Roanoke hosted a grand opening of a first-of-its-kind-in-the-world facility on Thursday.
The Tiny Cargo Company cut the ribbon on its new manufacturing plant in Roanoke, which will produce milk exosomes. Milk exosomes can be used in multiple industries, from skin care products to nutritional supplements.
Spencer Marsh, the company's chief science officer, said this new facility in northeast Roanoke shows how the city is changing.
"Roanoke is evolving from trains to brains, and I think this building embodies that," Marsh said. "I don't know if you notice but there's a train track right next door, and this building was built actually as a lumber storage facility. That was its first use. From there it was used as a wire storage facility and an electronics store. And as of tonight, it houses the world's first industrial scale CGMP-ready clean room for the production of for milk exosomes, which is really just a fascinating evolution for a site in Roanoke such as this."
The opening marks another step in Roanoke's effort to market itself as a biomedical hub. The facility uses a process that was developed in part at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. Roanoke Regional Partnership President and CEO John Hull is president and CEO of the Roanoke Regional Partnership credited a research team led by Marsh and Robert Gourdie.
"The research being done there on exosomes turned into a viable commercial opportunity, which then became a business," Hull said.
The facility develops milk exosomes through a detailed process, using skim milk sourced from Homestead Creamery in Franklin County.
