Biochemical Engineering MSc

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The objective of the UCL Biochemical Engineering MSc is to better enable UK companies to capture the added value associated with knowledge-intensive, high-technology (bio)manufacture. We specifically address practical bioprocess skills needs identified in recent BIGT, ABPI and IB-IGT reports and highlight new opportunities and bioprocess challenges in Industrial Biotechnology and cost-effective global healthcare provision. The existing course has a proven track record of providing high quality interdisciplinary postgraduate education. The new MSc programme will build on this to offer two streams, one for bioscience or chemistry graduates and the other for engineering graduates. Students on both streams will be trained to understand how advances in the life sciences and chemistry can most effectively be translated into real outcomes of benefit to all. Close linkage to the research activities of The Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering (ACBE) ensures that training is built around the latest scientific discoveries and bioprocessing technologies. New micro biochemical engineering and modelling approaches to scale-down experimentation, now being taken up by our industrial collaborators, provide the basis on which students can explore a range of emerging bioprocess challenges and establish scale-up predictions to be verified in our unique pilot plant facilities. The content of the MSc programmes will benefit considerably from linkage to the department's post experience MBI Training Programme, in which some 80 industrial experts help deliver to industrial delegates, alongside MSc students. The new programme will be divided into four distinct but related elements. 1) CONVERSION ELEMENTS (45 Credits) - Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals (for science graduates). To provide the fundamentals of process engineering relevant to the handling of biological materials and the application of numerical techniques to describe biological systems. - Advanced Life Sciences (for engineering graduates). To provide insights into the function of cells and proteins and their molecular engineering or evolution to enhance efficency and bioprocess performance. 2) ADVANCED BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING & BIOPROCESS IMPLEMENTATION (60 Credits) These core elements will teach the design of bio-based manufacturing, i.e. fermentation & biotransformation, subsequent recovery, purification and formulation of products. This will be supported by a series of experiments on individual unit operations. New micro biochemical approaches to scale-down will broaden the student's practical knowledge. Information obtained will lead into research/design projects and be verified experimentally during week-long whole bioprocess studies in the department's pilot plant facility. 3) RESEARCH OR DESIGN PROJECT (45 Credits) The elements above are completed concurrently in the first 8 months so that the skills gained may be applied to either a design or research project. - Bioprocess Design Project For graduate scientists wishing to obtain Chartered Engineer status this is a vital part of the programme. It involves the complete design of a bioprocess, together with economic and safety analyses, and validation considerations. In 2009 the project examined the requirements for a pandemic flu vaccine. - Bioprocess Research Project Each candidate carries out an original research project of their choice, under the supervision of a member of academic staff. The students are fully integrated into one of the multidisciplinary research teams within the ACBE. Topics range from chemo-enzymatic synthesis to therapeutic antibody and stem cell bioprocessing. 4) MANAGEMENT OF BIOPROCESS VENTURES (30 Credits) This element recognises that discovery of new products and processes is often driven by small, high-tech companies. It is centred on production and presentation of a bioprocess business plan.