Organic Process Research and Development

Gregory Beutner earned a BS in Chemistry from Tufts University in Medford MA and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign under the direction of Prof. Scott Denmark in the area of Lewis base catalysis. He completed an NIH post-doctoral fellowship with Prof. Robert Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena CA working in the area of rhenium catalysis. He started his industrial career in 2006 as a process chemist at Merck in Rahway NJ. In 2011, he moved to his current position at Bristol Myers Squibb in New Brunswick NJ. As part of the Reaction Sciences group in Chemical Process Development, he uses physical organic chemistry to develop safe and scalable chemistry in a data-driven fashion. His work was recognized with the Organic Letters Outstanding Publication Award for 2019 and he is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Board at Organic Letters.

• A world recognized organometallic, main group, organic and pharmaceutical chemistry technical (R & D) leader with proven global expertise in catalysts (both homogeneous and heterogeneous), ligands, electronic performance materials (Group III-V chemistry) and polymers, APIs via curiosity driven R & D for revenue generating technologies related to Pharmaceutical, Fine Chemical, Life Science and Electronic Industries. Flow Chemistry and Green Chemistry (sustainability) expertise.
• Technically led diversity-oriented teams very successfully in different geographic locations, such as US, Europe, India and China for 26 years with talent identification, retention, mentoring and motivation.
• Proven track record on new product, new technology and process development; scale-up and manufacturing of high-value added products from mgs to 100 kg batches using air-sensitive chemistry techniques safely in various global locations on a regular basis.
• Established excellent customer relationships with MNCs around the world (eg: Commercial catalyst development for Gilead’s Hep C drug Harvoni by trial and error method from mg to ton quantities).
• Licensed many technologies from academia and industry with due diligence.
• Outstanding connections with University Professors (including Nobel Laureates) from around the world.
• Up to date knowledge in emerging technologies in chemical and biological sciences with excellent vision on short-term and long-term R & D strategies.
• Granted revenue generating patents (ca. 65) for IP Protection and published in high impact journals (ca.120 publications), along with 3 very popular books with RSC, Wiley and Springer. Work was featured in Chemical & Engineering News thrice and in Chem twice.
• Well collected by the academia and industry
• Built/Remodeled state of the art R &D and Process Development/Scale-up labs globally.
• Professionally trained on diversity leadership, business and R&D strategy, business ethics and H&S.
• Winner of many prestigious international awards such as Merck KGaA’s (350 year old German company) Scientific 2021 Curriculum Vitae award (Life time achievement award), ACS Industry Chemistry Award, Royal Society of Chemistry Applied Catalysis Award & Medal, Chemical Research Society of India Medal, IPMI Henry Alfred Medal (many of the awardees are Nobel laureates including the recent 2021 Chemistry laureate Prof. MacMillan), IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus award for science and technology innovation category, etc.
• Experienced in budget, business proposals in collaboration with Product Management and New Business Development for capital investments in US, UK, India and China.
• Published three books (Royal Society of Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Springer), organized several international conferences with Nobel Laurates including in India.
• Identified and helped business development/Licensing group to sign the contracts on several new licensing opportunities with KOLs or competitors.

Rob Crook is currently Technical Director of Chemical Sciences within CatSci, where he is responsible for building on the strong science driven foundation at CatSci, to enable the continued growth and development of CatSci’s Chemical Sciences function. He has been with CatSci for 10 months

Prior to this Rob worked for Pfizer, within Chemical Research and Development, for over 28 years and was leading the Sandwich CRD function before his move to CatSci. At Pfizer he worked across a range of roles from the discovery interface all the way through to registration and commercialisation of programmes. He also gained extensive experience in leading technology areas including high throughput screening and continuous processing, amongst others. One of his last projects was building a 2030 vision for CRD and how things will need to change in the next 10 years.

Dr. Xi-Jie (Jeremy) Dai is a Scientist within the Pivotal and Commercial Synthetics group at Amgen. After earning his B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemistry from China, he pursued his Ph.D. studies at McGill University in Canada under the direction of Prof. Chao-Jun (C.-J.) Li. During his Ph.D., he has been instrumental to the discovery and development of utilizing hydrazones as organometallic surrogates in metal-catalyzed nucleophilic addition and cross-coupling reactions. Following passion on practical applications of emerging synthetic technologies, he spent his NSERC postdoctoral tenure with Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald at MIT in USA, where he contributed to the development of copper-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant nitrogen heterocycles with various ring sizes. In 2019, he started as a Process Chemist at Amgen, focusing on the commercial route scouting, route development and process characterization activities. He has been a critical member advancing the first-in-class KRAS G12C inhibitor—Sotorasib through its life cycle of the commercial chemical development. He has authored and co-authored 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, one book chapter, and one U.S patent.

