American Institute of Chemical Engineers - Northern California Section

The Chemical Engineering Excellence Award program has been instituted to recognize outstanding Northern California chemical engineering professionals and projects. The awards are offered in a number of categories. Selection is by committee vote and only nominations meeting minimum criteria are considered.

The awards, consisting of personalized plaques were presented during the luncheon at the NorCal AIChE April 20, 2004 One Day Symposium, which was held at the Hâs Lordship Restaurant conference facilities in Berkeley.

- Dr. Habib Amin, Chemical Engineering Excellence Awards Chair

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE

Professional Development: Jean Bender, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, California.

Jean Bender is a lead process engineer at Genentech, responsible for technology transfer of Rituxan to Lonza Biologics. She is responsible for review of bid packages, transfer of Genentech specific equipment data sheets and other documents associated with equipment procurement, installation and validation. She is also responsible for new contract manufacturing agreements and for the assessment of contract manufacturing operations for facilities and processes fit with Genentech processes.

Jean is responsible for implementation of new Clean-in-Place and Sterilization-in-Place systems for cell culture production facilities in South San Francisco, CA. She is also responsible for commissioning, start-up, and Installation Qualification. Jean is responsible for design, procurement, installation and validation of new harvest equipment and associated systems and new viral filtration equipment for facility expansion project.

As the chair of the Fundraising subcommittee for the General Arrangements Committee (GAC), Jean has played a very important role in the two recent Annual AIChE meetings that have been held in the Northern California/Nevada areas. She was able to raise the highest amount of contributions from industry in the history of the national meetings. Jean was also responsible for the largest One Day NorCal AIChE Symposium held in the NorCal AIChE history, with the highest industrial funds contribution. This symposium was held in April 2003 on Biotechnology.

Jean received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University in 1989 and an M.S. also in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley in 1992. Jean has made many technical presentations and has published several journal articles. Jean is a co-author of a chapter on harvest technologies and is a sole author of a chapter on Ultrafiltration/Diafiltration for the book ãBiological Medicines for Animal Cell Cultures.ä (In press). She is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (NorCal); University of Nevada, Reno Chemical Engineering Advisory Board; and American Chemical Society.

Industrial Research: Dr. Douglas S. Clark, Chemical Engineering Department, University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Douglas S. Clark is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from California Institute of Technology in 1983, and B.S. in Chemistry from University of Vermont in 1979. After two years as an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University, he joined U.C. Berkeley in 1986 and became a full professor in 1994. Dr. Clark is internationally known for his research on enzyme technology and bioactive materials, extremophiles, and metabolic engineering of mammalian cells.

A major aim of Dr. Clarkâs research has been to expand the utility of enzymes for synthetically useful reactions in nonaqueous media. The ability to engineer enzymes to function with high rates in organic solvents inspired the co-invention by Dr. Clark (with J.S. Dordick) of combinatorial biocatalysis, a technology that immediately impacted the use of biocatalysis in drug discovery. For example, combinatorial biocatalysis was the cornerstone technology of the drug discovery company EnzyMed, Inc., founded in 1994. Through contracts between EnzyMed and several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, combinatorial biocatalysis quickly became a widely used technique for the generation of new drug candidates.

Dr. Clark is also a leading figure in the study and application of extremophilic organisms and their enzymes. Extremophiles, e.g., deep-sea thermophiles from hydrothermal environments, flourish in harsh environments and may thus prove useful under a broad range of process conditions. Dr. Clarkâs research has provided new insights into the physiology and enzymology of extremophiles, including protein folding pathways and structure-stability relationships of ultrastable proteins, and is currently investigating extremophiles as a source of new drug candidates. In addition, recent research from Dr. Clarkâs group describes a diverse range of biocatalytic materials and composites, which have helped lay the foundation for a new generation of biodevices and bioactive materials.

Dr. Clark has received several recent national and international awards including the 2003 Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the 2003 International Enzyme Engineering Award, and the 2003 Amgen Award in Biochemical Engineering. In 2003 he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Clark has been the Editor-in-Chief of Biotechnology & Bioengineering since 1996, and is a member of several professional societies, including AIChE, ACS, AIMBE, and AAAS.

PROJECT AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE

Industrial Project of the Year:

Abgenix, Inc. (Abgenix) is located in the Ardenwood Development Park in Fremont, California. Abgenix is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in developing antibody therapeutics for the treatment of disease conditions including inflammatory and autoimmune disorders and cancers. Abgenix employs approximately 450employees.

The goal of the Abgenix organization was to design and construct a state of the art manufacturing facility and support operations for the production of biologicals and biopharmaceuticals. The Abgenix Production facility consists of two floors and approximately 100,000 square feet. The facility contains two parallel, stand-alone cell culture and purification facilities complete with cell banking, cell culture and purification capabilities and a segregated aseptic filling areas equipped with automated Liquid filling and Lyophilization capabilities. The bulk facility includes 4 x 2000L and 2 x 12,000L bioreactors and multiple purification suites, which accommodates kilogram quantities of bulk per and is flexible to include multiple mammalian products. The facility is capable of Phase I, II and III clinical materials and limited commercial bulk launch supplies.

There are many key features of the facility. The facility has incorporated an open design, which makes the operations and equipment immediately visible from the viewing corridors. Inside the facility, the GMP areas are organized using a clean corridor and return corridor concept allowing unidirectional flow of material, equipment, and personnel. The facility has utilized segregation of operations by separating suites, air handlers and flows.

Key Abgenix individuals that supported this effort include: Hank Szeto ö Director, Engineering and facilities; Patrick Murphy ö Senior Vice President, Production services; Steve Chamow ö Vice President, Process Sciences and Gregory Yedinak ö Senior Director, Manufacturing.

The project was also made possible through the efforts of the following work groups: Dome/CRBB; CRB Engineering; Dowler Gruman Architects; Hi-tech Engineering; Biokinetics; Frank Electric and Therma.