Collaborative development of a new fill/finish instrument

Alaina Schlinker has provided application support for the LOVO Cell Processing System since its commercial launch in June 2014. Alaina and her team work with customers to optimize the LOVO Cell Processing System to meet specific applications throughout the cell therapy manufacturing workflow. Alaina’s team alsoworks closely with the Fresenius Kabi R&D group, collaborating to bring customer feedback and Fresenius Kabi’s core competencies together in the development of new technology.

Alaina has degrees in chemical engineering (BS from University of Southern California and PhD from Northwestern University). Her thesis research focused on in vitro platelet production from CD34+ stem and progenitor cells as alternative source of platelets for patients.

At HCATS David combines his engineering background with the skills and techniques acquired from the Regenerative Medicine field to advance process development for the manufacture of cell therapy products. David currently is the Director of Research and Development at HCATS, where he leads two teams, the first to constantly think beyond current cell therapy manufacturing practices to help clients and the industry develop approaches that address the core challenges presented by cell-based therapies. The second team are the implementers, working on behalf of clients to build processes and analytics with these technologies for phase appropriate solutions to meet their needs, be it early stage trials, or commercially viable solutions.

Prior to joining HCATS David completed his PhD at Loughborough University in Regenerative Medicine looking at scale up approaches which allowed him to utilize his Biochemical Engineering degree from the University of Bath.

Jahid is a Senior Process Development Scientist in the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s Industrialisation team where he has spent the last 6 years developing processes across the cell therapy spectrum. He specialises in bioprocess translation with a strong focus on process automation and scale up.

Jahid currently leads the core-funded differentiation programme at CGTC and is also responsible for several device development projects looking at novel downstream processing applications. He originally trained as a Biochemical Engineer at University College London before obtaining a doctorate degree in Tissue Engineering from the University of Leeds in 2014.