Pilot plant at the heart of Southern Lights success

Unique facilities at the Manawatu campus have proven the launching pad for an innovative local start-up company.

Southern Lights Biomaterials uses by-products of agricultural production to make animal tissue products for medical uses, such as components for replacement heart valves. The Hawke’s Bay company has based its scientific research at the pilot plant in the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health.

The company has been testing its products at Massey for the past two years and is now entering production. Technical manager Dr John Higgins says being able to utilise the pilot plant has been integral to the company’s development.

“In the early stages we were able to come in here for 20 minutes, try something and see if it worked, and go away again,” Dr Higgins says. “This was before we had formal contracts. It started off as a bit of casual work and a huge amount of goodwill. The initial flexibility when we weren’t quite sure what we were doing enabled us to experiment and find out what was worth putting some money into.”

The company now has a number of international contracts for its products and is beginning production. Dr Higgins says the pilot plant’s certification was very important. “Our point of difference is that New Zealand’s agricultural products are free of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy),” he says “Using the pilot plant at Massey ensured we could easily export our product to buyers.”

The pilot plant is designed and run under the strict risk management programme guidelines expected in a modern food manufacturing plant, and holds key registrations. Products made there can be certified as meeting the requirements for exporting biologics to particular overseas markets.

Institute head Professor Richard Archer says Southern Lights Biomaterials is a truly innovative company.

“They have set up a high-tech medical materials business using by-products of New Zealand’s clean and green agriculture system,” Professor Archer says. “ But they could not have achieved this without the facilities and help they found here and the working environment we could offer.”

Professor Archer says the pilot plant was, in part, set up to provide just this type of service. “The biological material industry is a fast-growing and exciting one, and our pilot plant is the ideal place for small businesses to test. We provide security both in terms of intellectual property and biologically, and we have the skilled technicians to make things happen.”