Downstream processing (DSP) of biopharmaceuticals is dominated by chromatographic steps which suffer from low throughput, poor scalability and elevated energy consumption, as well as high equipment and materials costs. The vision of the MSCA ETN 'Crystallization towards efficient and sustainable biomanufacturing' (PROCRYSTAL) is to promote crystallization as a simple, sustainable, cost-efficient, and scalable alternative to current DSP techniques.

The PhD project focuses on implementing protein crystallization routines using Secoya Technologies' crystallization devices. This includes both lab-scale production and pilot testing for kilogram-scale productions. The project involves both hardware, software and consumable modification. This work is assisted by the others projects as the conditions for protein crystallization under flow regimes will be investigated inside the other PhD Projects at al partners.

The project is embedded in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ETN program “PROCRYSTAL”, an initial training network for PhD students which is dedicated to biomolecule crystallization, biochemistry, chemical and process engineering as well as advanced modelling. he PROCRYSTAL training program for PhD students emphasizes a fundamental understanding of underlying phenomena, from the molecular to the process scale. It also includes advanced experimental and modeling techniques specific to crystallization technology. The PhDs will also perform secondments at our academic and industrial partners.