{"id":5028,"date":"2024-05-07T21:29:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T21:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?post_type=purduetoday&p=5028"},"modified":"2024-08-20T12:14:23","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T16:14:23","slug":"lyowave-licenses-purdue-freeze-drying-innovations-enters-collaboration-with-millrock-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/Q2\/lyowave-licenses-purdue-freeze-drying-innovations-enters-collaboration-with-millrock-technology","title":{"rendered":"LyoWave licenses Purdue freeze-drying innovations, enters collaboration with Millrock Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —<\/p> \n

LyoWave Inc.<\/a>, a high-tech startup, is commercializing innovative microwave heating technologies developed at Purdue University that improve upon traditional lyophilization \u2014 or the process of freeze-drying perishable products \u2014 by increasing speed, cost-effectiveness and product throughput.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

CEO and co-founder Drew Strongrich said LyoWave\u2019s microwave energy innovations<\/a> open new possibilities for a variety of products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur technology overcomes the historic issues associated with microwave systems such as nonuniform heating, poor tunability, low flexibility and risk of product damage due to the generation of free radicals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LyoWave licensed the intellectual property through the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pharmaceutical applications and more<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alina Alexeenko, LyoWave president and co-founder, said lyophilization extends the shelf life of pharmaceuticals, including vaccines, and stabilizes them throughout the supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt requires conditions like those in outer space \u2014 it is a cold vacuum,\u201d Alexeenko said. \u201cThe traditional process is very expensive and time consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe team at LyoWave wants to push lyophilization further so lifesaving medicines and vaccines can easily reach every corner of the world. We have found a way to apply microwaves to get past some of the key challenges the environment presents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strongrich said LyoWave\u2019s technology enables other innovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There are several alternative and emerging freeze-drying technologies under investigation by the pharmaceutical sector. This comes in response to the growing demand for lyophilized products,\u201d he said. \u201cThe LyoWave technology is highly compatible with many of them and serves as a significant force multiplier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals<\/a>, or NIIMBL, awarded a team of Purdue researchers almost $1 million to advance lyophilization technologies. LyoWave officials will present at the 2024 NIIMBL National Meeting, which takes place June 25-27.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Members of the LyoWave and LyoHub teams stand next to their device, a microwave emitter developed at Purdue University that vastly reduces the time needed to freeze-dry vaccines and other pharmaceutical products. LyoWave has licensed the technology from the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization and entered a joint development collaboration with Millrock Technology. (Purdue University photo\/Alan Cesar)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Although initially focused on pharmaceutical and diagnostic freeze-drying, Strongrich said the technology has multiple applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMicrowave heating is a very common industrial process that\u2019s applied over a wide range of industries including food, textiles and chemical production,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to serve those industries equally as well as the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millrock Technology collaboration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LyoWave has entered into a collaboration agreement with Millrock Technology<\/a>, an industry leader in innovative freeze dryers for biotech, pharmaceutical and industrial applications from laboratory to production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millrock will offer LyoWave\u2019s system for its already installed and new freeze dryers, starting with their popular REVO model. The LyoWave system implements microwave heating for current freeze dryers, which allows users to increase their throughput with minimal changes to existing installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur innovations will be used to boost Millrock\u2019s freeze-drying systems\u2019 capacity to manufacture diagnostic reagents and bulk lyophilized materials and accelerate process development for new lyophilized drug products,\u201d Alexeenko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millrock CEO and President Martial Pabon said LyoWave\u2019s technology has the potential to deliver high value for the industry by both improving product consistency and reducing drying times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLyoWave\u2019s new solid-state microwave technology provides significant improvements in product quality while shortening processing times, which adds significant value to our customers,\u201d Pabon said. \u201cAt Millrock, we are always looking at new technologies that advance freeze-drying science. We are totally excited by this collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LyoWave\u2019s technology<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dimitrios Peroulis, LyoWave\u2019s co-founder and board member, underlined the significance of advanced electromagnetic technology in this application space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany standard microwave systems operate at 2.45 GHz and use legacy power sources and radiation systems,\u201d he said. \u201cLyoWave provides frequency- and space-adjustable power output at above 8 GHz, which is more effective at heating ice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peroulis said regular microwave designs often use a turntable to counteract hot spots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur technology has flipped this idea and found a way to rapidly rotate the electromagnetic field in random directions, while the product being processed remains stationary, resulting in uniformity throughout the product chamber,\u201d he said. \u201cThe microwaves are not only faster but also allow users to take advantage of the unused space inside a freeze dryer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key results of the Purdue research have been published in the March 2024 issue of IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement<\/a>, the January 2023 issue of Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences<\/a> and the July 2022 issue of PNAS Nexus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LyoWave\u2019s Purdue connections<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LyoWave was founded by researchers at Purdue University\u2019s College of Engineering<\/a>. Alexeenko and Peroulis have been jointly leading the team of Purdue researchers who developed the patented and patent-pending innovations since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexeenko<\/a> is the senior associate dean for undergraduate education and academic programs at Purdue University in Indianapolis<\/a> and a professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics<\/a> and the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering<\/a>. She also co-founded LyoHUB<\/a> in 2014 with a focus on advancing the science of lyophilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peroulis<\/a> is the senior vice president for Purdue University Online and the Reilly Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He served as the Michael and Katherine Birck Head of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering<\/a> from 2019-23. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other members of the Purdue research team in the NIIMBL award include Eric Munson<\/a>, the Dane O. Kildsig Chair in Industrial and Physical Pharmacy<\/a> and department head; Vivek Narsimhan<\/a>, the Michael Ott Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering; and Qi \u201cTony\u201d Zhou<\/a>, associate professor of industrial and physical pharmacy and a University Faculty Scholar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About LyoWave Inc. <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At LyoWave<\/a>, we\u2019re supercharging the pharmaceutical freeze-drying process using state-of-the-art, high-frequency microwave heating technology. Our solution accelerates your freeze-drying process while simultaneously improving throughput and uniformity. It is compatible with bench-top to production-scale freeze-drying systems and everything in between, and seamlessly transfers your freeze-drying process from the laboratory to pilot or commercial scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Millrock Technology Inc. <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Millrock Technology<\/a>, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Kingston, NY, is an innovator in advanced freeze dryer technology for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, and life science applications. Our sole dedication to lyophilization for the pharmaceutical, biotech and related industries allows us to focus on providing the highest performing, advanced freeze-drying solutions and support services to our customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization<\/a> operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university\u2019s academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. In fiscal year 2023, the office reported 150 deals finalized with 203 technologies signed, 400 disclosures received and 218 issued U.S. patents. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2019 Innovation & Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. In 2020, IPWatchdog Institute ranked Purdue third nationally in startup creation and in the top 20 for patents. The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Contact otcip@prf.org<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — LyoWave Inc., a high-tech startup, is commercializing innovative microwave heating technologies developed at Purdue University that improve upon traditional lyophilization \u2014 or the process of freeze-drying perishable products \u2014 by increasing speed, cost-effectiveness and product throughput.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,316],"tags":[],"department":[24,80],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-5028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-prf","department-research-foundation","department-technology-commercialization","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7743,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions\/7743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}