Categories
Industrial members

UCB

Field of Expertise:
Neurology, Immunology

Field of Expertise:
Neurology, Immunology

UCB’s ambition is to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases, allowing them to live the best life that they can – as free as possible from the challenges and uncertainty of disease. That commitment comes to life in our research and development activities across neurology, immunology and other areas where our expertise, innovation and ambition align with unmet needs.

UCB is continuously working to advance science and embrace new knowledge, bringing passion and leadership to solving the challenges that matter to people living with severe diseases. We are leveraging scientific advances and new technologies in areas including genetics, biomarkers and human biology. Continually inspired by those we serve to bring differentiated solutions with unique outcomes that deliver tangible, positive impacts.

With more than 8700 employees in approximately 40 countries, they are a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium which invests more than 25% of revenue in cutting-edge scientific research to meet unmet patient needs.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

Categories
CESPE Academy Courses

Process Control and Optimization

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course addresses the question of how we can keep pharmaceutical processes in optimal manufacturing conditions while ensuring versatility, resilience and quality of end product. Pharmaceutical control systems that are sustainable and balance the ecological footprint with ensuring access to high quality products and maintaining profitable supply chains. This question is part of the larger (international) challenge to ensure sustainable demand and production patterns, by improving environmental and societal sustainability and increasing the circularity in pharmaceutical production systems. This course is divided into two separate modules:

Module 1: Process identification: (1/2-day – morning)
&
Module 2: PID-based process control (1/2-day – afternoon)


MODULE 1: Process Identification

Theoretical

This course will provide interactive learning and real-world application, so you can directly apply what you’re learning to your own context

The following will be addressed:

Fundamentals of process identification
&
Understanding process dynamics
&
Identification at operator level (e.g. first order plus dead time approximation model)
&
Systems identification from relay experiments (PRBS identification)



MODULE 2: PID-based process control

This course will provide interactive learning and real-world application, so you can directly apply what you’re learning to your own context

The following will be addressed:

PID based control for process optimization
&
Auto-tuning methods for PID design
&
Frequency response design for PID design (FRTool)

The session will end with an overview of advanced process control methodologies (e.g. model predictive control, event-based control, etc.) able to ensure plant-wide optimization.


COURSE PROGRAM

A detailed overview of the different modules can be found in the following document.


If you are interested in taking this course, please email sarah.costers@ugent.be or mgadbruy.debruyne@ugent.be.

Categories
News

Secoya CRYSTA’DAYS

Join our Industrial Member Secoya at a two-day crystallization event!

During this event, you’ll have the exclusive opportunity to discover Secoya’s continuous crystallization technology, explore their latest technological breakthroughs, meet their experts, dive into research and industrial case studies and network with fellow enthusiasts.

Last but not least, Secoya will seize the opportunity to showcase the whole new SCT family, from lab to industrial unit.

Categories
Picture Gallery

Picture Gallery

Categories
News

Pfizer and Ghent University’s Innovation Cluster CESPE join hands to improve and innovate Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Ghent (October 5th, 2023) – It is with great pleasure that Pfizer Puurs and Ghent University (UGent) announce that Pfizer has officially joined the CESPE innovation cluster, a multi-partner innovation accelerator in the field of pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing.

We are proud of our footprint in Belgium and our worldwide impact, and happy to expand it further through this collaboration with CESPE at Ghent University.
As we continue to innovate and improve our manufacturing processes and expertise, it is critical that we collaborate with the best and brightest, and we are confident the team at CESPE has the right expertise to make this partnership a great match.

Gudrun Coppens, Director Manufacturing Science & Technology at Pfizer Puurs

The close collaboration between industry and academia in this strategic partnership, combined with their drive to innovate, will play a key role in future pharmaceutical manufacturing.

We are thrilled to welcome Pfizer Puurs to our fast-growing CESPE community of leading innovators in (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing. We are excited to embark on this inspiring collaborative journey with Pfizer Puurs . This partnership also plays a pivotal role in nurturing local talent and fostering a culture of continuous innovation reflecting the spirit of the thriving Belgian pharma/biotech ecosystem, and particularly the flourishing region of Flanders .

Dr. Dominic De Groote, Business Development Manager at CESPE
Copyright Pfizer

About Pfizer Puurs

Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium is the largest production and packaging site of Pfizer worldwide, specializing in aseptic production and packaging. The Pfizer Puurs facility covers 100.000m², and manufactures more than 400 million units of injectable medicines and vaccines every year (excl. Comirnaty). The product physiology ranges from sterile solutions, to sterile suspensions, sterile gels, and freeze dry products, all packed on site in ampoules, vials, plastic bottles, syringes, or cartridges for pens. The medicines and vaccines made in Puurs are shipped to patients in more than 170 markets. 30% of Puurs production is destined for low income countries, in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO, GAVI, and NGOs.

The site has an extensive manufacturing setup with a range of formulation booths, filling lines, automatic inspection lines, packaging lines, freeze driers, and lab facilities. With their clinical pilot plant and experimental plant the Pfizer Puurs is also known as a Launch Site within the Global Pfizer network, providing them the ability to quickly scale-up to commercial manufacturing of a new product.
The last 10 years the number of employees in Puurs has more than doubled, bringing the total number of employees to more than 4.500 in 2023.

For more information, visit https://www.pfizer.be.

About UGent-CESPE

Ghent University (UGent) is a top 100 university and one of the largest Belgian universities in the heart of Europe. It is an active partner in national and international educational, scientific and industrial cooperation. The organization is committed to research and innovation with an annual research budget of more than € 600 million and more than 5,500 researchers active in a wide range of the life, physical and social sciences. UGent TechTransfer and the UGent Business Development Platforms, such as CESPE, support researchers in developing groundbreaking science to bring innovations to the market.

The Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering and Manufacturing (CESPE) is a multidisciplinary innovation accelerator hosted at Ghent University focusing on the sustainable development, design and optimization of both drug substance and drug product production platforms. Its ambition is to become the reference centre in end-to-end (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing in Europe. It accelerates the development of emerging production technologies to manufacture the medicines of the future in a sustainable, agile way.

For more information, visit https://www.cespe.be.

Media contact:

Pfizer

Koen Colpaert, spokesperson Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium
Tel.: +32 499 42 85 56

CESPE

Thomas De Beer, director and principal investigator
Tel: +32 9 264 80 97

Categories
Conference 2023 Past events

Aftermovie CESPE Conference 2023

On Thursday September 21st 2023 we held another succesful event on the Challenges & Solutions for transitioning to sustainable (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing.

More than 120 attendees coming from over 40 different companies joined us and the amazing line-up of speakers. A full day of open discussions about sustainability and staying ahead of what’s next!

Experience the atmosphere at our conference in this aftermovie!

Categories
Conference 2023

Program

Conference opening + Introductions

09h00 – 09h30

Registration & Welcome

Networking breakfast
Poster exhibition + booths

09h30 – 09h40

Conference opening

Sofie Bracke, Deputy Mayor of Ghent, responsible for Economy, Port and Sports

09h40 – 10h00

Introduction to CESPE & Update building

Prof. Thomas De Beer, CESPE Director
Dr. Christoph Portier, CESPE General Manager


PART 1:
Perspective from the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical Industry

– Goals – State-of-the-art – Bottlenecks –

Delegates from the big pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies will highlight their company’s perspective on the current goals, state-of-the-art and bottlenecks related to their big investments in the transition towards sustainable manufacturing.

10h00 – 10h20

Environmental sustainability in the Small Molecules Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient’s
synthesis: from global policy into action.

Bert Heirman, Program Manager Strategic Sustainability Initiatives – Small Molecules, Janssen Pharmaceutica Geel
&
Bie Lambert, Head of Operations for Janssen Pharmaceutica Geel, Janssen Pharmaceutica Geel

10h20 – 10h40

Journey to a net-zero plasma derived manufacturing facility

Simon Gilleman, Sustainability Manager, Takeda

10h40 – 11h00

Coffee break

Poster exhibition + booths

11h00 – 11h20

(Preliminary) Sustainability in the Biomanufacturing Industry:
Global ambitions – Role of the big pharma – No-brainers – Struggles

David Vertongen, Sr. Technical Design Lead, Pfizer

11h20 – 11h40

Sustainability during Drug Product Manufacturing Development.

