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Through a partnership with the University of Delaware, the Waters Corporation will sponsor Immerse Delaware, a new research and innovation lab to be established in early 2022 in the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center on UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus.

The University of Delaware is a growing powerhouse in research, education and workforce development focusing on biopharmaceuticals. These complex medicines produced from living cells — from insulin to COVID-19 vaccines — are highly effective in targeting diseases, but they also are extremely challenging to make. 

UD and Waters Corporation, a pioneer in scientific measurement, have announced a five-year research partnership to advance analytical solutions in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The company, headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts, has operations in 35 countries and more than 7,400 employees worldwide. 

Through the partnership, Waters will sponsor Immerse Delaware, an innovation and research lab, to be established in early 2022 at the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center on UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus. 

“We are thrilled that an industry-leading innovator like Waters Corporation and the University of Delaware are forming this collaborative partnership to advance novel solutions to biopharmaceutical process development and manufacturing,” said Dennis Assanis, president of the University of Delaware. “This is a true testimony to UD’s recognition as a national hub for innovation and talent development that feeds cutting-edge progress across industries — including engineering, biopharmaceuticals, life sciences, and so much more. The Waters-UD groundbreaking initiative will help accelerate development of life-saving medicines, while simultaneously developing the workforce of the future.”

Waters Corporation scientists will partner with UD students and faculty in the Immerse Delaware lab to identify and address some of the most significant challenges facing the biopharmaceutical industry. The success of biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, cell and gene therapies and vaccines has transformed the life sciences industry. However, the optimization of the manufacturing process of these complex molecules has been limited by the lack of robust analytical methods that clearly decouple the critical quality attributes of the product from the process parameters. 

Waters is partnering with UD because of its leadership in chemical and biological manufacturing research as well its active support and close proximity to the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), a collaborative effort among industry, academia and regulators.