Welcome

Welcome to the fifth edition of CMAC News. The centre has had an exciting few months and welcomed many new staff. I hope you enjoy reading some of the other highlights incluidng:

• Hosts of national EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Conference

• Publication of our 3rd Annual Review

• Deeper and broader company Involvement in CMAC

• Continued progression ofHigher Technology Readiness Levels

• Successful Review by and Independent panel

• 2014 cohort of CMAC Doctoral Training Centre and Joint International PhD and MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing students have started their studies

Also featured is CMAC in the Press, key dates for your diary, where and when to meet us and an update on our facilites. For future editions any feedback, articles or notes of esteem will be warmly welcomed. 

CMAC wishes you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Andrea (Centre Manager)

International Symposium on Continuous Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals – White Papers Online

On 20th-21st May 2014, CMAC co-hosted the first International Symposium on Continuous Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals at MIT, US. This prestigious event was attended by world leaders in continuous processing, with pharmaceutical end users, suppliers, regulators and academics who discussed accelerating adoption of continuous manufacturing for both small molecules and biological products. The key outputs of the meeting were 8 white papers which are due to be published shortly the Journal of Pharmaceutical Science. The final drafts can be found on the website.

3rd EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Conference

CMAC recently hosted the nation's 3rd EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Conference at Glasgow Science Centre, chaired by Professor Alastair Florence, Academic Director of CMAC.

The annual conference provides a national forum for UK manufacturing research community to share experience, progress and challenges in progressing UK manufacturing. The event also provided a platform for early career researchers to showcase their excellent contributions to the manufacturing research community and contribute to debate on how to move forward. More>>>

Internationalisation

Successful New NSF-EPSRC Award Project - The International Institute for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

CMAC has been awarded circa $1m from the SAVI seed fund including £248K from EPSRC over 3years to support the International Institute for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. This is a joint US – UK institute that will bring together world-leading academic expertise to deliver new end-to-end continuous manufacturing capabilities that will transform global supply chain for medicines. The programme will leverage existing investment in the US and UK, to support an international manufacturing research community. The institute will also engage with regulators to focus research on key targets areas that will maximise impact for end users.

Joint International Doctoral Training Centre in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation of Pharmaceuticals

As part of an EPSRC Global Engagements award in 2012/ 2013, CMAC established links with Nanyang Technical University (NTU) in Singapore via workshops and exchanges. This year we have built on these links and established a joint doctoral training centre that commenced in October 2014. The first year of this unique scheme commenced with 3 students at University of Strathclyde and 3 at NTU.

Industry and Knowledge Exchange

Flexible Manufacturing Case Study

Our Innovate UK/EPSRC collaborative project provided a case study for the Flexible Manufacturing Special Interest Group Report on the current innovation landscape provided in October 2014. This report has been the main driver behind InnovateUK’s new £6million call in the Flexible Manufacturing Competition for funding.
The case study: Advanced Process Control (APC) For Continuous Processing is featured on p27. 

Humera Siddique works on this project. Humera recently won the prize for 2nd Best Poster at the 3rd EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Conference was hosted by CMAC in September 2014. Please contact us if you want to find out more. 

CMAC Secondment to GSK Stevenage

Joanna Lothian, a second year doctoral training (DTC) student for CMAC at University of Strathclyde worked alongside GSK on a project as part of her research into process analytical technologies (PAT) and continuous manufacturing. Her work at GSK is looking into new and existing PAT for the monitoring and optimization of a continuous twin screw granulation (TSG) process.

CMAC Secondments in Early 2015

Kate Wittering (Bath) will be going on Industrial placement to AstraZeneca Macclesfield and Keddon Powell (Loughborough) will be going to Novartis Basle in Q1 2015. This builds on our on-going Industry & Knowledge Exchange programme.

Research Highlights

Chemistry World 

CMAC board chair Dr Clive Badman, OBE; was interviewed and quoted in part of an article on Pharma Outsourcing in Chemistry World, in June 2014. Both CMAC and AMSCI supply chain project are highlighted in the article in the article.

