Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The proposed research program builds on the strengths of past research efforts undertaken by the applicant on process development of chromatographic and photocatalytic technologies. This program explores to advance knowledge and find solutions in two broad research fields: (a) Chromatography: Recombinant therapeutic protein drugs constitute the fastest growing sector of the bio-pharmaceutical industry both in the amount of products required globally and the number of new drugs undergoing clinical trials. Technological advances in upstream process platform have evolved significantly, both on the cell line production and cell culture bioreactor process fronts, leading to large increases in product titers, diverting challenges to downstream process development mainly for separation and purification that comprise 50-70% of total manufacturing costs. Two classes of downstream purification processing technology are considered: (i) innovative methods for conversion of inactive and misfolded inclusion body proteins produced during bacterial over-expression into soluble bio-active products and its purification, and (ii) efficient platform for purification of antibodies, vaccines and hormones produced in mammalian cells that requires development of new multi-component separation technologies based on solvent gradient approach in multi-column continuous chromatography. (b) Photocatalysis: Photocatalysis is a promising environmentally friendly technology that finds extensive applications in producing clean hydrogen and removal of toxic pollutants. The proposed research will develop transformative natural dye-sensitized solar photocatalysis expertise addressing all challenges impeding its large-scale application for (i) producing high purity sustainable hydrogen energy that does not emit greenhouse gases bypassing entirely the carbon cycle, and (ii) high-rate treatment of micro-pollutants present in water.******Our work is aimed at synthesis of new eco-friendly materials, development of innovative process design, inventing new approaches for process intensification, and optimal operation of such process systems. The motivation of the proposed research program is to obtain a deep understanding required to develop the next generation of technologies to produce valuable therapeutic pure health products, new water treatment technologies and energy sources with improved efficiency, process simplicity, and lower costs. The key objectives in the program are to develop an integrated multi-disciplinary comprehensive research and training program for well-rounded graduates with sound technical, scientific, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills. This cutting-edge research is expected to result in state-of-the-art technology development for applications in tomorrow's energy, environment and health, most important global challenges faced by humanity.