CER Groupe

CER Groupe is a Belgian Research and Excellence Centre, with the mission of providing companies, universities and institutions with high quality services in life sciences and agriculture. The groups offer stands out by providing an end-to-end pre-clinical solution in a regulated environment (ISO, GxP) helping innovative companies to grow and take off in Europe. Manufacturer of innovative products, the group delivers polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, diagnostic kits, reagents and colostrum to the pharmaceutical and food industry. Recognised for its expertise and high quality level of services, the group contributes to the agricultural economic development supporting European CAP.

CER composed by four business units and three spin-offs, with around 180 employees overall.

The business units (BUs) are the Animal Facility BU (provides custom support for biologicals development and characterization), the Analytical Laboratory BU (provides analytical and purification services for different purposes), the Immunobiological Laboratory BU (active in the field of antigens and antibodies, in vitro production and purification, molecular engineering), and the Agri-development BU (provides custom support for animal breeding and plant productions).

As a whole, the CER offers services and performs research and development activities that can be grouped into four major areas:

1. Food/feed safety

- Analysis of contaminants and residues through the food chain, including development and validation in ISO17025 and GLP facilities (ELISA, flow cytometry, UHPLC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS, HPLC-UV/FLUO, HRMS, IRMS).

- Chromatography service (analytical/preparative purifications through single/multistep procedures such as gel-filtration, immuno-affinity, ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and reversed-phase).

- National Reference Laboratory for allergens, natural toxins, pesticides and pharmacologically active substances

-allergenicity assesment of new protein sources/alternative proteins

2. Bioproduction:

• production of prebiotics (enzymatic pathway) and probiotics and their characterization (profiles of OS, analysis of SCFAs,....)

-Lactobacillus bank

- Proteins/enzymes design and production, upstream and downstream processing (native or recombinant).

-Antibodies development, upstream and downstream processing (monoclonal, polyclonal, chimerized, humanized, also in ISO facilities) for test development.

- Biobanking and bioproduction (cell lines, viruses, BL3 and BL2 pathogens).

3. Agricultural department:

- contacts with primary producers for new or relocated agri-foods chains (hop,...).

4. Preclinical services:

- Development and validation of in vitro and invivo models (Caco2 cells, coculture, small animals in SPF, A2 and A3).

- Custom-tailored solution to your studies (residues, bioequivalence, metabolism, toxicity, tolerance, innocuity, efficacy, teratogenicity, test release, microsurgery) in SPF and/or GLP facilities.