THE FIELDBUS Foundation has announced that the biotech company Genzyme will host a comprehensive Foundation fieldbus seminar Nov. 3-4 in Cambridge, MA. The event will include hands-on instruction in the use of Foundation fieldbus control systems, and will feature presentations by leading worldwide experts in fieldbus technology.
On Thursday, Nov. 3, Tri-State University (TSU) Technology Center will host a workshop covering fieldbus end user applications in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. The instructor will discuss implementation of the open, integrated Foundation fieldbus H1 and High Speed Ethernet (HSE) automation architecture in life sciences production environments.
The seminar will also include a tour of Genzyme¹s Allston Landing manufacturing facility, which includes several hundred Foundation fieldbus nodes. Allston Landing is a licensed manufacturing site and part of the Therapeutics Business of Genzyme. The 180,000 square foot facility has bulk manufacturing capacity for multiple products utilizing recombinant mammalian cell culture. Six 2,000 L bioreactors are used to produce recombinant enzyme products for the treatment of patients with specific lysosomal storage diseases. These genetic disorders are ultra-orphan diseases that affect very small patient populations.
The Allston Landing site also has a product filling and lyophilization capability for the enzymes produced there, as well as additional products manufactured at other Genzyme locations and other companies in collaboration with Genzyme. Commercial products currently produced at Allston Landing include: Cerezyme, Fabrazyme, Thyrogen and Aldurazyme.
Catherine Cook, Genzyme¹s director of communications, will introduce Genzyme. Bill Dolan P.E., principle I&C engineer who has been intimately involved with the fieldbus controls at the Allston Landing facility, will deliver a paper on Friday morning discussing the lessons learned in implementing a multi-bus control system in a biotech facility, with a particular emphasis on the Foundation fieldbus elements of the system.
TSU Technology Center is the newest regional training center providing certified Founation fieldbus training courses. Located in Angola, Indiana, the TSU Technology Center lab is being equipped with FOUNDATION-compliant host systems and fieldbus instruments provided by Fieldbus Foundation members. The foundation is supporting the facility through the creation of a training curriculum for end users, and training of the center¹s instructors.
The seminar agenda on Friday, Nov. 4, will include an overview of the Fieldbus Foundation¹s global End User Councils (EUCs), presentations concerning Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) technology and fieldbus economic models, and an update on recent foundation activities around the world. Prominent end user companies will also give presentations. The program will conclude with a panel discussion involving seminar speakers.
For more information, or to register for the Genzyme seminar, please visit the Fieldbus Foundation website at www.fieldbus.org.
