Alessandro obtained his BSc and MSc chemistry degrees in Milan (Italy), respectively from Bicocca and Milan Universities. He then moved to UK to undertake a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry on synthesis and functionalisation of porphyrin complexes as oxygen sensors at Liverpool John Moore University. In 2017 he started his career in industry working as senior chemist at Manchester Organics, where he focused on custom synthesis. He then moved to AstraZeneca (Macclesfield, UK) as a senior scientist, where he joined a newly formed development team in On-Market Technical, focused on commercial APIs process improvements. He mostly worked on Osimertinib, developing 2^nd generation processes, guiding the tech transfer to a contract manufacturer and authoring technical content for the health authorities registration. He is now still providing technical support for Osimertinib, but also taking on the role of product technical expert for Rosuvastatin Calcium.

Kai Rossen is since 2015 the Editor-in-Chief of the Organic Process Research & Development journal of the American Chemical Society.

 

Kai has a long career in various pharmaceutical and CDMO companies.  He began his career at Bayer. From 1990, he spent 10 years in the U.S. working for Merck in Rahway (New Jersey) in the Process Research Department, where he was involved in catalyst development and in the synthesis of several currently marketed drugs. He returned to Europe in 2000 to join the Fine Chemicals Division of Degussa (now Evonik) before moving to the pharmaceutical industry at Sanofi in 2006.  He left Sanofi for a position as Vice President of Process Chemistry at Lundbeck in Copenhagen from 2017-2020. His last position in industry was from 2020 to the summer of 2023 as Chief Scientific Officer of the CDMO company Euroapi.

 

Kai holds a Master of Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (U.S.), the Diplomchemiker degree from the University of Düsseldorf and he obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell University (U.S.).

 

 

After completing a PhD in natural product synthesis at Queen’s University Belfast, Paul worked as a synthetic chemist for a pharmaceutical manufacturer followed by a Biotech company before joining Almac in 2014.  Almac is a global company working with many leading pharmaceutical companies right across the drug development and manufacturing lifecycle. Paul works in drug substance development and manufacture from early phase programmes through to process validation and commercial manufacture.   Paul currently leads a team of chemists with a particular focus on process development, DoE, late phase preparation and process validation.

 

 

Current Affiliations

Professor of Catalysis, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London.

Director of the Centre for Rapid Online Analysis of Reactions (ROAR), Imperial College London

Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Synthesis & Reaction Technology

Education:

1988-91                University of Leeds, U.K. B.Sc.(First Class Hons.) in Chemistry.

1991-94                University of Leeds, U.K. Ph.D. in Chemistry, under the supervision of Professor B. L. Shaw, FRS.

Career :

1994-97                Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Dyson Perrins Laboratory, Oxford University (Advisor: Dr. John M. Brown, FRS).

1995-97                Keeley Junior Research Fellow, Wadham College, Oxford.

1997-98                Ramsay Memorial Research Fellow (University of Leeds).

1998-2003            Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, King’s College London.

2003-2009            Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry, Imperial College London

2009-2016            Reader in Catalysis, Imperial College London

2016-                     Professor of Catalysis, Imperial College London

Research track record:

I am interested in the development of catalytic reactions and associated technologies, that are relevant to the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. In the early part of my career, I focussed mainly on the development and applications of homogeneous catalysis for C‑C or C‑X bond formations, including asymmetric catalysis. For the past decade, I have established collaborations with colleagues in Chemical Engineering, on the implementation of flow chemistry/heterogeneous catalysis in multiphasic reactions, including the application of EXAFS spectroscopy to understand the fundamental processes affecting catalyst structures. My contributions to these research areas have been recognised by an ‘Asian Rising Star’ award in 2013, conferred by the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies.

To date, my work has generated >125 peer-reviewed papers with associated h-index of 39, 8 patent applications, as well as a number of monographs and textbooks in catalysis and flow chemistry.

In 2018, I established the UK’s first Dial-a-Molecule Grand Challenge Institute: Centre for Rapid Online Analysis of Reactions (ROAR) at Imperial College’s new White City campus; a facility dedicated to data-rich synthesis, including high-throughput screening, kinetic experiments and analytic instruments to perform reactions in batch or flow reactors. From 2019, I will also be directing the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Synthesis & Reaction Technology at Imperial College London, which will produce at least 60 postgraduate researchers in 5 years.

