Professor Croughan to Deliver Keynote at Life Sciences Summit
Professor Matthew Croughan, PhD, will deliver a keynote presentation at IBC Life Sciences' 6th Annual Cell Line Development and Engineering Summit, being held June 21-23 in San Francisco. The program attracts thought leaders from business and academia to collectively examine and provide solutions to industry's challenges.
Croughan, KGI's George B. and Joy Rathmann professor and director of the Amgen Bioprocessing Center, will discuss, "Beyond High Titers: The Future of Cell Line Engineering."
Over the past 25 years, the breadth of cell line engineering has been expanding, according to Croughan. "Many biotechnologists have successfully engineered animal cells to make higher and higher levels (titers) of therapeutic proteins," he says. "There has been so much success, in fact, that some ask: 'What is next — beyond just higher titers?'"
Croughan's presentation will address the many other challenges scientists are facing in this developing field, including faster and cheaper manufacturing, purification and delivery of new and improved products. "These goals will be achieved through collaboration with many others, including experts in bioreactor and medium design," he says.
In addition to his full-time teaching and research duties at KGI, Croughan continues to work as an independent consultant, providing expert guidance on biopharmaceutical process development and manufacturing issues for more than 50 firms, including Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Maxygen, Alavita, Xoma and Schering-Plough.
Croughan was the chief scientist for Genentech's cell culture facility in Vacaville, CA, built for the production of therapeutic antibodies. Earlier at Genentech, he developed the first FDA-licensed, fed-batch CHO cell culture process, a breakthrough platform technology now used throughout the biopharmaceutical industry.
For more information on the Cell Line Engineering Summit, visit online at www.IBCLifeSciences.com/CellLine, or call 800-390-4078.