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人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基础上。该计划探索在两个广泛的研究领域推进知识和找到解决方案：(a)色谱：重组治疗性蛋白质药物构成生物制药行业增长最快的部门，无论是在全球所需的产品数量和正在进行临床试验的新药数量。在细胞系生产和细胞培养生物反应器工艺前沿，上游工艺平台的技术进步已经显著发展，导致产品滴度大幅增加，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%。考虑两类下游净化处理技术：(i)将细菌过度表达过程中产生的无活性和错误折叠包体蛋白转化为可溶性生物活性产物及其纯化的创新方法，以及（ii）纯化哺乳动物细胞中产生的抗体、疫苗和激素的高效平台，这需要开发基于多柱连续色谱中溶剂梯度方法的新的多组分分离技术。(b)光催化：光催化是一种很有前途的环境友好技术，广泛应用于生产清洁氢气和清除有毒污染物。拟议的研究将开发变革性的天然染料敏化太阳能光催化技术，解决阻碍其大规模应用的所有挑战，包括：(1)生产不排放温室气体的高纯度可持续氢能源，完全绕过碳循环，以及(2)水中微污染物的高速处理。

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.