Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Biopharmaceutical products have been transformative for health care, an excellent example of how impactful biotechnology is on society. However, such sophisticated products are also difficult and therefore expensive to produce. In this course, we will go over all aspects of biomanufacturing these crucial products, from upstream to downstream, and also how patient safety is taken into account during process development and execution. In addition, we will cover state-of-the-art analytical techniques that help us understand and automate these processes, and therefore make them more cost-effective and robust. We will cover different types (so-called modalities) of biopharmaceuticals, such as protein-based therapeutics and cell therapy. Moreover, during the group work you will dive into the details of the process for one of these modalities yourself and hear about others via group presentations.

Below you can find a comprehensive overview of the course content:

·         General introduction to biopharmaceutical processing

·         Upstream processing (protein-based, viral vectors, gene therapy, cell therapy)

·         Downstream processing techniques

·         Formulation and filling

·         Analytical techniques

·         Regulatory aspects