Dr. Rogelio P. Frutos received his undergraduate education at the University of California in San Diego (1984 to 1989). Afterwards he moved to the University of California, Riverside and obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1993 under the supervision of Prof. Steven R. Angle.  After obtaining his Ph.D. degree, Dr. Frutos held a postdoctoral research position in Prof. Albert I, Meyers’ group at Colorado State University from 1993 to 1995.  Subsequently, he joined the Department of Chemical Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals in Ridgefield, CT, where he is currently a Senior Principal Scientist leading a multi-disciplinary team responsible for the development and implementation of efficient processes for the synthesis of APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients).  Dr. Frutos’ research areas include the asymmetric synthesis of chiral biologically active compounds and development of efficient methodologies for heterocycle synthesis.  He has published >40 research papers and patents.

Emma Gardener received her undergraduate degree from Trinity College and worked for several years as a research associate in the biotechnology industry before completing her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Brown University as an NSF graduate research fellow. She studied under Prof. Jason Sello, where she worked on developing new methodology for the synthesis of antibacterial peptide natural products. In 2018, she joined the Cheminformatics Technologies department of MilliporeSigma as a Technical Application Scientist and is responsible for the commercial licensing of the retrosynthetic design software, SYNTHIA™.

Mike Haibach received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Chicago, where he was influenced to study catalysis by Greg Hillhouse and Hisashi Yamamoto. He then completed his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in the group of Alan Goldman, studying iridium and rhodium pincer catalysts. After a postdoc with Bob Grubbs at Caltech, Mike joined AbbVie in 2018. As a member of the AbbVie Center of Catalysis, he develops organometallic catalyst solutions for the small molecule and ADC pipeline. Mike has also led an API team for the process development and cGMP scale-up of a clinical candidate.

Yusho Kato received his B.Sc and M. Sc degrees from Kyoto university in the field of molecular biology. In 2008, he joined Kaneka, Japan, as a process chemist, specializing in fermentation and biocatalysis technology. His work for Kaneka has focused on the process development of small molecule APIs and intermediates through a combination of biotransformation and chemical synthesis.

Yusho’s current responsibilities include everything from initial research using enzyme screening to optimization of bio-process and scale-up. Including his experience of working at Kaneka Singapore Co. (Pte) Ltd., a manufacturing site for of important intermediates for APIs, he has been involved in launching more than 10 new pharmaceutical projects.

Diane was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and obtained her B.S. in chemistry from the University of Portland in 2012, where she worked in the lab of professor Warren Wood synthesizing compounds with anti-viral activity against West Nile virus. Subsequently, she went on to pursue a doctorate degree in organic chemistry at the University of California, Irvine in the lab of professor Vy Dong developing stereoselective strategies for the construction of peptides, depsipeptides, and sugars. In 2017, Diane obtained her Ph.D. and began her career at Merck in 2018, where she is currently a senior scientist in process chemistry in Rahway, NJ.

Dr. Johnny W. Lee is a Senior Scientist at Pfizer in the Process Chemistry group within Chemical Research and Development (CRD). After receiving his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 2015, he remained at Stony Brook University (USA) for his Ph.D. studies in Chemistry under the direction of Prof. Ming-Yu Ngai. During his Ph.D., he made significant contributions to the field of organofluorine chemistry: he developed novel strategies and reagents for the introduction of perfluoroethers into organic compounds as well as authored and co-authored 10 peer-reviewed journal articles, one book chapter, and one U.S. patent. In 2020, he completed his Ph.D. and started his career at Pfizer, where he currently works on enablement of small-scale syntheses in support of discovery programs and commercial route development. At Pfizer, he has been a part of the Abbvie, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Pfizer Alliance on fluorine chemistry and has served as a member through Pfizer at the ACS GCI Pharma Roundtable. Johnny W. Lee received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (honorable mention) in 2017, selected for ACS DOC GRS in 2019, awarded the CAS Future Leaders Award from Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) in 2020 and featured in the Sigma Aldrich Next Great Impossible series from Merck KGaA in 2021. His major research interests are in the areas of process chemistry, green chemistry, and fluorine chemistry.

