Platform to Advance Chromatographic and Photocatalytic Technologies for Applications in Health, Energy and Environment

拟议的研究计划建立在申请者过去在色谱和光催化技术的工艺开发方面所做的研究工作的优势之上。该计划探索在两个广泛的研究领域推进知识和寻找解决方案：(A)色谱学：重组治疗性蛋白药物是生物制药行业中增长最快的部门，无论是在全球所需的产品数量上还是在临床试验中的新药数量上都是如此。上游工艺平台的技术进步显著，包括细胞线生产和细胞培养生物反应器工艺前沿，导致产品效价大幅增加，将挑战转移到下游工艺开发，主要是分离和纯化，占总制造成本的50%-70%。考虑了两类下游纯化加工技术：(I)将细菌过度表达产生的失活和错误折叠的包涵体蛋白转化为可溶性生物活性产品及其纯化的创新方法；(Ii)用于纯化哺乳动物细胞产生的抗体、疫苗和激素的有效平台，这需要开发基于多柱连续层析的溶剂梯度法的新的多组分分离技术。(B)光催化：光催化是一种前景看好的环境友好技术，在生产清洁氢气和去除有毒污染物方面有着广泛的应用。拟议的研究将开发变革性的天然染料敏化太阳能光催化专门知识，以应对阻碍其大规模应用的所有挑战，包括：(1)生产不会完全绕过碳循环排放温室气体的高纯度可持续氢能，以及(2)对水中存在的微污染物进行高速处理。 我们的工作旨在合成新的环保材料，开发创新的工艺设计，发明工艺强化的新方法，并优化此类工艺系统。拟议研究计划的动机是获得所需的深入了解，以开发下一代技术，以生产具有价值的治疗性纯健康产品、新的水处理技术和能源，以提高效率、工艺简单和降低成本。该计划的主要目标是为具有健全的技术、科学、领导力和创业技能的全面发展的毕业生开发一个综合的多学科综合研究和培训计划。这项尖端研究预计将导致最先进的技术开发，应用于未来的能源、环境和健康，这是人类面临的最重要的全球挑战。

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.