Jan-Sebastiaan Uyttersprot, PAT Principal Scientist, UCB Pharma


PART 2:
Contributions from Academic & Industrial stakeholders

– Chemical manufacturing – Biotech manufacturing – Drug Product Manufacturing –

Three consecutive sessions will be held where both academic and industrial stakeholders will showcase how their innovative approaches could play a crucial role in the sustainability advancements in different areas within pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

Session 1 – Chemical manufacturing

11h40 – 11h55

Digital technologies reducing the footprint in Pharma, examples from the Industry

Dirk Wollaert, Manager Business Development Pharma USA, Siemens Digital Industries

11h55 – 12h10

Transitioning to a more sustainable API development

Prof. Chris Stevens, Principal Investigator, CESPE

12h10 – 12h25

Towards a better process understanding and intensification by modeling

Prof. Joris Thybaut, Principal Investigator, CESPE

12h25 – 13h55

Networking lunch

Poster exhibition + booths


Session 2 – Biotech manufacturing

13h55 – 14h10

How Sustainability Meets Efficiency in Freeze-Drying

Mathieu Massart, Engineering Manager, RheaVita

14h10 – 14h25

Data, Artificial Intelligence & Analytics for Sustainable (Bio)Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.

Noah Nzuki, ESG Lead EMEA, Cognizant

14h25 – 14h40

Pharmaceutical Freeze-Drying: Innovations for a Smaller Ecological Footprint

Carolin Reinke, Senior Innovation Manager Pharma & Healthcare, GEA



Session 3 – Drug Product manufacturing

14h40 – 14h55

SUSTAIN: SUstainability STrAtegy ImplementatioN, from ESG to the working plant

Christian Post, Senior Process Engineer, VTU

14h55 – 15h10

Use of microfluidics to revolutionize the production of pharmaceuticals

Tim Dieryckx, CEO, Voxdale

15h10 – 15h25

The triple bottom line in healthcare: A holistic sustainability assessment for decision support

Prof. Delphine De Smedt, Principal Investigator, CESPE

15h25 – 15h45

Coffee break

Poster exhibition + booths


PART 3:
Staying ahead of what’s next

– Roundtable discussion – Innovation Café –

15h45 – 16h30

Roundtable discussion

Representatives from different key stakeholders groups will have an open discussion about the current challenges and innovations facilitating the transition towards sustainable pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
Get inspired by the insights of these key opinion leaders from industry, academia and policy makers.

Moderator

Tineke Van Hooland, Founder and CEO, Epic 10

Panel

Talia Flanagan, Head of Product Design and Performance, UCB Pharma
David Vertongen, Sr. Technical Design Lead, Pfizer
Simon Gilleman, Sustainability Manager, Takeda
Noah Nzuki, ESG Lead EMEA, Cognizant
Delphine De Smedt, Principal Investigator, CESPE
Isabelle Francois, Director Innovation, MEDVIA


16h30 – 17h20

Innovation Café

The talented people within CESPE will have the chance to pitch their innovative research to a broader audience.
Don’t miss this sneak-peek in the ongoing research within the different CESPE groups and member companies!

Take a look at the submitted abstracts for the Innovation Café.


Closing

17h20 – 17h30

Closing word

Prof. Dieter Deforce, Principal Investigator, CESPE

Networking Reception & Dinner

17h30 – …

Poster exhibition + booths

Categories
CESPE Academy Courses

Material characterization

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course gives an introduction on the (pharmaceutical) relevance of (raw) material characterization. An overview is given about the relevant characterization methods on the market, their applicability and how the material properties can be used to describe the processability.
This 1-day course consists out of a theoretical (interactive) and hands-on part.


MODULE 1: BASIC COURSE

Theoretical

The trainee will get an in-depth explanation about the different characterization methods, their (pharmaceutical) relevance and what you can do with the generated data.
Some of the key material characteristics described are:

Flow/cohesion
&
Particle size and shape
&
Density and porosity
&
Electrostatic charge
&
Melting point and crystal structure
&
Viscosity

Practical

Hands-on sessions will allow the trainee to get a feel with what it takes to characterize a material.
The extensive array of characterization equipments, available at CESPE, will be made available to visualize the difference between highly divergent powders.
Some of the equipment that will be used are:

FT4 Powder Rheometer
&
Schulze Ring Shear Tester
&
GranutoolsTM equipment
&
Malvern Laser diffractors
&
DVS and DSC equipment

Upon request, a powder of interest could be tested on the available equipment!
For more information, please contact Sarah.Costers@UGent.be .


COURSE PROGRAM

A detailed overview of the course can be found in the following document.


If you are interested in taking this course, please email sarah.costers@ugent.be or mgadbruy.debruyne@ugent.be.

Categories
CESPE Academy Courses

Process Analytical Technologies

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course focusses on giving a basic introduction about the implementation of PAT tools in the (bio)pharmaceutical industry.
This course is given in an interactive manner (both theoretical and hands-on) and can be divided into two separate modules:

Module 1: Basic course: Introduction to PAT (1-day module)
&
Module 2: Basic data-analysis and modeling (1.5-day module)

Requirements
Basic understanding of spectroscopy and (bio)pharmaceutical processes
&
Basic understanding of coding and programming (python)


MODULE 1: BASIC COURSE: INTRODUCTION TO PAT

Theoretical

The trainee will get a general introduction to PAT and the common (non-)spectroscopic sensors, learning how, when and where these tools can provide a benefit.

Spectroscopic sensors
&
Non-spectroscopic sensors (Univariate/Multivariate)
&
Hyperspectral imaging
&
PAT in R&D/Process Validation/QbD
&
Regulatory aspects
&
Multivariate data-analysis

Practical

The trainee will get the chance to see how PAT tools can be used/implemented and how this translates in a practical approach to acquire relevant process information.
Some of the tools that will be demonstrated are:

NIR
&
Raman
&
FLIR

MODULE 2: BASIC DATA-ANALYSIS AND MODELING

Theory through practice

Using spectroscopic data, the teacher will go through different aspects of PAT and model development together with the attendee.

General introduction to Python
&
Data preparation and exploration
&
Introduction to modeling
&
Process control based on PAT


COURSE PROGRAM

A detailed overview of the different modules can be found in the following document.


If you are interested in taking this course, please email sarah.costers@ugent.be or mgadbruy.debruyne@ugent.be.

Categories
CESPE Academy Courses

Tableting 101

COURSE OVERVIEW

Tableting 101 focusses on giving a thorough but basic introduction about the tableting process in an interactive manner (both theoretical and hands-on).
This course is divided into two separate modules:

Module 1: Basic course: Introduction to the tableting process (1/2-day module)
&
Module 2: Deeper dive into specific tableting aspects (1/2-day module)


MODULE 1: BASIC INTRODUCTION TO THE TABLETING PROCESS

Theoretical

The trainee will get an in-depth explanation about the basic tableting aspects such as:

Basic fundamentals
&
Tableting equipment
&
Tablet formulation
&
Tableting process
&
Compaction mechanisms and models

Theory through practice

Theory about two divergent tableting systems will be given through hands-on sessions: setting up the equipment; explanation of all parts; tablet production; tablet quality determination.
Materials/blends will be processed throughout the session on the following equipment:


Compaction simulator
&
Rotary tablet press (MODULTM P)


MODULE 2: DEEPER DIVE INTO SPECIFIC TABLETING ASPECTS

In this module, the goal is to highlight specific aspects of the tableting process through different use-cases. Each use-case allows the trainee to get an in-depth comprehension of a specific part of the tableting process.

Topics

Lubrication (internal/external)
&
Sticking
&
Die filling
&
Compaction models

The trainee has the option to take up all of the provided topics, covering a full day course, or select a sub-set of these topics.


COURSE PROGRAM

A detailed overview of the different modules can be found in the following document.


If you are interested in taking this course, please email sarah.costers@ugent.be or mgadbruy.debruyne@ugent.be.

Categories
CESPE Academy Courses

Lyophilization 101

COURSE OVERVIEW

Lyophilization 101 focusses on giving a thorough introduction about pharmaceutical freeze-drying in an interactive manner (both theoretical and hands-on).
Throughout this 2-day course, the trainee gets to understand the basic and fundamental aspects from start untill finished product.


