Atmo Biosciences has been awarded an Australian Government Manufacturing Modernisation Fund (MMF) grant to support manufacturing automation and scale-up for the Atmo Gas-Sensing Capsule.

The Round 2 MMF grants, part of the Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy, are for small-medium sized businesses to transform manufacturing and to support job growth and develop a more skilled workforce.

Atmo successfully applied for a $317,500 grant, to be matched by Atmo 3:1, to scale up manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand from commercial and research customers, along with Atmo’s own trials.

Under the project, Atmo will automate and scale-up critical production processes to increase capacity, whilst also reducing the cost of goods and improving efficiency and quality of manufacturing. New staff will also be hired to support the manufacturing scale-up.

Atmo Biosciences CEO Mal Hebblewhite said the grant would enable Atmo to capitalise on opportunities to provide the capsule to commercial and research customers.

“There’s growing demand from both gastroenterology researchers and commercial customers, such as companies working in the food technology or wellness space, who want to include our ingestible gas-sensing capsule in their clinical trials to provide insight into microbiome function and demonstrate the benefits of their products or therapeutic candidates,” Mal said.

“This grant will enable us to accelerate the scale-up of our manufacturing facilities to not only meet this demand, but also to prepare for our own planned large-scale clinical trials.”

Atmo is currently manufacturing the capsule in a dedicated area at Planet Innovation’s Melbourne manufacturing facility, with the scaled-up production to continue there.

Federal Member for Chisholm, Gladys Liu, met with Atmo’s VP Technology Dr Kyle Berean, VP Operations Dr James John and team member Jonathan Mathew at the manufacturing facility on 28 June to congratulate them on the grant and learn more about how Atmo is helping improve diagnosis and treatment for gastrointestinal disorders.

“It’s great to see such exciting and useful technology being developed and manufactured in my electorate. Congratulations on your success with the grant,” Ms Liu said.

This is the second time Ms Liu has met with the Atmo team in just over a month, having previously visited with the Prime Minister in May.