The UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering is pleased to announce that we have won a Visiting Professor position for Dr Vaughan Thomas, who many of the team already know. The award ‘Engineering Design of Next Generation Biomanufacturing Processes’ will enable Vaughan to work more closely with us providing industrial experience to our design teaching. A particular focus will be in the new cell therapy design module being developed as part of the IEP Regenerative Medicine Minor.
Vaughan’s main role is as a bioprocess consultant working on facility and process design from laboratories through gene therapy facilities to large scale antibody production. He began his association with the MBI on the bioprocess facility design and economic evaluation module in 1998, around the department was created.
Vaughn has been working with 3rd years MEng on the design project and more recently on the first year IEP giving design cycle lectures and Pebble in the Pond “two hours of mayhem!” he describes it. “It’s an exercise in the first term to encourage teamwork, the aim is to get a pebble from one end of the room to the other across tables with machines they’ve manufactured from scratch – a very crazy but productive project!”
The visiting professorship means Vaughan will not only be able to continue with his existing interactions but also help develop new material on design of processes for cell therapy manufacture. He will be collaborating with Ivan on the development of a new undergraduate programme on regenerative medicine. “I’m looking forward to helping guide the development of the courses as the biopharmaceutical industry is rapidly changing and expanding, witnessing the huge increase in viral vector companies in the last few months.”