MODULE 1: BASIC COURSE

Theoretical – day 1

During the first day of the course, the trainee will get an in-depth explanation about the basic freeze-drying principles such as:

Freeze-drying equipment
&
Heat and mass transfer mechanisms
&
(Dis)advantages
&
Modelling of the freeze-drying cycle
&
Optimization of the process

Practical – day 1

Hands-on sessions will allow the trainee to get a feel with the freeze-drying process.
The hands-on session will cover:

Tour of the CESPE freeze-drying lab
&
Sample preparation and characterization
&
Starting your first run


Theoretical – day 2

During the second day, the focus will be put on PAT implementation and post-run analytics, allowing the trainee to deep-dive in the generated data.

Process analytical technologies (PAT)
&
Pre- and Post-run analytics
&
The future of freeze-drying: Continuous vs. Batch

Practical – day 2

Hands-on sessions during day 2 will mainly focus on the analysis of the performed run of practical day 1.
The hands-on session will cover:

Evaluation of the freeze-drying run
&
Water content determination
&
DSC
&
Sneak-peek at a continuous freeze-dryer


COURSE PROGRAM

A detailed overview of the program can be found in the following document.


If you are interested in taking this course, please email sarah.costers@ugent.be or mgadbruy.debruyne@ugent.be.

Categories
CESPE Academy Courses

Twin screw granulation 101

COURSE OVERVIEW

Twin screw granulation 101 focusses on giving a thorough introduction about the granulation process in an interactive manner (both theoretical and hands-on).
This course can be divided into three separate modules:

Module 1: Basic course: Introduction to twin screw wet granulation (1-day module)
&
Module 2: Basic course: Introduction to twin screw hot-melt granulation (1/2-day module)
&
Module 3: Specialized courses (1/2-day module)


MODULE 1: WET GRANULATION

Theoretical

The trainee will get an in-depth explanation about the basic twin screw wet granulation aspects such as:

Equipment overview
&
Principles of wet granulation
&
Batch vs continuous manufacturing
&
Process and formulation parameters
&
Granule characterization

Practical

The in-house ConsiGmaTM -25 line will be used to demonstrate the twin screw wet granulation process. Afterwards, the produced granules will be tested using the available granule characterization methods.
The hands-on session consists out of:

ConsiGmaTM-25 demonstration with placebo
&
Introduction to granule characterization methods


MODULE 2: HOT-MELT GRANULATION

Theoretical

The trainee will get an in-depth explanation about the basic twin screw hot-melt granulation aspects such as:

Equipment overview
&
Fundamentals of hot-melt granulation
&
Equipment configurations and settings
&
Pitfalls
&
Granule characterization*

*Will be skipped if module 1 was followed as well.

Practical

The trainee will be able to follow and help during placebo trials using a twin screw hot-melt granulator. The influence of process and formulation parameters will be demonstrated.


MODULE 3: SPECIALIZED COURSES

In this module, the goal is to highlight specific aspects of the granulation process through different use-cases. Each use-case allows the trainee to get an in-depth comprehension of a specific part of the process.

Topics

Wet granulation: Modified release formulations
&
Wet granulation: Impact of dry or wet addition

The trainee has the option to take up all of the provided topics, covering a half day course, or select a sub-set of these topics.


COURSE PROGRAM

A detailed overview of the different modules can be found in the following document.


If you are interested in taking this course, please email sarah.costers@ugent.be or mgadbruy.debruyne@ugent.be.

Categories
CESPE Academy Courses

Feeding 101

COURSE OVERVIEW

Feeding 101 focusses on giving a thorough introduction about the feeding process in an interactive manner (both theoretical and hands-on).
This course is divided into two separate modules:

Module 1: Basic course: Introduction to feeding (1-day module)
&
Module 2: Specialized courses (1/2-day module)


MODULE 1: BASIC COURSE

Theoretical

The trainee will get an in-depth explanation about the basic feeding aspects such as:

Types of feeding equipment
&
Feeder accessories and their function
&
Types of feeder trials
&
Feeder data acquisition and analysis

Practical

During the hands-on sessions, the trainee will learn on how to install, operate and dismantel a loss-in-weight feeder.
The feeder demonstrations will be performed using two divergent materials.

Upon request, a powder of interest could be tested on the available equipment!
For more information, please contact Sarah.Costers@UGent.be.


MODULE 2: SPECIALIZED COURSES

In this module, the goal is to highlight specific aspects of the feeding process through different use-cases. Each use-case allows the trainee to get an in-depth comprehension of a specific part of the process.

Topics

Surrogate approach for feeding
&
Impact of glidant addition
&
How specific configurations and settings can impact the feeding performance

The trainee has the option to take up all of the provided topics, covering a full day course, or select a sub-set of these topics.


COURSE PROGRAM

A detailed overview of the different modules can be found in the following document.


If you are interested in taking this course, please email sarah.costers@ugent.be or mgadbruy.debruyne@ugent.be.

Categories
News

Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Engineering (MPE) is accepting applications!

Ghent University is now accepting applications for our Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Engineering (MPE) program. Our program offers a unique combined training of pharmaceutical and engineering skills. Both skills are required to develop these pharmaceutical production processes for tomorrow’s drug products and supply needs.
The MPE consists of a two-year English-taught programme of 120 credits and will help you acquire all skills and knowledge that you need to implement novel manufacturing concepts that require a high degree of digitalization and automation. The MPE will also increase your opportunities to get a good position in the pharmaceutical industry or to become an excellent PhD candidate!

For further information, please take a look at the MPE site: https://lnkd.in/gXFbn42H.

Categories
Conference 2023 Past events

CESPE Conference 2023

Challenges & Solutions for transitioning to sustainable (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing

CESPE is pleased to announce the second edition of the annual CESPE Conference on Thursday September 21, 2023.

Through insights from different stakeholders, this event aims to address and tackle the current challenges related to the transition into a more sustainable (bio)pharmaceutical industry.

  • What are the goals for the industry and which initiatives are being taken by the (bio)pharmaceutical companies?
  • Where are the current bottlenecks limiting innovation and how can we solve them?
  • Which tools are required to achieve ambitious goals?
  • What is the role of both academic and industrial partners?

The physical event in Ghent will provide you with many opportunities to network with our academic members, industrial partners and policy makers. Therefore, it is perfectly suited for senior scientists, industrial decision makers and policy makers active within the ecosystem.

Check out the program below and stay tuned for further details!

For further information on booths and sponsorships, feel free to contact Christoph Portier (Christoph.Portier@UGent.be) or Bram Bekaert (Bram.Bekaert@UGent.be).

Categories
News

Professor Dieter Deforce and CESPE join hands

It is with great honour that we can announce professor Dieter Deforce as a new academic member of CESPE. His expertise in the fields of pharmaceutical biotechnology and (forensic) DNA-analysis are a crucial addition to the CESPE portfolio.

Dieter Deforce is a professor at the University of Ghent and is the head of the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. From 2001 till 2016 he was also head of the forensic DNA‐analysis laboratory, which he founded at the University of Ghent, accredited and recognized by the Belgian government. He remains in the forensic field as dedicated DNA expert.

He is chair of the Belgian Medicines Committee, member of the Scientific Advise Working Party of the European Medicines Agency. He is also the director of the ProGenTomics platform of the University of Ghent, providing amongst others proteomics and mainly mass spectrometry based protein analytical tools to the research community. He is a partner in NXT‐GNT, a research consortium providing the research community next generation DNA‐sequencing. He is member of the board of directors of the VIB.

His research focuses on applying proteomics and genomics platforms (including Next Generation Sequencing) in the field of post translational protein modifications, stem cell development, prenatal genetic diagnosis, (auto‐)immunity and forensics and he is (co‐)author of over 350 scientific papers.

Categories
Industrial members

272BIO

Field of Expertise:
VHH based therapeutic and prophylactic drug development; Designing and driving discovery and development phases

Field of Expertise:
VHH based therapeutic and prophylactic drug development; Designing and driving discovery and development phases

Antibody drugs are now widely accepted in companion animal health. 272BIO is developing a pipeline of VHH based therapeutic and prophylactic drug to address complex diseases at affordable prices for both developers and customers. The flexibility and modularity of VHH, combined with their suitability to be produced across many different microbial expression systems make them highly suitable for the development of bi- and multi-valent drugs targeting different pathophysiological pathways. 

