Downstream Processing: Chromatography

Determine the most suitable purification operation for your process and discover emerging technologies.

This module focuses on product purification and through a series of lectures and case studies will enable you to:

  • Understand the principles of different methods of process chromatography, including Packed Bed, Monoliths, Expanded Bed.
  • Select the appropriate media for and predict the performance of, chromatography separations upon scale-up.
  • Assess the suitability of affinity separation as a product purification operation and gain awareness of advances in rational ligand design for difficult separations.
  • Determine appropriate strategies for the maintenance of column and process hygiene.
  • Consider how chromatography is changing at industrial scale, and which new technologies will have an impact in the future.

This MBI is recommended for:

This course is intended for engineers, chemists, biologists, biochemists and biotechnologists who are interested in the biochemical engineering aspects of chromatography.
Delegates can be R&D scientists, engineers or managers who would like to further their understanding about scale-up, scaledown and operation of chromatographic methods in a production environment.

Daniel G. Bracewell is Professor of Bioprocess Analysis at the UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering. He has made major contributions to the fundamental understanding of biopharmaceutical purification operations, generating over £5.5 million in research funds including new international research collaborations with India and the USA. He has authored more than 90 peer reviewed journal articles in the area to date and currently supervises 15 doctoral and postdoctoral projects, many of these studies are in collaboration with industry. One such project became the technology basis from which the spinout Puridify (recently acquired by GE Healthcare) developed.

Since the beginning of 2017, Bo Forsberg has operated as a consultant under his company Forsberg Biotech / NIPU Konsult HB in Sweden. Partly in parallel he has been employed by CMC Biologics / AGC Biologics 2008 - 2018 after some years as consultant. Before that he was employed at Pharmacia Diagnostics. Pharmacia Biotech, Pharmacia Bioprocess Technology (Uppsala, Sweden) and BioInvent International (Lund, Sweden). Bo started working with preparative chromatography in 1978 at Pharmacia Diagnostics and has been in the business since then in different roles. At Pharmacia Biotech and Pharmacia Bioprocess Technology he was responsible for the large scale laboratory and was part of engineering the BioProcess systems and has been writing parts of the chromatography handbooks released by Pharmacia – GE Healthcare. At BioInvent International he was Manager in Downstream Processing, for both Development and Manufacturing. His role at CMC Biologics / AGC Biologics has been as Global Senior Technology Specialist covering all downstream processing techniques for the commercial projects, controlling process qualification, performing internal lecturing, organizing better practice and handling trouble shooting.

Day 1

  • Chromatography Fundamentals
  • Models and Scale-Up
  • Role of adsorption isotherms in chromatography
  • Radial flow chromatography

Day 2

  • Pilot-Plant Studies: Chromatography
  • Continuous chromatography in biopharmaceutical industries
  • Design and manufacturing of chromatography resins
  • Affinity separation
  • Process-scale separations with monolith chromatography
  • The challenges of large scale chromatography

Day 3

  • Process Hygiene and Column Maintenance
  • Case Study: mAb-purification; issues in scaling-up to large process scale
  • The use of chromatography membranes for the development and scale-up of biopharmaceutical processes. Case studies and new trends in the use of membrane adsorbers
  • Micro scale-down technologies for high throughput development of chromatographic separations
  • Digital design of chromatographic bioseparations
  • Scale-down and process economics for packed bed bioprocesses
  • Nanofibres as flexible, single use alternate to traditionaL chromatography

Day 4

  • Mixed mode chromatography – understanding interactions and developing purifications
  • Design of biomimetics for affinity separations
  • Case Study: Where and When to Apply Chromatography?
  • Where Will Further Improvements in Chromatography Come From?

Key Information

Dates: 24 - 27th November 2025
Module Leaders: Prof Daniel Bracewell and Bo Forsberg, Forsberg Biotech
Location: Bloomsbury Campus, UCL
Price: £1750 Special prices for group packages and SMEs available.

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Contact
E: mbi-training@ucl.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7679 9613

Previous Expert Speakers

  • Ajoy Velayudhan, UCL
  • Aleksandr Kazmin, Cytiva
  • Chika Nweke, UCL
  • Hans Johansson, Purolite
  • David Johnson, Sartorius
  • Eric von Lieres, Jülich Research Centre
  • Kelvin Wood, Cytiva
  • Pim Hermans, Thermo Fisher Scientific
  • Paul Beckett, Merck
  • Carsten Voss, Sartorius
  • Rok Sekirnik, Sartorius BIA Separations
  • Penny Hamlyn, Cytiva

MSc Bioprocessing

Combine MBI training courses for a postgraduate qualification. The MSc Bioprocessing is flexible for working professionals and delivered in a modular format designed to fit around full-time work commitments.

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