KUALA LUMPUR, 18 August 2015 – The Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory at the Institute of Bio-Products Development Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (IBDUTM) has been awarded the ‘Most Collaborative BioNexus Partners Award’.
The award was presented by the Malaysia Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Datuk Madius Tangau to the IBDUTM Director, Prof. Ramlan Aziz. The ceremony was held at the Bio 2015 Appreciation Night dinner held at Dewan Tun Hussein Onn, Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur.
There were other  award categories  presented at the ceremony, namely, the Industry Excellence Award and Bionexus Achievement Award.
UTM Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory Chief, Prof. Dr. Hesham A. El-Enshasy said among the main factors of success were research collaborations with the industries.
“To date we have entered into research collaboration with ten biotechnology companies with a total value of RM1.5 million.
“One of our partners is All Cosmos Industries Sdn. Bhd. (ACI), a subsidiary of All Cosmos Bio-Tech Holding Corporation (CBT) which is one of Asia’s leading manufacturers in the production of bio-chemical and bio-organic fertilizer, “he said.
The on-going research collaboration with ACI involves Microbial Research as a Development Platform for Bio-Fertilizer Application, commencing  1 January 2015 until 31 December 2018.
The Bioprocessing Engineering Laboratory in IBDUTM is an integrated multi-purpose facility which provides different services including fermentation research and development in small scale primary laboratories for process optimization as well as scaling up of process and large scale production up to 1500 liters.
Since 2009, many collaborative efforts in industrial bioprocessing have taken place in IBD to spur the biotechnology industry in Malaysia.
IBD has played a vital role in giving expert views, conducting technical feasibility studies, scaling up bioprocessing activities and providing continuous support in bioprocessing Research and Development (R & D),