272BIO is making use of the advantages of VHH to develop innovative second-generation treatments for complex diseases including canine atopic dermatitis, osteoarthritis, oncology etc.

A key goal for 272BIO is to develop VHH antibody drugs to transform the lives of patients by addressing the different drivers of disease to result in superior clinical efficacy and better disease control.  Development costs, modest market sizes and high drug prices represent barriers to entry for animal health companies, prescribers and pet-parents as well. To overcome these hurdles necessitates the use of expression and manufacturing processes suitable for the challenges of animal health

The experienced team of seasoned antibody scientists can also assist start up biotech and animal health companies in designing and driving their discovery and development phases for their products.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

Categories
Industrial members

AM-Team

Field of Expertise:
Advanced modelling services for process optimisation and design

Field of Expertise:
Advanced modelling services for process optimisation and design

AM-Team was founded in 2017 by Dr. Wim AudenaertDr. Usman Rehman, and Prof. Ingmar Nopens, all having MSc and PhD degrees in either chemical or environmental engineering. AM-Team is a spinoff company of Ghent University with over a decade of expertise in process modelling and simulations.

Customers from all over the globe rely on their leading-edge simulation services and digital tools. They keep on developing tailored digital solutions to match the needs of their customers in the process industry.

They do this by: 

  • Developing new process models and methodologies to maximise customer experience and cater the industry needs
  • Sharing their expertise at high-level international events and publishing new findings in peer-reviewed scientific papers, often together with customers
  • Investing in new hardware and software to maximise simulation speed and accuracy

Thanks to their large team of dedicated simulation engineers, they can handle large projects in a short timeframe. 

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

Categories
Industrial members

BRS

Field of Expertise:
High-end laboratory instruments and services in the fields of Life Sciences, Chemistry and Analysis

Field of Expertise:
High-end laboratory instruments and services in the fields of Life Sciences, Chemistry and Analysis

Through our divisions BioSPX (Life Sciences), ChemSPX (Organic Chemistry and Chromatography) and SciSPX (Sample Prep and Analysis) we help laboratories with their research and analysis.

As experts in our fields we focus on establishing long-term relationship with our customers and partners.

We make your innovation our goal!

  • BRS stands for the exclusive distribution of high-end laboratory solutions in Belgium and Luxemburg.
  • We introduce new technologies and innovations of existing systems.
  • We guarantee an optimal and continued operation of your laboratory at all times.
  • You can count on an optimal technical support by our service & support team.
  • BRS is committed to providing the highest level of sales, service & support to our customers.
  • At BRS the customer comes first.
  • Working together as a team and in close cooperation with our customers is the key.
  • We believe in an open communication.
  • The BRS team focuses on YOUR results.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

Categories
Industrial members

Cognizant

Field of Expertise:
IT services and IT consulting

Field of Expertise:
IT services and IT consulting

Cognizant engineers modern businesses. They help their clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in the fast-changing world.

Cognizant uses expertise that’s been proven and tested around the globe to help their customers get ahead of challenges, sense opportunities sooner and outpace change.

They develop game-changing digital solutions in many different fields of expertise:

  • Digital Engineering
  • Intelligent Process Automation
  • Industry & Platform Solutions
  • Internet of Things
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cloud
  • Data
  • Life Sciences
  • Healthcare
  • Manufacturing
  • Technology

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

Categories
Industrial members

Comate

Field of Expertise:
Engineering and Design of high-tech hardware

Field of Expertise:
Engineering and Design of high-tech hardware

Every decision we take at Comate, is to make a hardware solution more successful. Our team of 90+ engineers and designers, will give a high-tech hardware idea the biggest chance on success. From tracking and monitoring solutions over precision mechanics to high end machinery and automation innovations. We focus on wide technical expertise in combination with user experience and designs that will reflect the quality of the product. Our success is measured by the quality of the products we deliver.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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Industrial members

Elegent

Field of Expertise:
Bridging the gap between academic innovations and practical applications in pharmaceutical engineering

Field of Expertise:
Bridging the gap between academic innovations and practical applications in pharmaceutical engineering

Elegent, a UGent spin-off company, is a dynamic modelling consultancy firm, dedicated to optimizing pharmaceutical development processes. Within the CESPE consortium, we bring invaluable expertise in data-driven and physics-based pharmaceutical engineering. Their focus is accelerating drug product production of solid oral dosages via continuous direct compression and wet granulation through advanced modelling techniques. With a commitment to sustainability and innovation, Elegent complements the consortium’s mission to revolutionize pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The expertise at Elegent centres on bridging the gap between academic innovations and practical applications in pharmaceutical engineering. Within the CESPE consortium, their specialization is utilizing quantitative data-driven support for drug product development. They excel in custom process modelling, formulation, process development, and process analytical technology (PAT) implementation. By leveraging their extensive knowledge in pharmaceutical technology and data science, they help CESPE and its industrial partners drive sustainable innovation, enabling efficient pharmaceutical care delivery to patients.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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Industrial members

Fette Compacting Belgium

Field of Expertise:
Technology innovator in OSD production for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry: tablet compression, continuous manufacturing equipment, capsule filling & containment solutions

Field of Expertise:
Technology innovator in OSD production for pharmaceutical industry

Fette Compacting is a world-leading supplier of high-tech process equipment for the pharmaceutical industry.

Headquartered near Hamburg, with Sales & Service offices in all major markets, Fette Compacting designs, builds, sells and services worldwide sophisticated machines for the production of pharmaceutical tablets and capsules. The combination of high speed, high precision and full automation requires the very best engineering skills in the fields of mechanical, electronics, software and process design.

Fette Compacting Belgium, located in Mechelen, is the group’s innovation centre for the development and launch of new technologies and machines for faster and more precise pharmaceutical production.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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Industrial members

Janssen Pharmaceutica

Field of Expertise:
R&D, manufacturing and new product launch

Field of Expertise:
R&D, manufacturing and new product launch

The Janssen campus in Belgium (or Janssen Pharmaceutica) is part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. A unique fusion of expertise, capabilities and partnerships in R&D, manufacturing and new product launch. Together, they are creating a future where disease is a thing of the past.

As an innovative campus, they focus on important fields of research such as neuroscience, oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular and metabolism and pulmonary hypertension. Fields in which the unmet medical need is high and much is to be done and to achieved.

Janssen in Belgium has been focusing on research and development for more than 60 years. The campus in Belgium has been instrumental in the discovery and development of a new generation of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cancer, infectious diseases and neurological drugs. It was here in Beerse that the first FDA-approved tuberculosis drug in 40 years was discovered and developed.

From early research and development, through supply chain to patient access – their people are making an important contribution to the health of many.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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Industrial members

Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium

Field of Expertise:
Vaccines and sterile injectables

Field of Expertise:
Vaccines and sterile injectables

At Pfizer, they apply science and their global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. They strive to set the standard for quality, safety, and value in the discovery, development, and manufacture of health care products.

Their global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world’s best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments, and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time.

Consistent with their responsibility as one of the world’s premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, they collaborate with health care providers, governments, and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world.

Their R&D Priorities and Strategy

  • Delivering a pipeline of highly differentiated medicines and vaccines where they have a unique opportunity to bring the most important new therapies to patients in need
  • Advancing their capabilities that can position them for long-term R&D leadership
  • Advancing new models for partnerships with creativity, flexibility and urgency to deliver innovation to patients as quickly as possible.

Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium, the largest production and packaging site of Pfizer worldwide, has now joined the CESPE Innovation cluster. The site has an extensive manufacturing setup with a range of formulation booths, filling lines, automatic inspection lines, packaging lines, freeze driers, and lab facilities. With their clinical pilot plant and experimental plant Pfizer Puurs is also known as a Launch Site within the Global Pfizer network, providing them the ability to quickly scale-up to commercial manufacturing of a new product.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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Industrial members

RheaVita

Field of Expertise:
Continuous & controlled freeze drying

Field of Expertise:
Continuous & controlled freeze drying

RheaVita sells single vial (for R&D), non-GMP multi-vial (for scale-up and stability studies), and full GMP continuous freeze-drying systems.

