On September 18, 2024, bioMérieux celebrated the opening of its new Molecular and Genomic Innovation Center at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The new, 32,000 square foot facility is home to the xPRO™ Program, which partners with leading food industry companies to enhance their food safety diagnostic capabilities, addressing unmet needs to streamline operational efficiencies and further public health.

Since 2019, the xPRO Program has continuously developed innovative testing solutions that reduce food and beverage safety pain points across the entirety of the production process, from raw materials to final quality assurance releases. The expansion of bioMérieux at The Navy Yard, featuring a 50-person team, is central to maintaining the pace of innovation required to meet global customer needs.

The new, fit-for-purpose facility is home to the Genomic Discovery Center, where work to better understand foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms will take place, as well as the xPRO™ Research and Development Center, which is focused on assay development, validation, and production. This all-in-one design will enable rapid ideation, development, and validation, resulting in a shorter market launch time for clients.

According to Adam Joelsson, Senior Director of Assay Development and Industrial Applications Research and Development, in its new Navy Yard home, the xPRO Program can deliver a prototype to validation in as little as six months.

The facility was designed and built with hygiene in mind; the flow of the building through which personnel can move goes from “clean,” beginning with the area in which molecular diagnostics work takes place, to “dirty,” where research and development happens, to ensure no accidental microbial contamination occurs.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Ben Pascal, global head of the xPRO™ Program, remarked, “We have an entrepreneurial mindset to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of our customers, to meet the needs of our partners, and to deliver diagnostics that are game-changing. What we are building here are some of the most innovative tools in the food safety space. Tools that are predictive, tools that give our customers much more value in understanding their operations and ensuring that they can maintain long shelf-lives, so we don’t have to think about it when we go to the grocery store and buy those products.”

Part of bioMérieux’s Augmented Diagnostics approach, the xPRO™ Program is the catalyst advancing molecular diagnostics; solving the food industry’s complex food safety operational challenges through direct partnership to diagnose the root cause of food safety obstacles, and developing innovative, custom testing solutions to ensure public safety while minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency.