What's happening in and around the Park? Here's an update from the team at the Illinois Science + Technology Park. | |
Cour Pharmaceuticals: New COO | |
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COUR Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel immune-modifying nanoparticles designed to reprogram the immune system, announced the appointment of Dannielle Appelhans as Chief Operating Officer. In this role, Ms. Appelhans will oversee and execute the Company's research and development, technical development, technical operations, and quality as well as be a significant contributor to corporate strategy and other business operations.
Ms. Appelhans served most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of Rubius Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded and clinical-phase biopharmaceutical company pioneering cellular medicines. She previously served as its Chief Operating Officer, where she oversaw corporate strategy, communications, quality, technical development, and operations.
Prior to joining Rubius, she worked at Novartis and held roles of increasing responsibility in operations and strategy culminating in her serving as Senior Vice President of Technical Operations and Chief Technical Officer at Novartis Gene Therapies, where she oversaw late-stage clinical development and commercial manufacturing.
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Said John J. Puisis of COUR, "Dannielle's operating experience will be pivotal in accelerating COUR's therapeutic programs and positioning COUR in becoming a world class leader in antigen-specific immune tolerance."
Click for the complete announcement.
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The preclinical site is an in vitro facility specializing in large molecule bioanalysis, immunogenicity, and genetic and in vitro toxicology for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, agrochemical, and food companies. Capabilities include:
Genetic Toxicology:
Assess the mutagenic potential of your compound before widespread usage in humans with a range of genetic toxicology studies. The Skokie preclinical facility offers both non-GLP and GLP assays with both in vitro and in vivo testing:
Laboratory Science Services:
The scientists at the preclinical facility can perform laboratory science services including clinical and nonclinical bioanalysis (immunoassay) for your large molecule, key for every stage of product development. Scientists also have expertise in immunogenicity testing services, revealing a biotherapeutic’s potential to create an antigen-induced immune response:
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Chicago: Top Manufacturing Metro | |
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Chicagoland offers manufacturers a distinct advantage: Manufacturers are able to access a robust ecosystem of suppliers and customers within the region. In fact, manufacturers in Chicago source nearly 50% of inputs in-region.
Illinois is an advanced manufacturing powerhouse. The Chicago region boasts a history in industrial excellence, which has evolved into an advanced, technology-led sector of today's economy. In addition to being the center of the Midwest — which gives rise to a top-ranked passenger and freight transportation network — manufacturing companies in Illinois reap the benefits of affordable energy rates and deregulation, including a low-cost, high-quality water supply.
Illinois ranks higher for innovation activities — 5th — than it does for Research and Development (R&D) — 10th. R&D is but one type of innovation activity, suggesting that Illinois is often overlooked as a research and innovation hub. Moreover, Illinois has one of the highest effectiveness in value and revenue creation for its manufacturing sector.
Chicago is home to 24 innovation centers, 72 incubators and accelerators, 32 R&D labs, 3 R1 research universities, and 2 federal labs. For the complete report, click here.
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Facing the Future of Aseptic Manufacturing | |
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By the end of 2022, biologic-based drug approvals accounted for a slightly larger proportion of approvals than the number of small-molecule new molecular entity approvals. With this shift in focus for the industry toward more complex molecules that are prone to degradation comes an increased need for more careful manufacturing processes that can ensure contamination-free end products are made.
Largely driven by this exponential increase in demand for biopharmaceuticals, the aseptic pharmaceutical processing market is estimated to grow at a compound annual rate of 7.9% between 2021 and 2031.
Looking at technology, Joerg Zimmermann, vice president Vetter Development Service, External Affairs, reveals that there is a clear trend toward more automation and the introduction of robots in aseptic manufacturing, along with digitalization of all processes via the Internet-of-Things or Pharma 4.0. “All this [change] is leading to even more robust and safe processes for manufacturing sterile drug products,” he says.
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A New Era of Precision Medicine | |
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Launching a New Era of Precision Medicine through Protein Chemistry and Biology.
Groundbreaking technologies for the analysis of human proteins developed by the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP) distinguish Northwestern as a world leader in the fast-growing field of proteomics and protein sequencing, the next great wave in discovery science.
In collaboration with Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, CLP is using this new knowledge of protein structure and function to better connect genes to disease to create more sensitive diagnostics and identify new targets for drug development. With a bold focus on diseases of the brain, the Institute is revolutionizing diagnostics and, for the first time, introducing effective treatments to people with Lou Gehrig’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
To learn more, click here.