Ben obtained his chemistry from the University of Oxford and PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Bristol working with Professor Tim Gallagher. He then completed a postdoc at North Carolina State University with Professor Jon Lindsey before joining the Chemical Development team at AMRI in Albany, New York in 1999. At AMRI Ben worked in the kilo lab and pilot plant developing and implementing process from up to tens of kg scale. He also led a team developing routes and process for first-in-human synthesis. He was also lead chemist for reaction calorimetry, real-time analysis and automation techniques.

In 2004 Ben joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston where he focused on implementing PAT tools and developing synthesis processes for late-stage and commercial manufacture, including telaprevir for hepatitis C treatment. In 2005 Ben relocated to Vertex San Diego to set-up and lead a new process chemistry team focused on facilitating the movement of candidate molecules from Med Chem to the clinical trials, including cystic fibrosis (lumacaftor, tezacaftor, elexacaftor) and pain. During this time he gained experience in numerous aspects of drug discovery, pharmaceutical sciences, working with outsourcing partners, project and team leadership. He also chaired cross-functional scientific teams implementing advanced manufacturing techniques, such as flow chemistry, biotransformations, and photochemistry

In 2022 Ben left Vertex to set up his own consulting business which includes joining Scientific Update as Technical Associate,North America & Asia Pacific.

Brad Maxwell is a native of Crawfordsville, IN. He is currently a Senior Scientific Fellow in Process Chemistry at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his BA from Wabash College in 1983 majoring in chemistry, his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1988 studying Organic Photochemistry with Professor Harry Morrison followed by post-doctoral studies with Professor John Stille at Colorado State University developing Stille Coupling Reactions. He has worked for 33 years in isotopic chemistry groups at Monsanto, Pharmacia, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Vertex. Brad has published 48 peer reviewed papers, one book chapter, seven patents and has made over 100  internal and external presentations. He has served as the International Isotope Society President on 4 occasions, is currently the Chief Financial Officer and will serve as its President again in 2024. He was a co-organizer of the 2009 International Symposium of the Synthesis and Applications of Isotopically Labelled Compounds and has chaired multiple Scientific Advisory Boards and Sessions. He currently serves as the North American Editor of the Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals, a position he has held since 2014. Lastly, he is the Vertex representative to the IQ Consortium Working Group on deuterated drugs

I received my B.Sc. in chemistry from Universidad de Huelva (Huelva, Spain) in 2013, including an Erasmus year at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK), and my M.Sc. from Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain) in 2014. I performed my PhD Studies under the guidance of Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren at ICIQ (Tarragona, Spain). During this period, I carried out a short project at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) under the supervision of Prof. Melanie S. Sandford. After gaining my PhD in 2019, I stayed at ICIQ for a postdoctoral sting. During my doctoral and postdoctoral studies, I worked on enantioselective Au(I) catalysis and the characterisation of highly reactive catalytic intermediates. Alongside experimental efforts, I gained expertise in DFT analyses, which I employed in deciphering Au- and Rh-catalysed transformations.

In September 2021, I joined AstraZeneca as a Senior Scientist in Physical Organic Chemistry. Here, I work on the development of predictive models to accelerate process design and optimisation for API manufacturing. I’m also involved in the upskilling of the wider organisation on kinetic modelling, a key area on our journey to digitalisation.

Andrew Studied Chemistry in his Native New Zealand at the University of Waikato before moving to the Australian National University in Canberra in 2003 to carry out research with Prof. Martin Banwell on cyclopropane chemistry for natural products synthesis, culminating in the synthesis of Pallescensin A, and a concise route to the Gibberellin skeleton.

In 2007 Andrew then joined the chemical development department at GSK in Singapore as a process development chemist for clinical stage APIs. During his time at GSK, he participated in Pilot scale campaigns for several APIs, of which 6 were approved and launched; was involved with tech transfer of processes from pilot to commercial production and spent two years working on 2^nd generation processes for cost reduction of Intermediates and APIs for some of GSKs more mature assets.

In 2014 Andrew then joined the start-up team at Raffles Pharmatech to begin the journey of establishing R&D and Manufacturing departments. Today Raffles employes over 450 employees, with a dedicated R&D facility and a 7-acre, modern GMP manufacturing site that supports biotech/pharma companies world-wide.

I obtained B.Sc and M.Sc  in Chemistry  from  National Chernivtsy University, Ukraine.  After  graduation I worked as a high school teacher and  volunteered in  the university as chemistry lab assistant for students.

