Biopharma scale-up lessons to learn for cell & gene therapy

Prof Nik Willoughby is Professor of Bioprocessing and Deputy Director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering at Heriot Watt University. Nik carried out his PhD at University College London in Biochemical Engineering, and his research interests focus on applying engineering principles to biological challenges. Primarily working in downstream processing, Nik has moved the focus of his research over the past 20 years from protein therapeutics to more complex cellular targets. His research group have worked with a wide range of cell types but primarily have focused on red blood cells, working with the NovoSang consortium – with the ultimate objective of developing passive, scalable, label-free solutions for separation of heterogeneous cell populations manufactured from multipotent and pluripotent cell sources.
Nik has spent time in both industry and academia, in the former managing the Protein Purification group at Metris Therapeutics as well as working for Lonza Biologics in cell culture development, and in the latter helping to establish the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre for Bioprocessing at UCL before setting up the Cellular Bioprocessing Group at Heriot Watt.

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