Chemistry World is the print and online magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry and can be found here.

The article reference: Extance, A., Reaching Out. Chemistry World 2014, 11 (6), 58- 92.

Nomination for Scottish Enterprise Life Sciences Annual Awards 2015

CMAC has been nominated and short-listed for a Scottish Enterprise Life Sciences Award in the ‘Innovation Award’ category. There are three short-listed finalists in each category, selected by a judging panel which took in November 2014. The winners will be announced at the Scottish Life Sciences Annual Dinner in February 2015. The awards are presented to recognise excellence in companies and individuals who are making a significant contribution to the industry.

Chemicals in Scotland 

Clive Badman, was featured in the Interactive section being interviewed on:
“What are the benefits of working so closely with academia?” where he explains the benfits of how CMAC has 
brought together universities, 3 Tier 1 companies and SMEs to work together pre-competitively on continuous 
manufacturing.

The video can be found here. 

Craig Johnston, CMAC Operations Director, was interviewed as the basis of an article in the supplement in 
the same edition. In the article Craig explains that CMAC is "recognised as a world-leading manufacturing 
research centre" and that "it will attract inward investment, new jobs and wealth,". Supplement: here 

ICT–CMAC: FBRM Inversion Modelling

ICT-CMAC is a 5-year platform project. Stephen Agimelen (ICT CMAC Work Package 2), along with Tony Mulholland, Jan Sefcik, Alison Nordon and Massimilano Vasile, has been developing a method to estimate particle aspect ratios from Focussed Beam Reflectance Measurement (FBRM) data. Starting from the measured chord length distributions, a model relating particle size distribution to chord length distribution was formulated, and then an inverse method was used to work backwards from the chord length distributions to the probable distribution of aspect ratios in the original sample. Full details of the developed algorithm are due for publication in Chemical Engineering Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2014.11. 014.

Facilities

TIC Update

CMAC is moving to the new Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) at University of Strathclyde which will house the National Facility for Continuous Manufacturing & Crystallisation Research for Pharmaceutical Products. The move is expected to take place in spring 2015 March. 

CMAC will now have additional lab space in TIC which will accommodate the process development lab, X-ray suite and TOF-SIMS lab. We are also investigating the possibility of retain some space within  the current labs to accommodate the secondary processing machinery.

There will be a full update in the next edition of the Newsletter. 

RPIF Update

Funding awarded by UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (RPIF) to CMAC has supported the recruitment of Dr Roy McBurney and Scott McPhee who joined CMAC in May with the roles of Senior Technician and Lab Manager respectively. An additional member of technical support staff has now been recruited.

The team has been actively planning and procuring new equipment for the National Facility for Continuous Manufacturing & Crystallisation Research for Pharmaceutical Products which will be sited in the TIC building, and also purchasing equipment to enhance continuous manufacturing capabilites at our partner universities.

New RPIF Equipment:

Delivered and Installed: Copley Next Generation Impactor, Instron Compression testing, Flowability, GSK Particle Imaging and Measurement System (PIMS), Sirrius Inform dissolution testing, Acoustic Levitator

Coming Soon: GC-MS, LC- MS Q-ToF 

Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more about equipment available. Full list is availble via ULab (registration is required to use ULab) 

Talent Pipeline

New Starts

 Joop Ter Horst is Professor of Industrial Crystallisation at the University of Strathclyde and joined the CMAC team in August 2014. Joop will provide the fundamental knowledge needed to enable continuous manufacturing. Joop came here from TU Delft on the basis of his research on application- oriented fundamental aspects of crystallisation processes. His research focus will be aimed towards fundamental understanding of crystallisation processes in complex, multi-component systems that will lead to new process opportunities in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Chris Price has moved to CMAC, as an Associate Investigator, from GSK to take the position of EPSRC Industrial Fellow at the University of Strathclyde.  The move to CMAC will enable Chris to pursue fundamental research in crystallization focussed on enhancing the purification of organic molecules by active intervention during the crystal growth process.                      

