Metisafe Cleanroom and Biosafety

During the late 90s, the first seeds of Metisafe were laid in response to the need for more advanced cleanroom and biosafety practices of its parent company, Metis Biotechnology. Beginning with safety cabinet design and development, the modular cleanroom concept was formulated by the company in the early 2000s, and the genesis of the Metis spin-off, Metisafe, followed soon after. Today, Metisafe—stemming from one of the world’s first biotechnology contract service organisations that is led by notable experts in the field of microbiology and mechanical engineering—is categorised as a rare manufacturer that produces both air biosafety instruments and modular cleanrooms and equipment under the same roof.

INSTRUMENT CONCEPT MODULAR CLEANROOMS

Metisafe’s modular cleanroom (MCR) is a culmination of Metisafe’s device development knowledge and years of expertise in the domain. In particular, Serdar Tuncer, M.D. Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Specialist and CEO of Metisafe, notes that the development of modular MCR was achieved by keeping the design and production criteria of primary air barrier instruments in mind. With this concept, Metisafe was able to take LAF (laminar airflow) cabinets as the base for its several pre-engineered positive pressured cleanroom models. “Using the same model, we have been able to transform biological safety cabinets (BSC) to ex-factory standardised negative-pressured biosafety units,” Tuncer adds.

Since the first Metisafe MCR installation in 2006, cleanroom performance validated pre-engineered MCRs have reached hundreds of variants today, requiring no extra design qualification. Some of those units have also been demounted and reinstalled in various places and continue to pass cleanroom performance tests without the need for reconstruction.

HOW IS METISAFE’S MODULAR CLEANROOM CONCEPT STIRRING A DIFFERENCE IN THE CLEANROOM TECHNOLOGY SPACE?

Tuncer has the perfect response. Traditionally, cleanrooms were designed to be building-reliant and construction-based. However, the Metisafe cleanroom concept is intended to be a standalone operational instrument. This simply means, with a compact, easy-to-install instrument idea design, Metisafe’s MCRs are freestanding and come with significantly more benefits than conventional designs. Moreover, the cooling demand of the cleanroom can be met by using the negative plenum ceiling section of the MCR. “The achievement of more homogeneous temperature distribution through the use of a negative plenum and fast heat transfer of steel also improves airflow pattern safety and personal conformity when operations are taking place within,” highlights Tuncer.

To further simplify, Tuncer cites that the establishment of its MCR and how it is composed is very similar to IKEA; by assembling thousands of steel pieces into on-site validated professional use facilities. With built-in recirculated fan filter units and automation management, those MCRs then enable standalone facilities that are not dependent on building ventilation. Metisafe MCR is a plug-and-play functioning instrument with a 10-year guarantee and proven cleanroom operational performance.

But the use of steel construction and negative plenum design make this method unfeasible to apply under ISO-7 cleanroom cleanliness level and over 100 sqm standing area.

But that’s not all. In addition to high-efficiency particle sweeping capabilities, Metisafe is also an environmentally-friendly corporation due to the use of steel as the principal material. And notably, the CFD-analysed ideal air-rate and airflow pattern employed in Metisafe MCRs are responsible for saving energy. “Our outstanding performance and low maintenance statistics from different locations that have been using our solution for the last 10 years and more are a testament to our prowess; the overall investment and operations cost in all those instances have been significantly lower than those of conventional cleanroom constructions,” shares Tuncer proudly.

LEADING WITH EXCELLENCE

Besides innovations, interdisciplinary knowledge and R&D output transfers are continuously applied between the companies group. Composite material technologies are a major emphasis of Metis Biotechnologies’ R&D laboratories.

With the transfer of the results that have been obtained from advanced biodegradable composite materials (composite brake pads, laminated sheet composites, etc.), Metisafe will soon introduce more durable and environmentally friendly cleanroom structural materials.
Metisafe also has the advantage of sustainable comfort and performance advances in its pre-engineered designs, thanks to established dimensions and standard criteria. More energy-efficient techniques, active noise cancelling applications, and automated decontamination are but some of the examples of its ongoing innovations in the field. Owing to such high-end cleanroom production experience and the necessary equipment advancements, Metisafe is able to deliver an easy-to-install solution with a high biosafety level in congested and office spaces today.

The company has also been a stellar example of applying airflow dynamics to create room pressurisation through portable HEPA filtration devices and tackling airborne infection agents, droplets, and/or aerosol contamination. This facet particular worked wonders to help hospitals and other care facilities at the start of the pandemic. At the time, there was a lack of patient isolation rooms to prevent hospital air contamination through infected patients. Adjacently, the facilities—already bustling with patients—did not have the time to build specialised isolation rooms for COVID-19 patients. Metisafe’s high-capacity air cleaner, which had been on the market for more than a decade for laboratories requiring additional biological safety, became the most suitable solution to solve the issue.

All it needed was a simple device to establish a connection between the ventilation duct in the hospital window or wall and the air cleaning device. Then, the filtered air recirculation and controlled room pressurisation could be automatically carried out using Metisafe devices, depending on the air leakage situation of the room or by adjusting the desired amount of air exchange. Since there was no similar device capable of negative room pressurisation through portable HEPA filtration instruments, a significant number of UK NHS hospitals started implementing Metisafe’s offering and met their air purification needs. Tuncer states, “The high performance of sub-micron particle removal demonstrated by their solution also started increasing the installation of Metisafe’s air purification device in German schools during that phase.”

These are but some of the many successful instances that Metisafe has been achieving. Companies across Europe and beyond trust the firm’s expertise today to bolster their cleanroom operations even in the dire conditions of the pandemic. Even now, Metisafe is cementing this trust and strengthening its presence across Russia and expanding its footprint in the U.S. market. While the firm’s growth will continue, it will also focus on bringing a greater level of innovation to the cleanroom technology space. “We will continue giving our all—mind and heart—to every project we do. By blending product and application-specific development and growth that we have accomplished in health and pharmaceutical-related markets, we will ensure long-term success and satisfaction for our clients,” concludes Tuncer with conviction.