Next to our engineered solutions we also offer freeze-drying related CDMO services. The freeze-drying of biopharmaceuticals, LNP-based formulations, ATMPs, and other small and large molecules, requires proper formulation and process optimization of the drug substance. Designing the optimal formulation based on the drug substance properties and characteristics is crucial. Furthermore, by applying a model-based strategy, RheaVita provides the opportunity to efficiently design and optimize your freeze-drying process in an extremely fast way with limited product consumption. 

Our manufacturing approach avoids scale-up issues, reduces cycle times, allows fast product development, reduces time-to-patient, lowers production costs, makes use of smaller manufacturing installations, requires less clean room space, provides improved quality assurance thanks to PAT (100% inspection with inherent potential for real-time-release) and leads to improved and uniform product quality and process uniformity.

RheaVita has also set up an academy to share knowledge on freeze-drying where our customers receive a fundamental insight into freeze-drying and analysis of the results and experience the benefits of continuous manufacturing technology.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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Industrial members

Secoya Technologies

Field of Expertise:
Crystallization, emulsification, pervaporation, process intensification

Field of Expertise:
Crystallization, emulsification/encapsulation, pervaporation, process intensification

Secoya Technologies is a global provider of services and equipment in particle engineering for the (bio)-pharmaceutical industry. Secoya’s experts have been developing innovative production technologies and equipment by a smart use of micro-structured elements, enabling a faster, precise and secure development and production process.

Their ranges of robust intensified reactors guarantee a stable and reliable production process – at different scale – of high quality (bio-)pharmaceutical products. Their core principle is applied to following technologies and in-house expertise service:

  • Crystallization (small molecules, API, excipients…)
  • Emulsification / Encapsulation (simple and double emulsion for encapsulation of biomolecules, API…)
  • Pervaporation
  • Process intensification

The integration of their unique, robust and versatile technologies in their equipment, combined with their unique know-how, allows them to guide their partners with mastering every aspect of the manufacturing process, from laboratory scale to commercial production scale the size of the particles generated and their size distribution as well as to increase the efficiency, productivity and flexibility. Whether it is the development of new products or the improvement of existing products, Secoya’s technologies provide many key benefits:

  • Unmatched product quality and secure production
  • Implementation of Quality-by-Design
  • Reduction of investment cost and risk for the process development
  • Reduction of cost of goods sold
  • Inherent compatibility with continuous manufacturing
  • Manufacturing of new possible molecules

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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Industrial members

Takeda

Field of Expertise:
Oncology, Rare Genetic and Hematology, Neuroscience, and Gastroenterology (GI)

Field of Expertise:
Oncology, Rare Genetic and Hematology, Neuroscience, and Gastroenterology (GI)

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited is a global, values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan, committed to discover and deliver life-transforming treatments, guided by their commitment to patients, their people and the planet.

Takeda focuses its R&D efforts on four therapeutic areas: Oncology, Rare Genetic and Hematology, Neuroscience, and Gastroenterology (GI). They also make targeted R&D investments in Plasma-Derived Therapies and Vaccines.

They are focusing on developing highly innovative medicines that contribute to making a difference in people’s lives by advancing the frontier of new treatment options and leveraging their enhanced collaborative R&D engine and capabilities to create a robust, modality-diverse pipeline.

Their employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients and to working with our partners in health care in approximately 80 countries.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MEMBERS

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News

Takeda Lessines and Ghent University’s Innovation Cluster CESPE Enter into Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Innovation Partnership

Ghent (March 25, 2021) – Takeda and Ghent University (UGent) are pleased to announce that Takeda’s Global Manufacturing Site at Lessines has officially joined the CESPE innovation cluster, a multi-partner innovation accelerator in the field of pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing. This strategic partnership reflects both parties’ strong desire to further intensify their research and innovation efforts and to make optimal use of the cross pollination between industry and academia. Initially, this partnership will focus on optimising digitization in Pharma 4.0, pharmaceutical technology innovation, and optimising energy and material efficiency during production.

“As one of the global leaders in the production of plasma derivatives, Takeda continuously improves its manufacturing operations. To this end, the mutual sharing of knowledge with other companies and knowledge institutions like CESPE is key”

— Gert Verheyden, Head of Manufacturing Sciences at Takeda Lessines —

“As one of the global leaders in the production of plasma derivatives, Takeda continuously improves its manufacturing operations. To this end, the mutual sharing of knowledge with other companies and knowledge institutions like CESPE is key”, says Gert Verheyden, Head of Manufacturing Sciences at Takeda Lessines. “This allows Takeda Lessines to make a significant contribution to the training of tomorrow’s pharmaceutical engineers, both in existing and emerging education tracks, and also to increase the industrial relevance of possible innovation projects at the international level.” “We are thrilled to collaborate with Takeda and to thus facilitate its strong desire to implementing innovative production processes of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished pharmaceutical products. We are collaborating precompetitively with an industrial network to build a strong knowledge region enabling the local anchoring of talent and innovation”, says professor Thomas De Beer, Director of CESPE.

Copyright Takeda

 About Takeda

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK) is a global, values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan, committed to discover and deliver life-transforming treatments, guided by our commitment to patients, our people and the planet. Takeda focuses its R&D efforts on four therapeutic areas: Oncology, Rare Genetic and Hematology, Neuroscience, and Gastroenterology (GI). We also make targeted R&D investments in Plasma-Derived Therapies and Vaccines. We are focusing on developing highly innovative medicines that contribute to making a difference in people’s lives by advancing the frontier of new treatment options and leveraging our enhanced collaborative R&D engine and capabilities to create a robust, modality-diverse pipeline.

Our employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients and to working with our partners in health care in approximately 80 countries.

For more information, visit https://www.takeda.com.

About UGent-CESPE

Ghent University (UGent) is a top 100 university and one of the largest Belgian universities in the heart of Europe. It is an active partner in national and international educational, scientific and industrial cooperation. The organization is committed to research and innovation with an annual research budget of more than € 600 million and more than 5,500 researchers active in a wide range of the life, physical and social sciences. UGent TechTransfer and the UGent Business Development Platforms, such as CESPE, support researchers in developing groundbreaking science to bring innovations to the market.

The Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering and Manufacturing (CESPE) is a multidisciplinary innovation accelerator hosted at Ghent University focusing on the sustainable development, design and optimization of both drug substance and drug product production platforms. Its ambition is to become the reference centre in end-to-end (bio)pharmaceutical manufacturing in Europe. It accelerates the development of emerging production technologies to manufacture the medicines of the future in a sustainable, agile way.

For more information, visit https://www.cespe.be.

Media Contact:

Takeda:
Stefaan Fiers, Head of Corporate Communication
Tel: 0476 76 90 77

CESPE:
Wouter De Soete, Manager
Tel: 0474 80 65 67

Categories
News

Partner simAbs is hiring

Great job opportunity! Want to develop your Process Development Engineering skills? Our partner simAbs, developing a new biopharmaceutical manufacturing platform, might have just the challenge you’re looking for! Check out the job offer here!

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News Partnership day 2020

CESPE Industrial Partnering Day 2020

Did you miss any of the presentations during the CESPE Industrial Partnering Day 2020?
Review them here! Full stream available!