Other notable appointments include Steering group membership of EPSRC’s ‘Dial-a-Molecule’ Grand Challenge Network (co-I from 2016), and as an Associate Editor for ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (from 2019).

 

Dr. Damith Perera is a Senior Scientist at Snapdragon Chemistry based in Waltham, Massachusetts. Damith began his research career studying natural product chemistry at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Damith then moved to Michigan State University (MSU) and earned his PhD in chemistry focusing on Iridium catalyzed C-H Activation/Borylation. During his PhD studies he carried out two industrial internships, one at Merck Catalysis lab in Rahway, New Jersey on High Throughput Experimentation and a second one at GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina in Infectious Diseases R&D. Upon graduating from MSU, Damith then moved to Pfizer in San Diego for a postdoctoral position. There he developed an automated flow chemistry system capable of carrying out 1500 reactions over a 24-hour period, published in the Journal Science. In 2018 Damith joined Snapdragon Chemistry where he develops continuous manufacturing technologies and automation.

Jamie M^cCabe Dunn obtained her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh under the supervision of Professor Kay Brummond, followed by a postdoctoral position at the University of Colorado in the group of Professor Andrew Phillips. Jamie began her career at Merck in process chemistry in 2009, where she made important contributions to clinical candidates for Alzheimer’s disease (MK-8931) and diabetes, including support of pilot plant campaigns. In 2010 Jamie took the new challenge to joining Merck’s Discovery Process Chemistry (DPC) group, where she developed novel chemistry to accelerate Medicinal Chemistry and driving successful transitions into clinical development in the areas of infectious disease and cardiometabolic diseases. In 2017, Jamie assumed the Process Chemistry lead role and cross-functional manufacturing team member for Bridion®, a reversal agent for two types of neuromuscular blocking agents used during surgery, with sales of >$1.4 billion in 2022. This work resulted in a promotion to Principal Scientist in 2018. Jamie is currently a Director, Process Chemistry in Rahway, NJ where she leads a group of process chemists in commercial route definition to support of the Merck small molecule portfolio. In addition to her noteworthy collection of scientific and pipeline accomplishments, Jamie has been awarded three ACS awards: the 2022 Rising Star Award, the 2019 Rising Star of Medicinal Chemistry and the 2018 ACS Young Investigator Award. She currently sits on the editorial advisory board of the journal Organic Process Research and Development and is a co-editor in the special issue ‘Celebrating Women in Process Chemistry.’ Jamie has distinguished herself as the lead of the Small Molecule Process R&D Recruiting team, the lead of the Chemistry Awards Committee and through her membership and advocacy in the Women in Chemistry initiatives both internally and externally.

 

Managing Director: Trevor Laird Associates Ltd (UK)

Trevor has almost 50 years of experience in the fine chemical, agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries, with emphasis on process research and development, process optimisation, scale up and manufacturing of active molecules. He has additional experience of associated fields such as Quality Control, Regulatory Issues, and formulation, and has audited many companies for regulatory compliance. He has worked closely with both large and small pharma companies, with contract manufacturers and with generic pharma companies.

His expertise is recognised in the work he does in the law courts as an expert witness, mostly in the US and Canada, where he has acted on behalf of clients in over 40 cases in the last 20 years

Trevor was one of the founders of the American Chemical Society journal Organic Process R&D and was Editor-in-Chief from 1996 until 2014 and is respected in this field for these endeavours, which established Process R&D as a key operation in safe and efficient manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and other actives needing high specifications and quality assurance.

In the 1970s Trevor worked for ICI Ltd, the UK’s largest chemical company (with over 150,000 employees) as a Senior Researcher on Chemicals for Electronics, Speciality Chemicals and Agrochemicals, designing processes for manufacture of Fungicides and Herbicides on multi-tonne scale. He then moved to Smith Kline and French (now Glaxo SmithKline) where he headed the Process R&D function, was in charge of the pilot Plant, and responsible for small scale manufacture of SK&F’s APIs for clinical trials, and for the Technical Transfer of those processes to manufacturing sites in Mexico. Puerto Rico and Ireland.

In 1989, he left to set up Scientific Update, a highly successful training and consultancy company (which won the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 2002) which provided continuing education and training for large pharma companies (Pfizer, GSK, J&J, Merck, Sanofi etc),for small emerging pharma companies in Europe, N America, Singapore, Australia etc, and for generic companies (Apotex, Canada; Teva Israel, Zambon Italy, Dr Reddy’s India etc) as well as consultancy, particularly in process optimisation and trouble-shooting  manufacturing issues.

