The broad theme of the research training addresses the most rapidly developing parts of the bio-centred pharmaceutical and healthcare biotech industry. It meets specific training needs defined by the industry-led bioProcessUK and the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry. The Centre proposal aligns with the EPSRC Delivery Plan 2008/9 to 2010/11, which notes pharmaceuticals as one of the UK's most dynamic industries. The EPSRC Next-Generation Healthcare theme is to link appropriate engineering and physical science research to the work of healthcare partners for improved translation of research output into clinical products and services. We address this directly. The bio-centred pharmaceutical sector is composed of three parts which the Centre will address:- More selective small molecule drugs produced using biocatalysis integrated with chemistry;- Biopharmaceutical therapeutic proteins and vaccines;- Human cell-based therapies.In each case new bioprocessing challenges are now being posed by the use of extensive molecular engineering to enhance the clinical outcome and the training proposed addresses the new challenges. Though one of the UK's most research intensive industries, pharmaceuticals is under intense strain due to:- Increasing global competition from lower cost countries;- The greater difficulty of bringing through increasingly complex medicines, for many of which the process of production is more difficult; - Pressure by governments to reduce the price paid by easing entry of generic copies and reducing drug reimbursement levels. These developments demand constant innovation and the Industrial Doctorate Training Centre will address the intellectual development and rigorous training of those who will lead on bioprocessing aspects. The activity will be conducted alongside the EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre for Bioprocessing which an international review concluded leads the world in its approach to an increasingly important area .

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Historically, biofilms are predominantly perceived as problematic; associated with infections, dental caries, marine and reactor fouling and reduction in heat transfer. In their natural environment individual planktonic cells have the tendency to cluster together at surfaces and interfaces. Within these clusters they protect themselves from environmental and chemical stress by secreting extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) a protective and adhesive polysaccharide matrix. This EPS gives the biofilm a degree of protection against extremes of pH, temperature or the introduction of organic solvents which cannot be tolerated by individual cells. In the current global climate of searching for increasingly green approaches to the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals there is a growing interest in employing biotransformations: using cells to produce useful products. Although such a strategy enables the generation of enantiomerically pure compounds, the reduction of steps in a synthetic route and the possibility of eliminating environmentally detrimental catalysts, solvents and reagents, their use is problematic due to the fact that individual cells cannot in general tolerate the extreme conditions required. In this research we exploit biofilms to produce highly active Engineered Biofilm Catalysts (EBC). This is a new area as the use of biofilms in biotransformations has been largely confined to wastewater treatment and bioremediation generally by mixed microbial communities referred to as consortia. Reports of the use of biofilms for synthesis of compounds are few and far between, industrially the list of compounds generated in such a manner is little more extensive than simple compounds such as acetic acid, ethanol, butanol, 2,3-butanediol, lactic acid, fumaric acid, and succinic acid. This interdisciplinary proposal presents a novel methodology for the development and exploitation of engineered biofilm catalysts (EBC) for biotransformations relevant to the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries. Recently we have demonstrated the generation and utilisation of an Engineered Biofilm Catalyst (EBC). The immobilised EBC not only demonstrated unprecedented stability but proved to be a strikingly better catalyst than the free cells. As the EBC is artificially generated there is considerable scope to engineer its microstructure. We propose to explore the general application of EBC to catalysis as well as to investigate how microstructure and gene expression relate to catalytic activity. We will employ EBC using flow chemistry to generate a prototype EBC reactor for biotransformations as an exemplar for future industrial exploitation.

Historically, biofilms are predominantly perceived as problematic; associated with infections, dental caries, marine and reactor fouling and reduction in heat transfer. In their natural environment individual planktonic cells have the tendency to cluster together at surfaces and interfaces. Within these clusters they protect themselves from environmental and chemical stress by secreting extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) a protective and adhesive polysaccharide matrix. This EPS gives the biofilm a degree of protection against extremes of pH, temperature or the introduction of organic solvents which cannot be tolerated by individual cells. In the current global climate of searching for increasingly green approaches to the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals there is a growing interest in employing biotransformations: using cells to produce useful products. Although such a strategy enables the generation of enantiomerically pure compounds, the reduction of steps in a synthetic route and the possibility of eliminating environmentally detrimental catalysts, solvents and reagents, their use is problematic due to the fact that individual cells cannot in general tolerate the extreme conditions required. In this research we exploit biofilms to produce highly active Engineered Biofilm Catalysts (EBC). This is a new area as the use of biofilms in biotransformations has been largely confined to wastewater treatment and bioremediation generally by mixed microbial communities referred to as consortia. Reports of the use of biofilms for synthesis of compounds are few and far between, industrially the list of compounds generated in such a manner is little more extensive than simple compounds such as acetic acid, ethanol, butanol, 2,3-butanediol, lactic acid, fumaric acid, and succinic acid. This interdisciplinary proposal presents a novel methodology for the development and exploitation of engineered biofilm catalysts (EBC) for biotransformations relevant to the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries. Recently we have demonstrated the generation and utilisation of an Engineered Biofilm Catalyst (EBC). The immobilised EBC not only demonstrated unprecedented stability but proved to be a strikingly better catalyst than the free cells. As the EBC is artificially generated there is considerable scope to engineer its microstructure. We propose to explore the general application of EBC to catalysis as well as to investigate how microstructure and gene expression relate to catalytic activity. We will employ EBC using flow chemistry to generate a prototype EBC reactor for biotransformations as an exemplar for future industrial exploitation.