Ventria Bioscience broke ground Wednesday at their Junction City location on a major expansion project to roughly double the company’s capacity for production of recombinant proteins. The expansion includes the molecular biology lab, greenhouses, process development and analytical lab, and processing capacity.

Ventria is developing therapeutic proteins for potential treatment of human diseases. Ventria manufactures high-quality, defined, animal-free reagents and cell culture products which are marketed globally. Partnering with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, Ventria also supplies a variety of recombinant proteins for development as potential new drugs.

Company CEO Scott Deeter said Ventria they make therapeutic proteins, “that are used to treat unmet disease, mostly gastrointestinal and infectious diseases. Those products are all in development and expanding today. We’re expanding our product pipeline so that requires a lot more lab facilities and more greenhouse space. ”

Deeter added they also manufacture components used to make vaccines and sell therapies and other types of medicines which are sold by other companies. Those components are sold into their manufacturing process which and that demand has increased. That, in turn, is requiring an expansion in Ventria’s manufacturing capacity.

Local community leaders attended the groundbreaking Wednesday afternoon. Ventria had 16 employees one year ago at the Junction City site. currently has 26 employees and plans to go up to the 28 to 30 range by the end of the year.