UC Berkeley Master of Bioprocess Engineering

Congrats to recent MBPE grad Anna!!

Cheers to the Fall 2024 semester of UC Berkeley's CHMENG 170A Biochemical Engineering! This week our 59 students & aspiring bioprocess engineers presented their "pet biomolecule" term projects to our friends & industry colleagues from AbbVie, ADM, Amyris, Astellas Gene Therapies, Bayer | Pharmaceuticals, BioMADE, Bionova Scientific, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cytiva, The EVERY Company, Eppendorf , Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Hawkwood Biotech Partners, IFF, Invert, Izote Biosciences, Merck, MycoWorks, Oobli, Plastus Biotech, UPSIDE Foods, Vaxcyte, Visolis & ZymoChem. This Bay Area to Sacramento Valley bioprocessing block party was a perfect opportunity for our students to share all that they have learned on living cells, the bio-based products they make, and how to build processes around them (like fermentation & cell culture!) with applications spanning climate, health, and food. To this end, our Fall 2024 CBE 170A term projects covered the breadth of the biopharmaceutical, industrial biotech & food tech industries with nine monoclonal antibodies (crovalimab, epcoritamab, elranatamab, odronextamab, rozanolixizumab, secukinumab, sugemalimab, talquetamab & tocilizumab!), two therapeutic snake venoms (captopril & tirofiban!), a new take on an old biotech favorite (low cost insulin!), two bio-based plastics (PHAs & PHBs!), edible oils (fermentation-based palm oil!), and a sweet treat for dessert (cultured chocolate!). A bona fide celebration of bioprocessing - something for everyone!!! A HUGE THANKS (!!!) to my phenomenal colleagues & co-instructors Wenjun Zhang, Brian Maiorella, and David Schaffer as well as superstar graduate student instructors Dunya Al Marzooqi & Falcon Iverson Soedarsono. There's something really special going on in bioprocess engineering education at Cal... Up next: CHMENG 170B in Spring 2025 on the recovery, separations, and purification of bio-based products! If you and your company have interesting opportunities to match these amazing bioprocess engineers with a bioprocess or product, please send me a DM! GO BEARS!!! 👍🐻💙💛 #ucberkeley #biobased #bioeconomy #bioprocessing #biotech #biopharma #cellculture #cellandgenetherapy #fermentation #foodtech

Check out what one of our current MBPE students has been up to this semester!

Last week UC Berkeley's CBE 170L Biochemical Engineering Laboratory featured one of my favorite bioprocess superhero team-ups of the semester: Stephen Hubbard of Eppendorf joined forces with co-instructor Shu Pan of Amyris for a power session on fermentation operations showcasing our two bench-scale BioFlo 320 bioreactors. Supporting the life sciences for over 75 years, Eppendorf is a bioprocess equipment manufacturer offering both scalable & single-use bioreactors spanning 250 mL to 40 L working volumes. Hands-on experience with modern bioprocess equipment, instruments & control systems is not only critical for our students to translate their classroom fundamentals into meaningful laboratory applications, it is absolutely necessary to prepare them for their future careers in the biopharma, industrial biotech & food tech industries. An ultra-reliable partner & unwavering enthusiast for building our biotech community, Stephen kicked-off our session with Eppendorf's origin story, its portfolio of bioprocess solutions, and a few case studies on how to better manage data from R&D through pilot / production-scale. Then TO THE LABORATORY, STUDENTS (!!!) where Stephen united with Shu for a live demonstration of their superpowers in teaching how to set up a bench-scale bioreactor (head plate, condenser, probes, etc.) for success in either microbial fermentation or mammalian cell culture. To this end, our aspiring scientists & engineers spent the remainder of the afternoon flexing their bioprocess muscles by measuring volumetric mass transfer coefficients (or kLa, a key measure of oxygen transfer in aerobic systems) using both Rushton & marine impellers in their 3L glass bioreactors... Super-useful & power pose-worthy! A BIG THANKS (!!!) to Stephen, Shu, Eppendorf & Amyris for the opportunity to bring their bioprocess superhero universes together for our students! I can't wait for all of the on campus sequels... 🤩 GO BEARS!!! 👍🐻💙💛 P.S. Fellow bioprocess scientists & engineers ASSEMBLE!!! Building on the above, there is a literal MULTIVERSE of opportunities to participate in our shared bioprocess learning experience at UC Berkeley spanning guest lectures, laboratory sessions, and (of course) our semi-annual 170A/B "pet biomolecule" term project celebrations (coming up soon on Tue 10 Dec, 10am-noon at B1 Stanley Hall). If you would like to join the League, please send me a DM! 🦸♀️🦹 UC Berkeley Master of Bioprocess Engineering #ucberkeley #biobased #bioeconomy #biomanufacturing #bioprocessing #biotechnology #fermentation #cellculture

This week in UC Berkeley's Seminar in Bioprocess Engineering, our students took their third field trip of the semester to the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub (BBH). Just steps away from campus in Woo Hon Fai Hall, BBH is a beautiful four-story, 40k square-foot facility designed to support early-stage, life sciences startup companies. Within BBH, Bakar Labs is an incubator & lab space created through a collaboration between UC Berkeley and QB3, a UC-wide institute that supports entrepreneurship & UC research programs. Together they form an ecosystem supporting a community of 40+ startups spanning the development of cutting-edge therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, research tools, and more. Managing Director (and PMB alum!) Susan Jenkins welcomed our aspiring bioprocess scientist & engineers to BBH with a few Bear facts: globally UC Berkeley ranks #1 in VC-backed startups founded by alumni as well as total number of founders, female founders, and female-led VC-backed startups. Building on this theme, we were joined by ERG alum Beth Zotter of Umaro Foods, Chanez Symister of CatenaBio, and Haas MBA candidate Veronica Peltz (formerly) of Radar Therapeutics for a panel discussion on life in an early-stage biotech startup at BBH. Among the many enthusiastic reasons cited to come to Bakar Labs at BBH included access to UC Berkeley's faculty & resources, collaboration with other companies, and (of course) the opportunity to hire students & graduates as interns & full-time employees :) We wrapped-up our visit with a walk through the BBH facility, including a peak into the world-class, multi-level laboratories where many of our fellow students & alumni were hard at work... A BIG THANKS (!!!) to Susan, Beth, Chanez & Veronica for a truly inspiring afternoon of entrepreneurship & innovation at BBH! GO BEARS!!! 👍🐻💙💛 UC Berkeley Master of Bioprocess Engineering #ucberkeley #biobased #bioeconomy #biomanufacturing #biopharma #bioprocessing #biotechnology #biotherapeutics

Discover the kind of engaging and insightful lectures you will experience as an MBPE student!

This week in UC Berkeley's Seminar in Bioprocess Engineering, our students welcomed back to campus CBE alum Dave Humbird of DWH Process Consulting for a masterclass on techno-economic analysis (TEA) of bio-based processes & products. A veteran chemical engineer with experience spanning renewable fuels, industrial biotech, alternative proteins and more, Dave is among the world's experts in process flowsheet simulation, physical equipment modeling & cost estimation for early-stage bioprocesses. Through his consultancy, he helps technology developers as well as government, academic & non-profit groups better understand unit economics, cost drivers & success metrics in the renewable chemicals, biorefining, synthetic biology, and food & beverage sectors. He has also shared some of this work through peer-reviewed publications on the biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol & the scale-up economics of cultivated meat. Dave started off our seminar with a few words on synthetic biology and its enduring promise of improving sustainability across sectors - a significant opportunity where the scalability & economics of such ventures are often unproven. Setting the stage for an objective evaluation, next he took our students through the rigorous process of TEA complete with host selection, biochemical reaction stoichiometry, process design & simulation, cost estimation and profitability analysis. Using the well-known economics of baker's yeast as a framework for comparison, Dave then presented contrasting case studies on biofuels, cultivated meat & precision fermentation. Focusing on just three key quantities (yield, capital & operating expenses) and their respective impact on production costs, he illustrated the critical challenges & opportunities remaining for the future commercialization of each of these industries. Ending on a high note, Dave wrapped up our highly interactive session with a few of the bio-based technologies, processes & products he is excited about, as well as a few recommendations on how our students can practice actionable TEA throughout their careers to help make the many promises of biotechnology come true. A BIG THANKS (!!!) to Dave for sharing his 25 years of best practices & learnings in techno-economic analysis with our aspiring bioprocess scientists & engineers! GO BEARS!!! 👍🐻💙💛 #ucberkeley #biobased #bioeconomy #biomanufacturing #bioprocessing #biotechnology #cellculture #fermentation #foodtech #scaleup #technoeconomicanalysis

This week in UC Berkeley's Seminar in Bioprocess Engineering, our students took their second field trip of the Fall 2024 semester to the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU). Just down the hill from campus in nearby Emeryville, ABPDU is a world class pilot-scale bioprocessing facility designed to support the development & scale-up of biofuels, biomaterials, and other biochemical products. As part of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, ABPDU was established by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to help ramp up the bioeconomy. To do this, the team at ABPDU works with early stage startups to successfully scale their bio-based processes & products from the laboratory to pilot-scale (and beyond!). To help grow the biomanufacturing workforce, ABPDU partners with UC Berkeley Master of Bioprocess Engineering (MBPE) program to host the capstone CHMENG 275L Advanced Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory during the Spring semester. This one-of-a-kind, pilot-scale course features hands-on training and experiments with the Sartorius Ambr250 high throughput bioreactor platform, ABEC 300L stainless steel bioreactor, Alfa Laval MBPX 404S disc stack centrifuge, Alfa Laval M20 filtration skid, and Cytiva ÄKTA Avant chromatography unit. All are common bioprocessing equipment used across the biopharmaceutical, industrial biotech, and food tech industries. A BIG THANKS (!!!) to Laura Fernandez, Asun Oka, Eric Sundstrom, Jenny Duong, James Gardner, and Deepti Tanjore as well as superstar MBPE alumni Ta-Hsuan (David) Chang and Kirch Czarina Quijano for the opportunity to spend an afternoon with both you and your bioprocess unit ops! Our aspiring bioprocess scientists and engineers look forward to spending even more time together in Spring 2025 :) GO BEARS!!! 👍🐻💙💛 #ucberkeley #biobased #biochemical #bioeconomy #biofuels #biomaterials #biomanufacturing #biotechnology #fermentation #downstreamprocessing #scaleup #techtransfer

The latest issue of The Reactor is out now! Featuring news on our collaboration with Mango Materials, a story on our partnership with UC Berkeley Master of Bioprocess Engineering, and much more. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gzfYQQ7Q Not subscribed to our quarterly newsletter? Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/diDvbPS #bioeconomy #bioproducts #biomanufacturing #bioprocessing Berkeley Lab Biosciences Area at Berkeley Lab

Join us at one of our upcoming info sessions to learn more about our Masters in Bioprocess Engineering Program! https://lnkd.in/gkerxrbD Check out our website here: https://lnkd.in/gy4v_NMm Apply here: https://lnkd.in/ghUZYYyz