UCL DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING

19th July 2012 

From 16th to 19th July, 25 budding engineers attended a four-day Biochemical Engineering course at University College London (UCL).  The course provided 15 and 16 year old students with the opportunity to learn about novel biological therapeutics theories and the importance of biochemical engineering in transforming these life-saving medicines into drugs that are commercially available.

A team made up of 4 UCL Biochemical Engineering students (Freedanz Ferdinandz, Ali Versi, Udit Varma, Si U Sou) and 2 UCL Biotechnology students (Kheng Ng, Khai Kong) won 1st prize in the 2012 Abbott Innovation University Challenge worth $10,000. The team put forward a concept paper to address the Abbott Challenge on: ‘Identification and support of patients with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency’.

UCL Biochemical Engineering and GE Healthcare have been working closely together in a number of ways thanks to the drive and enthusiasm of UCL EngD alumnus,  Dr Naveraj Gill, who is now a ReadyToProcess Product Specialist within GE Healthcare.

The Department of Biochemical Engineering has won one of only four pilot EPSRC Manufacturing Fellowships awarded to Dr Ajoy Velayudhan to work with Prof Nigel Titchener-Hooker. Over the five year appointment it is hoped to establish, in the UK, a new area of interdisciplinary research in the rational design of processes for the cost-effective manufacture of therapeutic proteins. Dr Velayudhan has an established academic as well as industrial track record in the USA and will be joining UCL in the Autumn. The success is particularly important to the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies as it increases the breadth of the studies that can be explored and the range of industry partners who will join the consortium.

 The British Regen Industry Tool Set (BRITS) is an industry driven project aimed at establishing reliable market data and creating both detailed bioprocess economics models and higher level business models for integration into a highly valuable and timely set of decisional tools. The individual components will themselves be highly novel, and the final integrated tool set will be a major step change for the cell therapy industry. BRITS will encompass the entire supply chain. This will including direct links through the main innovation routes available within the NHS. Via its wider business benefit activities BRITS will interact with all the UK stakeholders to facilitate the uptake of the outputs of the project and build and maintain the vital linkages between the diverse stakeholders in order to promote the joined-up approach that will be required if the UK is to be at the international forefront of cell therapy, not just scientifically but also commercially.

The potential and promise of India as a hub for low-cost manufacture of complex biological products such as vaccines is being realised. Today, one of every two children in the world is immunised with a vaccine manufactured in India. It is to this purpose that the Department has received funding from the EPSRC to engage with industry and academic groups in India working in the field of vaccine development and manufacture. The scope is to develop closer ties through joint research ventures and secondment opportunities. In January 2013 we are planning a three month research exchange of two of our researchers and will host two Indian researchers at UCL. Later in March/April 2013 we are planning to deliver a Vaccine Development training event in India. The Department has already delivered a very successful Vaccine Development MBI training course and seeks to deliver an abridged version of the course to Indian biotech and academic institutions. Attendance will be open to all and UK/EU/US companies can use this opportunity to network with a wider audience in India and raise their profile abroad.

 The growing interest in sustainable production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals is a key strategic driver for UCL biocatalysis research. A new ￡1.1M grant from the BBSRC Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology Club (IBTI Club) provides added impetus for our work in this area. Distillers dried grain and solubles (DDGS) is a by-product from distilleries and breweries which currently has some value as a ruminant feed. However, with the dramatic increase in DDGS production expected as a result of “first generation” biofuel production facilities now under construction in the UK, there is a need to find new ways to upgrade and add value to the various components of DDGS. The new IBTI grant focusses on the selective fractionation of the carbohydrate and protein fractions of DDGS and their bioconversion into added value products. The UCL work will focus on the selective release of the protein fraction (Prof John Ward)and the creation of ultra scale-down methods to investigate DDGS fractionation (Prof Gary Lye). The grant links UCL with Prof David Leak (University of Bath) who will investigate utilisation of the carbohydrate fraction, Dr Regina Santos (University of Birmingham) who will investigate DDGS fractionation using Super Critical CO2 methods and Dr Caroline Rymer (University of Reading) who will examine the nutritional value of the DDGS remaining after fractionation and conversion.