In 2003 I moved to Canada  and have been with Gilead since 2006. I started  working as a manufacturing associate but shortly moved to the process development side. Currently I am a Research Scientist in Process Development. Throughout the years  I worked  on multiple projects, such as developing new chemistry and optimizing  existing processes. As does every chemist, I smile from ear to ear when chemistry works and a desire compound is synthesized.  However, I thrive on the challenges of working on process optimization and process transfers to manufacturing as enjoy all  cross functional activities  surrounding  technical transfer. While not working I love to spend my time exploring nature with my family, and working on projects around home.

Matthew currently holds the position of Research Fellow and Chemical Hygiene Officer at Cambrex Charles City, having advanced through various roles within the Chemical Development department since joining in 2005.  During that time, his project focus has transitioned from pre-clinical and early phase to full scale commercial manufacturing.  Prior to joining Cambrex, Matthew started his professional career at Albany Molecular Research after receiving a PhD from the University of Michigan in 2002.

David works as an Associate Director of Chemical Process Research and Development at Mirati Therapeutics, an oncology firm in La Jolla, CA.  He got his first taste of process research as a postdoc working to develop a continuous manufacturing platform at MIT with Tim Jamison.  He continued in this field at Merck and also Medicines For All Institute where he produced low cost routes to medicines for low and middle income countries.  David received chemistry degrees from UNC-CH (BS) and University of Florida (PhD).

John started his industrial career at Rhone-Poulenc (formerly RTZ chemicals) in Avonmouth- Bristol, working on fluorination technology, before gaining a chemistry degree and organic chemistry PhD at the University of Bath in 1995. He then did postdoctoral research at the University of Sheffield before joining the process chemistry group at Oxford Asymmetry working on route development and optimization, scale-up and custom synthesis.

In 1999 John joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) in the discovery chemistry department, spending a number of years working in oncology and inflammation therapeutic areas. He then formed a scale-up group to support synthesis of pre-clinical candidate molecules and intermediates and in 2010 oversaw construction and commissioning of a new kilo lab facility. In 2012 John was appointed to head of process chemistry for Vertex (Europe), overseeing synthesis of compounds for preclinical toxicology assessment, designing safe, scalable synthetic routes and working with external vendors and global CRO’s to deliver key intermediates and develop new enabling technologies. He was also responsible for developing chemistry for cGMP synthesis of early phase clinical material.

John joined Scientific Update in August 2018 as Scientific Director. He is involved in delivering & developing training events and advising on scientific content for the conference programme. He also leads the consultancy arm of the business and has a keen interest in scientific writing and communication.

Jacob graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012 with a B.A. in Chemistry. He completed his graduate studies at Duke University under the advisement of Professor Ross A. Widenhoefer where his research focused on the development and mechanistic studies of gold(I)-catalyzed hydrofunctionalization reactions of alkenes. After completing his Ph.D. in 2017, Jacob joined the laboratories of Professor John L. Wood as a postdoctoral research associate where his research focused on the synthesis of Caesalpinnone A and related natural products. In 2019, Jacob joined Genentech and is currently a Principal Scientist in the Process Chemistry department where he focuses on developing enabling chemistries.

Jean-Francois Vincent-Rocan (JF) completed his bachelor degree in pharmaceutical sciences and his Ph.D in Chemistry at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Pr. André Beauchemin. During his doctoral studies, he designed solutions to generate and tame the reactivity of amphoteric nitrogen substituted isocyanates. He applied their synthetic utility towards the synthesis of several classes of nitrogen-rich heterocycles. Following the completion of his degree, JF started his industrial career with Paraza Pharma in their chemical development department where he redesigned medicinal chemistry synthetic routes to make them amendable for first time scale up for pre-clinical studies. In 2018, he joined the process development department of BioVectra in Charlottetown, PEI. Over his tenure at BioVectra, he held multiple position in the R&D group from scientist to director. He is now Manager of Business Development for small molecules where he design fit for purpose solutions for existing and potential clients. JF also manage a collaboration with Pr. André Charette at the University of Montréal where their combined teams look at applying flow chemistry solutions to industrially relevant processes.

Nima is a consultant on advanced manufacturing and modeling and simulation applications in Bio/pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. His area of expertise covers Process development, process simulation, particulate matters, process design, and advanced manufacturing.

Prior to starting his consultancy firm (Procegence), Nima was a research scientist with the US Food and Drug Administration. He was appointed as a member of an expert team for advancement of emerging technologies to modernize pharmaceutical manufacturing. With more than 15 years of diverse experience in different industries, he has worked at R&D, process design, and MSAT sections. He received his PhD from The University of Sydney, Australia. Nima was a postdoctoral research associate at MIT, and Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing.