PhD position in Chemical Engineering

PROJECT TITLE. Spray freeze-drying as an emerging technology for the preservation of biological macromolecules (LYOSPRAY)

DESCRIPTION OF THE POSITION. A PhD opportunity is available for a student with a relevant Honours/Masters degree to join the Molecular Engineering Lab at Politecnico di Torino. The successful candidate will be enrolled in a higher degree (PhD) by research at Politecnico di Torino and contribute to a research project in the field of lyophilization of bioproducts and continuous manufacturing. The PhD candidate will spend the first 24 months at Politecnico di Torino working under the supervision of Prof. Roberto Pisano and the remaining 18 months at Kyoto University under the supervision of Prof. Kyuya.

CONTACT INFO. Prof. Roberto Pisano, Politecnico di Torino, e-mail: roberto.pisano@polito.it
Website: http://www.disat.polito.it/it/la_ricerca/gruppi_di_ricerca/musychen/molecular_engineering_lab_mole

ENQUIRES AND APPLICATION PROCESS. Please contact Professor Roberto Pisano (e-mail: roberto.pisano@polito.it) in the first instance. You may then be asked to provide the following documentation: Cover letter, Complete Tertiary Academic Records (with grades/GPA scores, and official grading scale details), and detailed Academic Resume/CV.

BACKGROUND. There is a growing interest in continuous manufacturing technologies for the pharmaceutical industry. To provide an example, over the last decade the US pharmaceutical industry has made significant investments in continuous manufacturing (approximately a billion dollars in aggregate) so as to promote the development of new architectures with smaller and more agile facilities. A similar investment is also expected in Europe and Japan within few years, as they host lots of big Pharma and food companies. The present project aims to develop a new technology that enables continuous and much faster production of biological macromolecules. More specifically, the project is focused on the lyophilization process, which is a downstream transformation and is usually the bottleneck of the entire chain of production of biopharmaceuticals. This new process concept combines spray freezing and vacuum drying so as to enable more reliable production through an uninterrupted process.

OBJECTIVES. LYOSPRAY aims to develop a new and exciting technology that enables continuous production of lyophilized microparticles. This technology can be used to stabilize and preserve the biological activity of lots of macromolecules that are of interest for both agriculture and pharmaceutical/medical applications. More specifically, LYOSPRAY aims at various objectives:
1. Development of a new process concept for the stabilization of biomolecules through lyophilization.
2. Application of the developed technology to a model biological product.
3. Evaluation of market opportunities for the developed technology.
As an alternative, the following aspects might be object of investigation:
1. Modeling of drying for a packed-bed of frozen particles.
2. Modeling of mass and momentum transport of rarefied gas through porous media.

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES. LYOSPRAY is a multidisciplinary study; some of the multiple academic disciplines that might potentially be involved are: Chemical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Science, Agriculture Science, and Biology. Experience/interest in Computational Fluid Dynamics, process modeling, process development and design would be an advantage. Further requirements include: excellent English speaker and writer, adaptability to join a fast-paced research team, and team working.