Dimitrios A. Lamprou is a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS). His group has research interests in four broad areas: Advanced Drug Delivery Systems, AFM NanoAnalysis, Biosurfaces, and Hot-melt Extrusion (HME). Especially in the areas of formulation, PAT solutions, printing of 3D Structures, twin-screw extrusion for wet granulation, antifouling coatings, and Micro- and Nanoscale studies of nucleation, growth and dissolution of crystals. Dr Lamprou is also the course director of the MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, further information for which can be found here. For more information about Dr Lamprou's background / research, you can also check here.

Nazer Rajoub, a research associate in Alastair Florence’s group at Strathclyde University, joined CMAC in August 2014. Nazer had previously worked for Heriot watt-Total company between 2012 and 2014 as PDRA in the field of multiphase oil and gas separation platforms. Nazer has a PhD in Multiphase flow field and crystallisation using online and in-situ measuring techniques.

Anna Trybala is a PDRA at Loughborough University working for Chris Rielly and will work closely with Keddon, Quinglin and Steven. Anna is replacing Dr Ali Saleemi who left CMAC to join GSK earlier this year. 

Nadeem Javid is Research Associate based in Department of Chemical and Process Enginerring, University of Strathclyde. Nadeem received Ph.D degree in Chemistry from  International Max Planck Research School in Chemical Biology in Dortmund, Germany, where he conducted his Doctoral work on protein structural stability and characterization of protein-protein interactions of amyloidogenic proteins.  He joined University of Strathclyde in 2007 as Post-doctoral Research Fellow with Professor Jan Sefcik. Nadeem joined Prof. Ulijn's group in 2011 as Research Associate to research biocatalytically induced supra-molecular self-assembly of aromatic peptide amphiphiles, utilization of Phage Display technology for developing minimalistic catalyst sytems and the design of gel-phase biosystems for autonomous, solar fuelled devices.

Elke Prasad is the new Research Associate working with Gavin Halbert on secondary processing, based at the University of Strathclyde. Elke’s previous positions were Pharmaceutical Project Manager at Biofilm Limited and Research Assistant (Formulation) at the Cancer Research UK Formulation Unit.  Elke has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Strathclyde) and is also a registered Pharmacist in Great Britain and Germany.

Helen Feilden is the new CMAC Assistant Centre Manager, based at University of Strathclyde. Helen’s previous position was Network Co-ordinator for SMSdrug.net, a chemical biology network funded by EPSRC/BBSRC/MRC. Helen has a degree in Chemistry from University of St. Andrews and 14 years experience working in medicinal chemistry research for Organon / MSD Newhouse. 

Next Steps

Naomi Briggs has completed her PhD and has been appointed as Technologist for CMAC at Strathclyde.

Rasjni Miglani Bhardwaj has left CMAC to start a new job in the pharmaceutical industry in the US.

Jaclyn Dunncompleted her position at CMAC and moved to CPACT.

Victor Sans Sangorrin who was a PDRA for the Cronin group within CMAC, has moved to University of Nottingham to take up an academic post.    

Nina Denver is the new CMAC laboratory technician at Strathclyde University. Prior to this Nina gained an MSc in Chemistry and Biophysics from Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza and Paris Sud 11 University with a research internship in the Laboratoire de Chimie Physique (LCP) of Paris Sud funded by CNRS.

Training

New DTC Cohort

The Centre's 2014 cohort of 14 DTC students arrived at Strathclyde on 6th October 2014. This year the students had a 2-week induction programme at Strathclyde to kick off their training.  This is the start of their 10 week residential training program where the students take part in a University road trip to visit all seven universities within the Centre, along with industry visits. This training gives them all core knowledge in all aspects of continuous manufacturing and crystallisation. Click here for more.