Welcome

Rik Van de Walle, Ghent University, Rector
Sofie Bracke, City of Ghent, Alderman for Economy, Trade, Sport & Port

Introduction to CESPE

Introduction to CESPE (Wouter De Soete, CESPE Manager)

Keynote “Belgian Biotech: Evolution & Revolution”

Geoffrey Pot, Chairman of the Board Bio.be/essenscia, Takeda Site Head, VP Operations

Industry Testimonial: Janssen Pharmaceutica

Jan Van der Goten, Head of Strategic Campus Office, Janssen Pharmaceutica

Research and Innovation pitches

Prof. Chris Stevens, Microreactor Technology: One Flow, One Product
Prof. Thomas De Beer, Prof. Ingmar Nopens, The Future of Pharmaceutical Drug Product Manufacturing
Prof. Richard Hoogenboom, Poly(2-oxazoline)s as Novel Excipients for Oral Formulations
Prof. Ludwig Cardon, 3D Printing: An Innovative Manufacturing Method
Prof. Kevin Van Geem, Maarten Dobbelaere, Artificial Intelligence for Computer-Aided Synthesis in Flow
Prof. Joris Thybaut, Chemical Reactor Performance Assessment and Innovation by Modeling
Prof. Jo Dewulf, Sustainability Assessment in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Prof. Dieter Claeys, Jeroen De Maeyer, Industry 4.0 Operational Excellence for Pharma 4.0

Company pitches

Koen Dierckx, simAbs, CEO, Integrated Continuous Bioprocessing of Monoclonal Antibodies
https://vimeo.com/492092157
Pieter-Jan Van Bockstal, RheaVita, Project Manager Technology, A Continuous Freeze-Drying Technology for Fast, Flexible and High Quality Manufacturing of Biopharmaceutical Products
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News

CESPE industrial partnering day

SUSTAINABLE PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING INNOVATION

SAVE THE DATE for the first CESPE Industrial Partnering Day!
December 2nd, 2.00pm – 5.00pm
Feel free to forward within your organisation 

Interested in how Ghent University accelerates innovation and cultivates partnerships in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering and Manufacturing? Innovating in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry? Equipment, infrastructure developer or system integrator? We gladly introduce you to CESPE and provide you with a selection of high-quality R&I pitches from both UGent and industry!

Speakers:

  • UGent rector Rik Van de Walle
  • Deputy mayor of the City of Ghent Sofie Bracke
  • World class industry leaders: Janssen Pharmaceutica and Takeda.

Register now to receive your personal invite and program updates on the Keynote and pitching sessions!

Free of charge. Registration is closed.

End-to-end integrated pharmaceutical manufacturability of tomorrow’s medicines – Enabling sustainable innovation in drug substance and drug product production.

Categories
Team

Prof. Dr. Thomas De Beer

DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Process Analytical Technology
Campus Heymans
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Thomas.DeBeer@UGent.be

+32 9 264 80 97

Thomas De Beer graduated in pharmaceutical sciences in 2002 at the Ghent University in Belgium. He obtained his PhD at the same university in 2007. For his PhD research, he examined the suitability of Raman spectroscopy as a Process Analytical Technology tool for pharmaceutical production processes. Within his PhD research period, he worked four months at University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Department of Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry (Prof. Jukka Rantanen). After his PhD, he was an FWO funded post-doctoral fellow at the Ghent University (2007-2010). Within his post-doc mandate, he worked 9 months at the Department of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany (Prof. Winter and Prof. Frieβ). In February 2010, he became professor in Process Analytics & Technology at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences from the university of Ghent. His research goals include bringing innovation pharmaceutical production processes (freeze-drying, hot-melt extrusion, continuous from-powder-to-tablet processing etc.). More specifically, Prof. De Beer contributes to the development of continuous manufacturing processes for drug products such as solids, semi-solids, liquids and biologicals (continuous freeze-drying of unit doses). Thomas De Beer is also director of Ghent University’s Center of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering (CESPE) which is founded in 2016.

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Team

Dr. ir. Sarah Costers

Project Manager

Ghent University
Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering & Manufacturing
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Campus Heymans
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Sarah.Costers@UGent.be

+32 9 264 81 18

Sarah Costers joined the CESPE team as project manager with expertise in discovery and development of biologics.

Sarah graduated as bioengineer cell and gene biotechnology and obtained a PhD in veterinary science in the field of virology/immunology, both at Ghent University. After 14 years of R&D in the biotech/pharma industry, she now returns to the alma mater/CESPE to facilitate and organize knowledge exchange and collaboration between industry and academia via strategic projects. She will attract additional funding for the equipment of the CESPE Innovation accelerator and incubator and provide support for the commercialization of the CESPE Innovation incubator.  

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Team

Dr. Dominic De Groote

lead BUSINESS DEVELOPER

Ghent University
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Department of Pharmaceutics
Campus Heymans
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Dominic.DeGroote@UGent.be

+32 9 264 80 63

Dr. Dominic De Groote holds a PhD in veterinary medicine  and has acquired extensive experience in the field of technology transfer in various roles over the past 20 years (RTTP accredited). In 2008, he assumed the position of Business Development Manager Pharma for Ghent university. He has profound skills and knowledge in drug discovery & development, business development, intellectual property management, licensing and venturing. He has strong insights into various drug markets and is familiar with established (small molecule, biologics) and emerging drug platforms (ATMPs),. He is also well acquainted with pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and market trends. Dr. De Groote is also active in the European and global  technology transfer community in professional development programmes and organisations (ASTP, ATTP).

Dr. Dominic De Groote currently heads UGent DISCOVERE, an innovation & business unit with focus on drug discovery, drug delivery and drug manufacturing. UGent DISCOVERE aims to translate biomedical research into high-value assets to foster discovery and development of more and better medicines in close collaboration with biotech/pharma industry.

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Team

Dr. Bart Hommez

Business Developer

Ghent University
Industrial Research Fund
Tech Lane Ghent Science Park - Campus Ardoyen
Technologiepark 125
B-9052 Zwijnaarde-Gent, Belgium

Bart.Hommez@UGent.be

+32 9 264 96 03

Bart Hommez obtained his PhD in Chemistry (polymer chemistry) from Ghent University. After his PhD he worked for 10 years within the lubricants industry (automotive and industrial applications), followed by 3 years in innovation consulting for SME’s. Today Bart is active as business developer for Ghent University where he leads the exploitation of research output in close collaboration with the research teams within the field of chemical engineering and modelling.

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Team

Dr. Jeroen De Maeyer

BUSINESS DEVELOPER

Ghent University
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering
Tech Lane Ghent Science Park - Campus Ardoyen
Technologiepark 131
B-9052 Gent, Belgium

Jeroen.DeMaeyer@UGent.be

+32 9 264 53 74

Jeroen De Maeyer (1979) obtained his PhD (2006) in micro-electronics from Ghent University. After his PhD he worked for 3 years in the automotive industry. In December 2008 he rejoined Ghent University to become the business development manager of the industrial research platform Sustainable Energy Technologies, which he recently converted into EnerGhentIC wherein research and valorization activities were embedded w.r.t. electrical machines and power electronics. As of 2013 he has been a main contact person of Ghent University for Flanders Make. In 2018 he spun out from EnerGhentIC a new Ghent University industrial research cluster Machineries & Factories of which he is currently the business development manager.

As a business development manager his role is two-fold (1) to identify tangible research results and prepare them for commercialization by industry; (2) to identify needs and trends from industry to steer the research activities to maximize the industrial value of the research results. In this process tools such as patent applications, regional and international funding, infrastructure, spin-off creation … are commonly used.

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Team

Prof. Dr. Delphine De Smedt

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Department of Public Health and Primary Care
Campus UZ Gent
Corneel Heymanslaan 10 - 4K3
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Delphine.DeSmedt@UGent.be

+32 9 332 83 54

Delphine De Smedt, PhD, has a master in biomedical sciences (2006) a master in business economics (2007) an a PhD in medical sciences (2014). She started her professional career as attaché at the RIZIV/INAMI (Dienst voor geneeskundige verzorging/Le Service des soins de santé). Since august 2008, she has been working at the Ghent University, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, first as junior researcher and PhD student, later as FWO post-doctoral fellow and since 2017, as assistant professor. In January 2014, she obtained her PhD entitled ‘Health-related quality of life and psychological distress in patients with coronary heart disease’ for which she was nominated as Laureate faculty doctoral price 2013-2014.

Delphine De Smedt is experienced in health economics and epidemiology. Her main research interest are related to health-related quality of life, disease burden, disease modelling and health economic evaluations. Delphine De Smedt is national coordinator of the EUROASPIRE survey, which has the aim to assess whether the guidelines on cardiovascular prevention are being follow in clinical practice. Within this European project, she acts as principal investigator for the EUROASPIRE health economics project. Furthermore, she is the main supervisor of the QAPICHE study, which has the aim to investigate the health-related quality of life in adults with chronic diseases. Furthermore, she is activily involved in the research activities of the European Society of Cardiology.