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The goal over the next five years is to extend these transformative capabilities to new treatments and diagnostics for kidney and liver disease, transplant rejection, and prostate cancer. In doing so, CLP will help launch a new era of precision medicine driven by precision proteomics. | |
Illinois Top State for Business | |
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Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) highlighted Illinois’ top rankings in CNBC’s 2023 Top States for Business publication – an annual report that ranks states based on 10 broad categories of competitiveness. This year, Illinois ranked in the top 10 in the nation for four categories of competitiveness, and six categories in the top 20. Illinois is ranked 17th best state for business, rising ahead two spots from the 2022 ranking and up from 30th in the 2019 ranking. To read the entire report, click here.
Highlights include:
#2 in the nation for infrastructure (up from #3 in ‘22)
#2 in the nation for education (up from #6 in ‘22)
#6 in the nation for access to capital (up from #8 in ‘22)
#9 in the nation for cost of living (up from #20 in ‘22)
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Technip Energies and LanzaTech to Collaborate on Breakthrough CO2-to-Ethylene Technology | |
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Technip Energies and LanzaTech signed a Joint Collaboration Agreement to create a new pathway to sustainable ethylene utilizing their combined technologies. Together LanzaTech’s carbon capture and utilization technology with Technip Energies’ Hummingbird® technology transform waste carbon into ethylene, the most common building block in petrochemicals.
Ethylene is a building block for thousands of chemicals and materials, including plastics, detergents, and coatings that keep hospitals sterile, people safe, and food fresh. Its traditional production process is also one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions in the chemical industry and remains one of its most challenging processes to decarbonize. This new joint process uses carbon emissions as the starting point rather than virgin fossil carbon. First, up to 95% of the CO2 in the flue gas is captured from the furnaces of an ethylene cracker and mixed with hydrogen. Next LanzaTech’s biorecycling technology transforms the captured waste carbon into ethanol. Finally, Technip Energies’ Hummingbird® technology dehydrates the ethanol to ethylene.
Click here for the entire announcement.
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Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, said: “By combining and integrating our process with that of Technip Energies, we have the potential to retrofit onto ethylene crackers around the world, supporting decarbonization of a sector that has limited choices today. The sustainable production of one of the most used commodity chemicals will have an impact on the lives of billions of people daily. Through partnerships such as this one with Technip Energies, we are creating meaningful pathways to break free from virgin fossil inputs for the things we use in our daily lives.” | |
Save the Date!
The 2023 IIN Symposium is scheduled for Thursday, November 2nd.
Since 2001, the IIN Symposium has been one of the world’s premier events for students, researchers, and others interested in the latest advances in nanotechnology.
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Direct Ammonia Fuel Cells: The Road to Commercialization | |
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Ammonia is one of the world’s most important chemicals and has long been used in fertilizer production, which makes up 70% of ammonia demand, as well as refrigeration, manufacturing, water purification, and pharmaceuticals. Today, its applications are expanding as the use of ammonia as a clean energy carrier is rapidly gaining interest across global economies.
Innovation in materials discovery and electrochemical process development is critical for these promising specialized fuel cells to achieve widespread commercial adoption. For instance, the process of discovering suitable ammonia oxidation electrocatalyst materials for direct ammonia fuel cells — and optimizing them in tandem with better membranes with low ammonia crossover — simply takes too long, with technology development silos further obstructing innovation and development.
For more about Mattiq, click here.
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Mattiq is accelerating the exploration, discovery, and real-world deployment of new materials and processes to make direct ammonia fuel cells a viable commercial solution for industrial decarbonization. By collaborating with technology developers, manufacturers, project developers, and system operators, Mattiq is working to produce a systematic and holistic understanding of the inner workings of direct ammonia fuel cells in a fraction of the time of conventional R&D in order to facilitate the rapid innovations needed to tackle global decarbonization. | |
Fun for All @ISTP Outdoor BBQ | |
ISTP management joined folks from the tenants for an outdoor event in the courtyard.
Hamburgers, Hot Dogs and other items were made available to attendees selected by the ISTP tenants.
Great food and company, as all celebrated the weather and the opportunity to get together to share and collaborate.
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Vetter Development Service @ISTP | |
NorthShore University HealthSystem | | | | |