Joint International PhDs

International PhDs Lauren Connor, Sebastian Davidson and Thidarat Wongpinyochit started their PhD studentships at University of Strathclyde in October 2014. The studentships are held jointly between University of Strathclyde and NTU, Singapore and are part of the new Joint International Doctoral Training Centre in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation of Pharmaceuticals that is aligned with CMAC.

New MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

The Scottish Funding Council has funded an MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing course, aligned with CMAC. This year’s cohort of 14 students started in September 2014. 
This bespoke course is designed to produce highly-skilled graduates in continuous manufacturing science and technology to meet the growing demands for expertise in this area.
There are up to 20 places available in 2015, with scholarships available for Scottish and EU students. Click here for more.

Recruitment

Interested in joining the CMAC team? We are currently recruiting for the following posts:

Project Manager: Pharma Supply Chain ref 225/2014 on University of Strathclyde web page 

PhD studentships for the DTC in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation 

PhD Studentships as part of the Joint International Doctoral Training Centre in Continuous manufacturing and Crystallisation of Pharmaceuticals

20 fully funded studentships for MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, University of Strathclyde

Research Fellows / Academics / Project Managers / PDRA opportunities on an ongoing basis

If you are interested in joining the CMAC team please contact our Centre Manager  to discuss the opportunities available. 

Keep an eye on the CMAC Vacancies for details! We also advertise industrail positions for our key partners.

Researcher Achievements

Anna Jawor-Baczynska presented her research at 45th Annual Conference of the BACG, Leeds, UK, 13th -15th July 2014. Rebecca Halliwell, Fraser Mabbott and Francesca Perciballi presented posters and Francesca won the prize for best poster. 

Francesca Perciballi presented a poster at the Northern Postgraduate Chem Eng Conference, Edinburgh, 31st July - 1st August 2014. 

Karen Robertson presented a poster at IUCr 2014, Montreal, 5-12th August. 

Laura Martinez-Marcos and Thomas McGlone gave presentations and Rebecca Halliwell, Laura Martinez- Marcos and Francesca Perciballi presented posters at APS PharmSci 2014, 8 - 10 September 2014 at University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield. 

Anna Jawor-Baczynska and Jan Sefcik gave presentations, and Humera Siddique presented a poster at 19th International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization (ISIC), Toulouse, 16-19th September 2014. 

CMAC researchers Anna Jawor-Baczynska, Alasdair Mackenzie, Murray Robertson and Kate Wittering gave presentations on their work at 3rd EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Conference 23-24 September 2014, Glasgow. Researchers from across CMAC gave poster presentations and Humera Siddique won the prize for 2nd Best Poster.

CMAC members attended ProcessAbility, a Workshop Organised by the EPSRC Directed Assembly Grand Challenge Network and P&G Ltd, on 20th & 21st October, 2014 at P&G Brooklands General Offices, UK. Prof Chick Wilson, University of Bath; Prof Jan Sefcik, University of Strathclyde and Prof Alexei Lapkin, University of Cambridge gave plenary talks. Humera Siddique won the best poster prize for her poster, “Establishment of continuous crystallisation process using process analytical tools”.

Kate Wittering gave a presentation of her research at the autumn meeting of the Industrial Group of the British Crystallographic Association  , held in London at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. 12th November 2014.

Publications

Brown, C. J.; Lee, Y. C.; Nagy, Z. K.; Ni, X., Evaluation of crystallization kinetics of adipic acid in an oscillatory baffled crystallizer. CrystEngComm 2014, 16 (34), 8008

Etherson, K.; Halbert, G.; Elliott, M., Determination of excipient based solubility increases using the CheqSol method. International journal of pharmaceutics 2014, 465 (1-2), 202-9