Delphine De Smedt has extensive experience in measuring patients reported outcomes, and in cost-effectiveness analysis. She has published over 45 publications, and has an H-index=16 (ISI).

Categories
Team

Prof. Dr. Stefaan De Smedt

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
Campus Heymans
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Stefaan.Desmedt@UGent.be

+32 9 264 80 76

Stefaan C. De Smedt  (°1967) studied pharmacy at Ghent University (Belgium) and received his MS degree in pharmaceutical sciences in 1990. He graduated from Ghent University in 1995. In 1995 he joined the pharmaceutical development group of Janssen Research Foundation. Since 1997 he has been a post-doctoral fellow of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research at the Departments of Pharmacy of respectively Ghent University and the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands). In October 1999 he became Professor in Physical Pharmacy and Biopharmacy at Ghent University where he founded the Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines. In 2007 Stefaan C. De Smedt was Guest Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and from 2012 till 2014 he was appointed Guest Professor at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Currently he is Guest Professor at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2016-2019), Distinguished Visiting Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei; 2017), and Specially Appointed Professor of Nanjing Foresty University (2016-2018).  He served as dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ghent University from 2010 till 2014. Since 2014 he is a member of the Board of Directors of Ghent University. Since 2004 Dr. De Smedt serves as the European Associate Editor of the Journal of Controlled Release (JCR), being a leading journal in Pharmacology & Pharmacy; In 2015 he became Editor of JCR (for the region Europe- the Middle East & Africa). In 2015 he has been elected as member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. In 2017 he joined the board of CRIG (cancer research institute Ghent). Dr. Stefaan De Smedt filed 15 patents on carriers (and adjuvants) for drug delivery, and materials (and methods) for diagnostics.  He is a scientific founder of Memobead Technologies, a spin-off from Ghent University, whose technology was further developed by Biocartis in Lausanne (Swiss) and Mechelen (Belgium). Currently MyCartis (Ghent) commercializes the technology. Dr. De Smedt is a member of the Drug Delivery Advisory Panel of Santen (Japan) specialized in ophthalmological medicines.

Categories
Team

Dr. Frank Deruyck

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

University College Ghent
Department of Chemistry
Valentin Vaerwyckweg 1
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Frank.Deruyck@hogent.be

+32 478 49 15 40

I obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry at UGent in 1988 and began an industrial career in Bekaert Technology Centre as R&D manager, process development engineer and finally global process owner wet drawing lubrication and steel cord – rubber adhesion; my main responsibility was leading Operation Excellence (OPEX) and product development projects. In this position I gained a wide experience in quality improvement tools, statistical data analysis & modelling and Design of Experiments. Achieving key process improvement projects goals I got qualified as ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt by American Society for Quality. After my industrial period, as independent consultant in R&D support and Design of Experiments, I was trainer Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma in pharma industry.

Actually at HOGENT for 10 years now, I am teaching TQM, Chemometrics, applied statistics and Industrial Chemistry. My mission is to put professional experience at the service of a next generation junior engineers and managers. I am also member of the HOGENT Centre of Applied Data Science platform that provides support in data processing to a variety of industrial service and R&D projects. In the JMP User Community I participate in instructive discussions about statistical data analysis and present case studies on discovery summits.

Categories
Team

Prof. Dr. Jo Dewulf

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Department of Green Chemistry and Technology
Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN)
Campus Coupure
Coupure Links 653
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Jo.Dewulf@UGent.be

+32 9 264 59 49

Jo Dewulf is full professor at Ghent University, Department of Sustainable Organic Chemistry and Technology. He holds a Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. in Bioscience Engineering. He focuses on resource consumption and efficiency analysis, relying mainly on thermodynamic principles and life cycle thinking. He makes thorough analyses at the process, plant and overall industrial system level, based on life cycle thinking and thermodynamic principles in order to find out opportunities for improvement (techniques: Exergy Analysis: EA; (Exergetic )Life Cycle Analysis: (E)LCA). Apart from methodological improvements, implementations and collaborations with industrial partners have been put in practice in three areas: fine chemicals and pharma, agro/bio/food, and secondary and primary raw materials. For his work, he obtained the prize of the Laureate of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Belgium in 2008. During 2013-2015, he worked as senior scientist at the European Commissions’ Joint Research Centre on the sustainable use of natural resources including resource efficiency, criticality, supply resilience, etc. His work is visible on the international scene, with more than 230 papers in international peer reviewed journals included in the Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded only), with about 6000 citations and an h-index of 42. He assisted to several international conference organisations and international journals, e.g. serving at the RCR editorial board.

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Team

Prof. Dr. Richard Hoogenboom

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Sciences
Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry
Campus Sterre
Krijgslaan 281, S4
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Richard.Hoogenboom@UGent.be

+32 9 264 44 82

Richard Hoogenboom (1978) studied chemical engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands). In 2005, he obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Ulrich S. Schubert and continued working as a project leader for the Dutch Polymer Institute. After postdoctoral training with Martin Moeller and Roeland Nolte, he was appointed as associate professor at Ghent University in 2010 and in October 2014 he was promoted to full professor. His research interests include stimuli-responsive polymers, supramolecular polymers, and poly(2-oxazoline)s. He has published > 400 scientific articles and is currently editor-in-chief for European Polymer Journal and associate editor for Australian Journal of Chemistry. Prof. Hoogenboom is the recipient of the inaugural Polymer Chemistry Lectureship (2015), the fifth PI IUPAC award (2016) and the ACS Macromolecules/Biomacromolecules young investigator award (2017).

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Team

Prof. Dr. Ir. Jeroen Lauwaert

Principal Investigator

Ghent University
Industrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology (INCAT)
Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering
Valentin Vaerwyckweg 1
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Jeroen.Lauwaert@ugent.be

+32 9 243 25 22

Jeroen Lauwaert is an assistant professor in sustainable industrial chemistry at the Industrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology research group of Ghent University, since September 2021. He started his doctoral research, on the design of cooperative acid-base catalysts for aldol reactions, at the Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT) in collaboration with the Center for Ordered Materials, Organometallics and Catalysis (COMOC) at the same university, in 2011. In 2014, he gained international experience while working in the group of prof. Jones in Atlanta, USA. Following the completion of his PhD in 2015, he joined Ghent University’s Industrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology (INCAT) research group as a postdoctoral assistant. In 2017 and 2020, his expertise in the broad field of chemical engineering, ranging from heterogenous catalysis and reaction engineering to thermodynamics and separation train design, was honored by FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders) with, respectively, a junior and a senior postdoctoral fellowship. In 2021, he was appointed as part-time (50%) assistant professor.

Today, prof. Lauwaert supervises 10 young researchers who primarily focus on process intensification for applications spanning from biomass valorisation to fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries. His research activities comprise a wide spectrum of fields.

One of the major themes is heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering, which involves synthesizing and characterizing catalysts and testing their performance in terms of activity, selectivity, and stability. Additionally, he develops intrinsic kinetic and industrial reactor models to optimize reaction conditions and design catalysts.

Secondly, prof. Lauwaert has expertise in adsorption technologies for the recovery of high value components that are present in low concentrations in waste streams. Furthermore, he aims to unravel the thermodynamics of molecules containing multiple functionalities and/or heteroatoms by developing thermodynamic models that can be applied to separation train design. Finally, a minor research topic of prof. Lauwaert aims at developing multidimensional chromatographic analysis techniques (liquid and gas) for complex mixtures, e.g., non-volatile aromatics.

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Team

Prof. Dr. Clara-Mihaela Ionescu

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
Research group on Dynamical Systems and Control
Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering
Tech Lane Ghent Science Park - Campus Ardoyen
Technologiepark 125, 2nd floor
B-9052 Gent, Belgium

ClaraMihaela.Ionescu@UGent.be

+32 9 264 56 08

Prof. Dr. ir. Clara Mihaela Ionescu is docent at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Dynamical Systems and Control research laboratory. She has 15 years expertise in process control, both in basic and advanced control strategies applied to chemical processes and manufacturing plants. Her know-how varies from fundamental control algorithms to hands on control tuning for non-control-specialised process operators. Her interests are in the pragmatic development of tools from control engineering area to the deployment thereof at the core of the production units. Specific challenges addressed in the past included: variable time delays, plant mismatch, multiple objective optimization in real time (with priorities) and sub-process interaction (train of process subunits). Specific control methodologies include: PID type, robust compensators design, predictive control and automatic tuning based on changes in operating point or product specification. She has an h-index of 22 in Web of Science with about 100 peer reviewed published articles. 

