biochemistry, to the development of methods Whilst UCB Pharma has been the instigator of the LEGO- capable of handling biological macromolecules in MEDIC project, and still spearheads the initiative by continuous micro- or millifluidic systems. acting as the project coordinator, it has surrounded itself – The Space Research Center (CSL), of the University of by a number of research groups and smaller companies Li è ge, is one of the world ’ s leading institutes for space that complement its own expertise in the relevant areas. technology research and testing, with particularly 540 S. Lanners et al.: The LEGOMEDIC consortium developed experience in optics [ 6 ]. It participates in This large equipment base is distributed among the dif- the LEGOMEDIC project with its know-how in the area ferent partners, and used in highly competent research envi- of surface modification of a wide range of materials. ronments, both at UCB Pharma, and in three of the major – Technord is a medium-sized company acting as a universities of the Wallonia and Brussels regions. This allows global system integrator that designs, assembles and the LEGOMEDIC consortium to evolve in a scientifically com- maintains industrial equipments. With a workforce of petitive environment, which draws upon the unique exper- over 300 people, its experience ranges from electrical tise and proven track record of all of its partners. engineering to industrial information technology LEGOMEDIC was created and will evolve in the Wal- [ 7 ]/Technord contributes its experience in process lonia region of Belgium, at the heart of Europe: a region automation and monitoring to the project. that is at the crossroads of all major European trans- – Mecasoft is a small Belgian company specialized in port networks and in close proximity to one of Europe ’ s precision mechanical engineering using electron capitals, the city of Brussels. This strategic location will discharge machining [ 8 ]. Mecasoft ’ s engineering allow LEGOMEDIC to easily interact and collaborate with products are applied in numerous sectors, and it experts throughout Europe. will provide LEGOMEDIC with an access to precisely machined equipment ranging down to microscales. – TAIPRO engineering is a start-up of the University 4 Funding of Li è ge which specializes in microsystems and microassembly [ 9 ], and will provide LEGOMEDIC with In July 2012, the government of Wallonia decided to fund the the capability to use microelectronic components and research project of the LEGOMEDIC consortium for 4 years. microsensors within its microreactors. This grant is part of Wallonia ’ s support to fundamental and applied research in key areas for economic development. The LEGOMEDIC project was supported by two of Wal- lonia ’ s Competitiveness Poles: the MECATECH (mechanical 3 The infrastructure engineering) and BIOWIN (health) clusters [ 10 ]. LEGOM- EDIC is Wallonia ’ s first major joint public and private initia- When combining the equipment of its industrial and tive in the area of microreactors and flow chemistry. academic partners, LEGOMEDIC possesses a unique and diverse range of capabilities, ranging from laboratory- scale continuous flow reactors and setups (such as the 5 Start-up and launch symposium commercially available equipment from Vapourtec, Thales- nano, Syrris, Uniqsis, etc … ) up to pilot-scale setups, that Research within the context of the LEGOMEDIC grant are available on the market (Corning, Ehrfeld, etc.) as well started in Namur in September 2012, and by November, all as in-line monitoring tools (e.g., from Mettler-Toledo). partners will have started their respective research tasks. S. Lanners et al.: The LEGOMEDIC consortium 541 In order to kick-off the work of LEGOMEDIC with a chemical and biopharmaceutical research and industry ” focus on the scientific and economic aspects of its work, which will take place at the University of Namur on 21st the consortium has decided to organize a one-day sympo- January 2013. The full scientific program can be found on sium entitled “ Microreactors and flow chemistry in fine the LEGOMEDIC website [ 1 ]. References [1] Website of the LEGOMEDIC consortium: http://legomedic.fundp. [6] http://www.csl.ulg.ac.be/ ac.be [7] http://www.technord.com/en/ [2] http://www.ucb.com [8] http://www.mecasoft.be/en/ [3] http://cos.unamur.be [9] http://www.taipro.be/en/ [4] http://www.tips-ulb.be/ [10] http://clusters.wallonie.be [5] http://www.cip.ulg.ac.be/ .

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