New Wave Biotech launches Bioprocess Foresight to transform biomanufacturing with AI-driven solutions

Today, New Wave Biotech (NWB) has launched its highly anticipated AI-powered platform, 'Bioprocess Foresight', which aims to revolutionize how biomanufacturers and synthetic biology (SynBio) companies approach process design, commercialization, and scaling. By integrating historical data with real-time inputs, the platform provides unparalleled clarity on the economic, technical, and environmental aspects of biomanufacturing, enabling companies to make smarter decisions, reduce costs, and accelerate timelines—all while prioritizing sustainability.

Bioprocess Foresight comes at a pivotal time for the SynBio industry. With projections that synthetic biology could account for a third of global manufacturing by 2030, the sector has immense potential to replace unsustainable animal- and petrochemical-based products. Yet, the road to success is fraught with challenges, with 90% of technologies failing to scale effectively. According to NWB, this is where their innovative platform can make a difference.

"This is quite a traditional space, centered around physical experiments and manual modeling," explained Oli Hall, CTO & Co-Founder of NWB. "Typically companies hire bioprocess engineers who design an initial process based on experience, conduct research in the area, manually model output and costs, conduct experiments and then iterate based on results. As a single experiment costs US$10,000–US$100,000, with bookings needed three to six months in advance and with a typical process change needing 1,000 hours of testing, process design and optimization is a painfully slow and expensive process, with very little margin for error before the money runs out."

Bioprocess Foresight aims to break this costly and time-consuming cycle by enabling companies to virtually test any process, predicting outputs, costs, and sustainability metrics with unprecedented accuracy. Hall explained that the predictions improve as the system learns from experimental data, allowing companies to harness both historical and new information to guide their R&D.

"We develop AI-powered bioprocess simulation software to empower SynBio innovators to design better, commercialise quicker and scale greener," said Hall. "Our software allows users to virtually test any process and see the predicted output, cost and sustainability. The predictions improve as the system learns from experimental data as well, so you can leverage historical data to drive new R&D. We also have a suite of analysis tools to help users identify the hotspots for R&D and run scenario analysis. It's not just cheaper and quicker techno-economic analysis without the US$20,000–US$40,000 price tag, it gives you the foresight with quantified impact for decision making."

The platform’s ability to navigate trillions of variables and test different scenarios eliminates much of the trial-and-error traditionally associated with bioprocessing. This has the potential to dramatically reduce costs and accelerate the path to commercialization.

One of the standout features of Bioprocess Foresight is its ability to integrate historical data with current datasets—a capability that is notoriously difficult in synthetic biology. "Historical data is often hard to use meaningfully, as most modern broad ML approaches require huge volumes of clean, standardised data—something that is rarely the case in SynBio!" continued Hall. "With the smaller amounts of data available, context is key, and erroneous data points or applying learnings in the wrong context can produce meaningless results. As the saying goes: ‘Garbage in, Garbage out!’"

Hall elaborated on how the platform avoids this issue. "Bioprocess Foresight avoids these pitfalls by combining machine learning with mechanistic models. This makes use of machine learning to improve accuracy in specific contexts, using limited data most effectively and allowing the use of that context to better identify and eliminate bad information. This also allows us to offer insights even without historic data, improving the results as data is fed in later on. The overall challenge of this approach is that it requires deep expertise in both machine-learning and bioprocessing, to really combine the two fields most effectively."

Scaling remains one of the toughest challenges in biomanufacturing, with many companies struggling to transition from lab-scale production to market-ready operations. Hall highlighted how Bioprocess Foresight addresses this critical issue. "Scalability is a core pillar of our platform, and helping alt protein companies scale from lab to production more easily was why we started New Wave Biotech. Our platform allows companies to understand the economic implications of scale-up from an early stage. Will certain processing steps cause bottlenecks at larger scales? Is it possible to produce enough product at the right price-point to break even? Is bigger always better? (spoilers: sometimes it’s not!)"

Traditionally, companies rely on expensive empirical testing to assess scalability. Hall explains how the platform reduces this dependency: "Currently, companies rely on experience and empirical testing to understand whether their processes will scale. The larger you get, the more expensive that testing becomes, which means you have to get it right the first time! Our platform helps companies see the problems before they arise, allowing them to anticipate and proactively solve scaling issues before they cause expensive large-scale testing failures."

The platform’s suite of tools, including sensitivity analyses and heatmaps, provides companies with actionable insights, enabling them to refine their processes and strategies over time.

One of the most significant barriers to innovation in biomanufacturing is the cost of advanced analytics. Traditional techno-economic analyses, often conducted by consultants, can cost between $20,000 and $40,000 per report—making them inaccessible to many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Bioprocess Foresight changes this dynamic by offering a subscription model starting at just £83 (US$105) per month.

"Generally, techno-economic analyses are done by consultants, who charge US$20,000–US$40,000 and take two to three months to build a report for a specific process," said Hall. "You can access our platform from just £83 ($105) a month to model unlimited processes. It's not just cheaper and quicker, it gives you the foresight with quantified impact of different decisions. This creates a step-change in how SynBio R&D is done, taking it from a slow, iterative process to a rapid one led by data and insights."

By democratizing access to advanced analytics, NWB is leveling the playing field for smaller companies, enabling them to compete with larger players despite having fewer resources. "The real value is in reducing risk by eliminating unviable processes from the start," said Hall. "SynBio companies can focus experiments on high-potential processes, as well as improve R&D strategy with techno-economic insights and scenario planning, ultimately reducing costs with optimised processes."

For NWB’s leadership, Bioprocess Foresight is more than just a product launch—it’s a vision for the future of biomanufacturing. Zoe Law, CEO & Co-Founder of NWB, explained, "For too long, biomanufacturing innovators have been paying hundreds of thousands for R&D and thousands more just to understand where past experiments have failed. Now imagine if you're developing a new bioproduct and can virtually test any process to predict its techno-economics and sustainability when it scales. This gives you the foresight with quantified impact that you need for strategic decision making."

Reflecting on the broader potential of the platform, Hall added: "We’re enabling a shift from experience-driven processes to data-driven ones, creating a more resilient and innovative ecosystem. The potential of synthetic biology is immense. But to realize that potential, we need tools that empower innovators to take bold, data-driven steps. Bioprocess Foresight is our contribution to that vision—a tool that helps companies design smarter, commercialize faster, and scale greener. We’re just getting started."

As synthetic biology continues to evolve, tools such as Bioprocess Foresight will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in enabling sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective solutions. For NWB, the journey is just beginning, but the impact of their innovation is already clear.