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Team

Prof. Dr. Ingmar Nopens

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Bioscience engineering
Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling
BIOMATH
Campus Coupure
Coupure Links 653
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Ingmar.Nopens@UGent.be

+32 9 264 59 39

Prof. Ingmar Nopens holds a MSc in Bio-science Engineering and a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences from Ghent University. He is full professor leading the BIOMATH research group at Ghent University. His main interest lies in Mathematical modeling using different frameworks like biokinetics, computational fluid dynamics and population balance models and combinations thereof. The aim is to develop highly predictive models that can serve as digital twins. Application areas are resource recovery (drinking, process and wastewater) and pharmaceutical engineering. He is co-founder of 2 startups in the water digitalization area: AM-Team.com and cobaltwater-global.com. He is an IWA fellow since 2011, the outgoing chair of the Specialist Group: Modelling and Integrated Assessment (MIA) and member of the steering committee of the IWA Digital Water Programme.

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Team

Prof. Dr. Chris Stevens

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Department of Green Chemistry and Technology
Synthesis, Bioresources and Bio-organic Chemistry Research Group (SynBioC)
Campus Coupure
Coupure Links 653
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Chris.Stevens@UGent.be

+32 9 264 59 57

Prof. Dr. Ir. Christian V. Stevens (°1965) is professor at the Department of Green Chemistry and Technology at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering (Ghent University). He graduated at the same department as bio-engineer in chemistry in 1988 and obtainded a PhD in 1992 as fellow of the National Fund for Scientific Research. During his PhD he also worked as a research assistant of the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, USA with Prof. C.E. McKenna.
After his PhD at Ghent University under the direction of Prof. N. De Kimpe, he did post-doctoral work at the Center for Heterocyclic Compounds at the University of Florida, USA under the direction of Prof. A. R. Katritzky as a NATO Research Fellow. He became group leader in the group of Prof. Katritzky in 1993. He returned as a postdoctoral fellow of the National Fund for Scientific Research. In 1994, he also made a short postdoctoral stay at the University of Alicante (Spain) under the direction of Prof. M. Yus.
In 1995, he became group leader of the National Fund for Scientific Research and became guest professor in 1997 at Ghent University. In 2000, he became professor at the current Faculty of Bioscience Engineering and developed the research group SynBioC of which he is the director. Since 2014, he is senior full professor.
His major research topics are:

  • Heterocyclic Synthesis
  • Microreactor Technology
  • Chemical modification of Renewable Resources
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Team

Prof. Dr. Joris Thybaut

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering
Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT)
Tech Lane Ghent Science Park - Campus Ardoyen
Technologiepark 125
B-9052 Gent, Belgium

Joris.Thybaut@ugent.be

+32 9 331 17 52

Joris W. Thybaut (°1975, Ghent Belgium) is full professor in catalytic reaction engineering at the Laboratory for Chemical Technology at Ghent University since October 2014. He obtained his master’s degree in chemical engineering in 1998 at the same university, where he continued his PhD studies on single-event microkinetic (SEMK) modeling of hydrocracking and hydrogenation. In 2003 he went to the ‘Institut des Recherches sur la Catalyse’ in Lyon, France, for a postdoc on high throughput experimentation, before being appointed in 2005 at Ghent University.

Today, prof. Thybaut is heading the Catalytic Reaction Engineering (CaRE) research group, comprising about 15 junior researchers and post-docs, within the Laboratory for Chemical Technology at Ghent University. Prof. Thybaut and his group actively investigate a variety of large-scale industrial reactions and more particularly, the rational design of the corresponding catalysts as well as of the reactors in which the corresponding reactions are exploited. Ideal gas phase reactions as well as strongly non-ideal liquid phase reactions are addressed. Research projects range from bilateral contracts with industry up to government funded large scale integrated projects. Prof. Thybaut holds an ERC consolidator grant to innovate the SEMK methodology and use it in the framework of renewable, oxygen containing feeds. More recently, as part of bilateral collaborations the scope of the investigated chemistry is further being extended towards inorganic reactions. Major efforts also go into VOC elimination using various oxidizing agents and conditions.

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Team

Prof. Dr. Paul Van Liedekerke

principal investigator

Ghent university
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Department of Data analysis and mathematical modelling
Coupure Links 653
9000 Gent

Paul.VanLiedekerke@UGent.be

+32 (0)9 264.59.32

Prof. dr. Paul Van Liedekerke is assistent professor at Ghent University. He holds a MSC in physics (University of Ghent), a PhD in bio-engineering (KULeuven) and a Habilitation from Sorbonne University, Paris.

Paul has worked at KULeuven (2001-2011) where has developed Discrete Element Methods to simulate granular flows in machinery, as well as Computation Fluids dynamics methods to simulate complex fluids.  From 2012 to 2022 he worked at INRIA de Paris as expert engineer where he created models and software to predict cellular growth (in vitro and in-vivo)  and living tissue development. During these years he collaborated with industrial partners on several occasions.

His interests and expertise lie in developing numerical models and new conceptual ideas such as hybrid modelling and digital twins, and applying those techniques in industry and medicine.  In a nutshell: simulations of granular flow and powders, simulations of cell growth and living tissues, simulations of bioreactors: cell yield and biologics, and software development.

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Team

Prof. Dr. Kevin Van Geem

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering
Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT)
Tech Lane Ghent Science Park - Campus Ardoyen
Technologiepark 125
B-9052 Gent, Belgium

Kevin.Vangeem@ugent.be

+32 9 264 55 97

Kevin Van Geem (full professor) is member of the Laboratory for Chemical Technology of Ghent University and director of the Center for Sustainable Chemistry. Thermochemical reaction engineering in general and in particular the transition from fossil to renewable resources are his main research interests. He is a former Fulbright Research Scholar of MIT, visiting professor of Stanford and coordinates the experiments on more than a dozen pilot plant an d bench scale units. He is the author of more than two hundred scientific publications and has recently started his own spin-off company. He is involved in on-line and off-line analysis of complex petrochemical and biochemical samples using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography. Artificial intelligence, first principle model development, scale-up, and process intensification belong to his main expertise. He is currently the coordinator of 3 different large-scale projects: IMPROOF (SPIRE H2020, Scientific coordinator 2016-2020), OPTIMA (ERC consolidator, Scientific coordinator, 2019-2024), WATCH (Catalisti, Scientific coordinator 2019-2023).

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Team

Prof. Dr. Chris Vervaet

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ghent University
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology
Campus Heymans
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Chris.Vervaet@UGent.be

+32 9 264 80 69

Chris Vervaet is a pharmacist and obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ghent University in 1997. After a post-doc in the Aerosol Research Group at the Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, Virginia, US) he was appointed in 2000 as professor at the Department of Pharmaceutics (Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University). Since 2013 he is chair of the Department of Pharmaceutics, and since 2015 he is director of the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical technology. His research focuses on drug delivery, more specifically on the development of innovative solid dosage forms for oral applications. His fields of expertise are drug compounding, pharmaceutical technology, sustained drug release, continuous manufacturing, granulation/tableting, hot-melt extrusion and extrusion/spheronisation. His research intensively collaborates with equipment manufacturers as well as pharmaceutical companies for the introduction of continuous manufacturing within the pharmaceutical industry, e.g. continuous wet granulation, continuous feeding/blending, continuous freeze drying. The department is affiliated with several international research clusters, e.g. the Pharmaceutical Solid State Research Cluster (with partners from Helsinki, Lille, Leuven, Dusseldorf, Cambridge, Graz, Otago, Lisbon, Ljubljana and Copenhagen) and the Interreg IMODE cluster (with members of Lille, East Anglia, London, Greenwich and Cambridge). He has supervised 38 PhD students (since 2000), published about 260 internationally peer reviewed articles and 8 books chapters, and has filed 19 patent applications. He is member of the board of the Belgian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences (since 2013), and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology and the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.