In 2014 he passed on this company to his former employees and set up a separate consulting operation, Trevor Laird Associates Ltd, and continues to work as a consultant and expert witness to companies and non-profit organisations worldwide. Currently he is working with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a Subject Matter Expert on low-cost manufacturing of new and generic drugs.

Will Watson gained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Leeds in 1980. He joined the BP Research Centre at Sunbury-on-Thames and spent five and a half years working as a research chemist on a variety of topics including catalytic dewaxing, residue upgrading, synthesis of novel oxygenates for use as gasoline supplements, surfactants for use as gasoline detergent additives and non-linear optical compounds.

In 1986 he joined Lancaster Synthesis and during the next 7 years he was responsible for laboratory scale production and process research and development to support Lancaster’s catalogue, semi-bulk and custom synthesis businesses.

In 1993 he was appointed to the position of Technical Director, responsible for all Production (Laboratory and Pilot Plant scale), Process Research and Development, Engineering and Quality Control. He helped set up and run the Lancaster Laboratories near Chennai, India and had technical responsibility for the former PCR laboratories at Gainesville, Florida.

He joined Scientific Update as Technical Director in May 2000. He has revised and rewritten the ‘Chemical Development and Scale Up in the Fine Chemical & Pharmaceutical Industries’ course and gives this course regularly around the world. He has been instrumental in setting up and developing new courses such as ‘Interfacing Chemistry with Patents’ and ‘Making and Using Fluoroorganic Molecules’.

He is also involved in an advisory capacity in setting up conferences and in the running of the events. He is active in the consultancy side of the business and sits on the Scientific Advisory Boards of various companies.

Chris completed his BSc. in chemistry at the University of Leeds before taking a position in the chemical Research and Development department at Pfizer in Sandwich in 1996.  He has worked on a wide array of programs, covering both early and late stage development projects. In 2018 Chris undertook a secondment to the Pfizer La Jolla site, to lead the establishment of a new API lab, supporting the medicinal chemistry teams. He moved back to the UK in 2020 were he now leads the external development group.

 

 

Hans-Jürgen Federsel received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden in 1980. He has spent most of his career in the field of chemical process R&D in the pharmaceutical industry (Astra and AstraZeneca) in Sweden and the UK assuming diverse roles. In 1990 he was appointed Associate Professor at KTH and in 2009 elected fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). Currently, he is a Senior Advisor at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.

 

 

Osamu Ogata was born in Niigata, Japan in 1980. He is a senior chemist of the Corporate Research & Development Division at Takasago International Corporation. He received master’s degree from Hokkaido University in Japan under the direction of Professor Masaaki Miyashita in 2006 and worked for Pfizer Inc as a medicinal chemist for 2 years prior to his current position at Takasago. His research interest is development of transition metal catalysts which can be used on manufacturing scale.

