Short biography

2008 - Head of Animal Cell Technology Group at the Division of Bioproduction, KTH

2000 - Senior Project Manager for the development of biopharmaceutical processes based on mammalian cell cultivation, Pharmacia / Biovitrum, Sweden

1997 - Head of Eucaryotic Pilot Plant at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Sweden

1996 - Laboratory engineer (eucaryotic cultivation) at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Sweden

1995 - Visiting Fellow at the Department of Biotechnology (Peter Gray, Chris Marquis), University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

1995 - Ph.D. in Applied Sciences (Automatic Control/Biotechnology), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

1988 - M. Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

1985 - M. Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Open positions

No open position

Research interests

The research of the Animal Cell Technology Group is focussed 1) on actual problems met in the biopharmaceutical industry in the development of animal cell cultivation processes and 2) on stem cells.

·      Development of a nutrient cocktail for cultivation medium free of animal-derived components by metabolic reaction network (in collaboration with the Dept. of Automatic Control, KTH) – tool: mathematical modelling approach issued from metabolic flux analysis information

·      Development of medium free of animal derived components for Chinese Hamster Ovary cell cultivation – tools: DoE, multi-well plate screening, GFP

·      Study of the effect of high pH and alkali addition in a cultivation of Chinese Hamster Ovary cell – tools: metabolic analysis, proteomics

·      Perfusion by ATF filtration system in Chinese Hamster Ovary cell cultivation (sponsor: Irvine Scientific, CA, USA and sponsor/collaboration with GE Healthcare, Uppsala, Sweden)

·      Development of process methods for large-scale culture of human embryonic stem cells and bio-engineered platforms that enhance cell proliferation and long-term survival of stem cell derived neurons (in collaboration with the Division of Alzheimer Neurobiology, Clinic of Geriatric Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge)

·      Development of process methods for large-scale culture of multipotent human spinal cord-derived neurospheres, human neural precursor cells for cell therapy methods to repair the injured human spinal cord (in collaboration with the Neurodegeneration, Geriatric Clinic Res Lab, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge)

Service

The Cell Technology group offers a service of development of animal cell based processes suitable for industrial production of biopharmaceutical (e.g. antibody, glycoprotein) in CHO or NS0 cell-based system in preparation for clinical phase I manufacturing.

The following services are available:

• Development of GLP cultivation process suitable for the industrial production of glycoproteins in view of transfer to a GMP pilot plant

·      expertise from more than 10 years experience in biopharmaceutical industry (at Biovitrum, previously Pharmacia) in biopharmaceutical process development management (including product like e.g. factor VIII, MAb), animal cell cultivation process development, perfusion, fed-batch, up-scaling, commercial production technical support, business development support and counselling

·      development of fed-batch process

·      development of perfusion process using ATF (Refine)

·      development screening in CO2 incubators (shake flasks, spinners, etc.), e.g. study of feed rate and feed media

·      process optimization in bioreactor scale (bioreactors (Belach): from 1 L to 20 L and GRETA six-pack mini-bioreactor screening system), e.g. study of feed rate and feed media, effect of pH, temperature, carbon dioxide partial pressure, osmolarity, etc.

·      process up-scale in 20 L bioreactor (Belach), e.g. effect of aeration and gas bubbling, effect carbon dioxide partial pressure, shear stress, etc.

·      study of cell metabolism, e.g. measurements of cell density, cell viability, pH, pCO2, pO2, concentrations of glucose, lactate, glutamine, ammonium by Nova BioProfile FLEX, analysis of free amino acid by HPLC, flow cytometry

·      cell line production stability study

·      development of seed train

·      process development historical report

·      process description report in view of transfer to GMP pilot plant

• Production of material for toxicological study in 20 L bioreactor

• Production of protein of interest in transient systems like HEK293 EBNA, insect cells, etc.

• Analytical support

·      cell metabolism by Nova BioProfile FLEX (measurements of cell density, cell viability, pH, pCO2, pO2, concentrations of glucose, lactate, glutamine, ammonium)

·      analysis of free amino acid by HPLC

·      flow cytometry

·      IgG concentration by protein A HPLC

·      ELISA (e.g. HCP)

·      electrophoresis

• The development of purification process is performed at our pilot plant http://www.biotech.kth.se/bioprocess/pilot_plant/downstream.html

/Latest update April, 18, 2011