Mather, S. J.; Nock, B. A.; Maina, T.; Gibson, V.; Ellison, D.; Murray, I.; Sobnack, R.; Colebrook, S.; Wan, S.; Halberrt, G.; Szysko, T.; Powles, T.; Avril, N., GRP Receptor Imaging of Prostate Cancer Using [Tc] Demobesin 4: a First-in-Man Study. Molecular imaging and biology : MIB : the official publication of the Academy of Molecular Imaging 2014

Srai, J. S., Harrington, T.S., Alinaghian, L., An approach to exploring integration benefits of continuous flow technologies within Pharmaceutical supply chains. Chemistry Today 2014, 32 (SUPPLEMENT - CROS CMOS), P. 27-34

Srai, J. S., Twenty-first supply chains - transforming the pharmaceutical industry. IfM Review 2014, 1, 17-19

Thomas, L. H.; Klapwijk, A. R.; Wales, C.; Wilson, C. C., Intermolecular hydrogen transfer and solubility tuning in multi-component molecular crystals of the API piroxicam. CrystEngComm 2014, 16 (26), 5924

Wittering, K.; King, J.; Thomas, L.; Wilson, C., From Evaporative to Cooling Crystallisation: An Initial Co- Crystallisation Study of Cytosine and Its Fluorinated Derivative with 4-chloro-3,5-dinitrobenzoic Acid. Crystals 2014, 4 (2), 123-140

Yang, H., Relation between Metastable Zone Width and Induction Time of Butyl Paraben in Ethanol. CrystEngComm 2014; (i) Yang, H.; Chen, H.; Rasmuson, Å. C., Sandwich crystals of butyl paraben. CrystEngComm 2014, 16 (37), 8863

Yang, H.; Rasmuson, Å. C., Ternary phase diagrams of ethyl paraben and propyl paraben in ethanol aqueous solvents. Fluid Phase Equilibria 2014, 376, 69-75

 Yang, H.; Svärd, M.; Zeglinski, J.; Rasmuson, Å. C., Influence of Solvent and Solid- State Structure on Nucleation of Parabens. Crystal Growth & Design 2014, 14 (8), 3890-3902

Yang, H.; Rasmuson, Å. C., Phase equilibrium and mechanisms of crystallization in liquid–liquid phase separating system. Fluid Phase Equilibria 2015, 385, 120-128

Book Chapter:  

Srai, J.S., Christodoulou, P., Harrington, T.S., (2014) ‘Configuring global value networks within industrial ecosystems’, in ‘Capturing value from global networks: strategic approaches to configuring production, supply and service networks’, IfM University of Cambridge, 38- 51. ISBN: 978-1-902546-30-8

Dr Lihua Zhao

Many of you will know Dr Lihua Zhao who was a senior research fellow in CMAC at Strathclyde University after joining us from Nitech in 2010. Lihua sadly passed away on 7th October following a fairly long battle with two forms of cancer. She had been fortunate to spend her last few months with her husband and family in China and her funeral took place near her home in Shanghai on 11th October. In order to commemorate Lihua’s friendship and contributions to the Centre, a memorial service was held in November at the University of Strathclyde Chaplaincy Centre. This was a particularly intimate service with colleagues both past and present, including poignant contributions from Xiong-wei Ni and Alastair Florence. Lihua was a very special person who was well regarded by all. She will be very fondly remembered and missed.

 New Babies

Baby boy Yang was born in early morning of 18th November 2014.  Mother and baby are doing well and a re back at home. Father Huaiyu is a researcher in the Florence Group at Strathclyde.

Leda Todorova and Georgi Aleksiev (both CMAC DTC students) are now proud parents to a baby girl. Their daughter Sianna was born on 24th September 2014. Both baby and mother are fine and at home. Leda is recovering well.

Dates For The Diary

Molecular materials: from fundamentals to applications Novosibirsk, Russia, 9–13 February 2015

Summer School on Crystal Shape Engineering ETH Zurich, 6-10 July 2015

4th EPSRC Manufacturing The Future Conference, Cambridge 17-18 September 2015

CMAC Open Day 23 – 24 September 2015

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