The Exogenously Driven Disruption of Bioprocessing

Industry 4.0 comes with an impressive collection of assets and capabilities. However, although the degree of applicability in Bioprocessing is high, the origin of these technological innovations is exogenous. This is not without implications and in this talk, we are concerned with their identification and quantification. We commence with the onboarding of an exogenous technology problem. Industry 4.0 tools have been developed with different objectives in mind. Integrating them into Bioprocessing requires a critical a priori analysis of similarities and transferability. We then move on to address a fundamental question: is this exogeneity positive or negative for Bioprocessing?  The answer is drawn from historical case studies, stemming from different industries. This naturally leads us to the concept of the fallacy of division and the associated dangers of disruption. Finally, we go a step further and explore how the addition of 4.0 in Bioprocessing can alter the core business activities and what this implies for the insourcing vs outsourcing dilemma that both big and small corporations have to face.

Presented by Christos Varsakelis, Team Lead Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

Christos Varsakelis leads the AI/ML team for Drug Discovery in the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies aiming at the acceleration of development timelines and increasing the probability of technical success. Prior to joining Janssen, Christos was a Senior Manager of Global Analytics & Innovation in GSK Vaccines focusing on in silico Bioprocess development. Besides working in the pharmaceutical industry, Christos has accumulated professional experience that spans across Geoconsulting, the stock market and the chemical industry. Christos holds a Ph.D. in fluid mechanics at UCLouvain in Belgium. He also holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and an M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His motto is innovation = cash.

Followed by Pranjul Mishra, team lead of application science at Yokogawa Insilico Biotechnology

Pranjul Mishra is the team lead of application science at Yokogawa Insilico Biotechnology. As a Data Scientist, he leverages the wealth of cell culture data to build Digital Twins and use them for various end applications in biopharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. In addition, he also supports the sales team in acquiring new businesses in the APAC region. Prior to joining Yokogawa Insilico, he spent two years in the National University of Singapore and A*STAR, Singapore in research positions working for microbial production of value-added chemicals. He has a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology and a PhD in systems and synthetic biotechnology.

Sponsored by Yokogawa Insilico Biotechnology GmbH

Yokogawa Insilico Biotechnology GmbH develops and delivers predictive Digital Twins to advance biopharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. Insilico Digital Twins of cell culture processes lead to superior productivity, product quality and process robustness. Ground-breaking predictive power is achieved by exploiting process data using artificial intelligence and biochemical networks. As a result, Insilico’s unique approach substantially reduces experimental effort, costs of goods and time to market. Leading biopharmaceutical companies worldwide use Insilico Digital Twins for cell line development, media design and process control. Founded in 2001, Yokogawa Insilico Biotechnology GmbH, based in Stuttgart, Germany, is a subsidiary of Yokogawa Corporate Electric Corporation, based in Tokyo, Japan.