Studies
2009-2012 Eötvös University, Chemistry BSc.
2012-2014 Eötvös University: Chemist MSc.
2014-2019 PhD studies at Eötvös University; Supervisor: prof. Zoltán Novák
Language
English – Full Professional Proficiency, ”C”; French – Limited Working Proficiency ”B1”
Professional experience
2013 4 weeks internship at Servier Research Institute for Medicinal Cemistry, Budapest
2016 6 months internship at L’Oréal R&D department (Aulnay-sous-Bois, France)
2017-2021 R&D Chemist at Egis Pharmaceutical Plc., Budapest (small molecule research)
2021- Tech. Transfer Scientist at Soneas Chemicals Ltd., Budapest
Teaching:
2014-2016 Lecturer at ELTE organic chemistry and chemical technology lab practices
2015-2017 Lecturer at Petrik Lajos Vocational School (Organic and analytical chemistry)
Recent conference presentations:
2018 B. Pethő, M. Zwillinger, J. T. Csenki, D. Vangel, Gy. T. Balogh, Z. Novák: Development and utilization of Palladium-catalyzed alkoxylations MTA Heterocyclic conference, Balatonszemes
2018 Bálint Pethő, Dóra Vangel, Márton Zwillinger, János T. Csenki, Zoltán Novák: Palladium- catalyzed C-O bond forming reactions in the service of medicinal chemistry, XLIII “A. Corbella” International Summer School on Organic Synthesis, Gargnano (Italy)
2022 B. Pethő, G. B. Szilágyi, B. Mengyel, T. Nagy, K. Kátai-Fadgyas, B. Volk: Development of a Flow–Cascade Reaction Sequence in the Synthesis of Afizagabar MTA Heterocyclic conference, Balatonszemes
Publications:
2013 „Iron-surfactant nanocomposit-catalyzed benzylic oxidation in water”, F. Szabó, B. Pethő, Z. Gonda, Z. Novák, RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 4903-4908
2014 „Palladium-Catalyzed Methoxylation of Aromatic Chlorides with Borate Salts”, G. L. Tolnai, B. Pethő, P. Králl, Z. Novák, Adv. Synth. Catal., 2014, 356, 125-129.
2017 „Palladium-Catalyzed 2,2,2-Trifluoroethoxylation of Aromatic and Heteroaromatic Chlorides Utilizing Borate Salt and the Synthesis of a Trifluoro Analogue of Sildenafil” B. Pethő, M. Zwillinger, J. T. Csenki, A. E. Káncz, B. Krámos, J. Müller, G. T. Balogh, Z. Novák, Chem. Eur J., 2017, 23, 15628-15632.
2018 „Palladium catalyzed chloroethoxylation of aromatic and heteroaromatic chlorides: an orthogonal functionalization of a chloroethoxy linker” B. Pethő, D. Vangel, J. T. Csenki, M. Zwillinger, Z. Novák, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2018, 16, 4895-4899.
2019 „Synthesis of Aryl- and Heteroaryl-trifluoroethyl Ethers: Aims, Challenges and New Methodologies” B. Pethő, Z. Novák, Asian J. Org. Chem., 2019, 8, 568 – 575.
2022 „Development and Process Intensification of an Efficient Flow−Cascade Reaction Sequence in the Synthesis of Afizagabar” B. Pethő, G. B. Szilágyi, B. Mengyel, T. Nagy, F. Farkas, K. Kátai-Fadgyas, B. Volk, Org. Process Res. Dev., 2022, 26, 1223−1235.
2022 „New process for the synthesis of 5-{5-chloro-2-[(3N)-3-[(morpholin-4-yl)methyl]-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline-2(1H)-carbonyl]phenyl}-1,2-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole-3-carboxylic acid derivatives and its application for the production of pharmaceutical compounds” F. Pin, B. Pethő, WO2022200444A1
Awards
2011 Gerecs Árpád award, Scientific Students’ Associations Conference, Eötvös University
2015 Poster prize, Blue Danube Symposium on Heterocyclic Chemistry
2020 Egis innovation contest (X. Pataki Károly memorial), II. prize
Research interests
Transition metal catalysis, totalsyntheses, scale-up, flow chemistry, heteroaromatic chemistry
Hobbies
Music, Sport (football, tennis, etc.), Hiking

Alexey Volkov holds a PhD in organic chemistry from Stockholm University, where he specialised in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis.

After completing his doctoral studies, Alexey decided to venture into the realm of enzymes. He joined EnginZyme more than 6 years ago right at its infancy. Early on his work was revolting around customer projects as one of the avenues for EnginZyme to show the potential of EziG immobilisation technology. At the same time, he spent significant time on EziG material reformulation to fulfill scalability and cost requirements for the carrier.

Currently, Alexey leads Biocat team at EnginZyme, which is responsible for optimising immobilised enzymes, working on upstream part of the processes and scaling up immobilised enzyme to meet internal and external demands.

In today’s presentation, Alexey will give a glimpse into the work happening at EnginZyme, share EziG development story and insights into the processes being developed at EnginZyme using immobilised enzymes.

 

Dr. Joffrey Pijeat graduated in 2016, in Organic Chemistry and Material Science from Chimie ParisTech Engineering School and the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. He defended his Ph.D thesis in 2019, about the formation of N-doped Graphene Nanostructures with Organic building blocks at the CEA R&D center in Saclay (France) and joined Seqens CDMO in 2020 as R&D Project Manager. He first worked for the Pharmaceutical business of the company and recently joined the Specialty Ingredients Business Unit. He is currently in charge of R&D projects related to the development of polymers and cosmetics ingredients, from the development in the laboratory to the production in manufacturing sites, with preservation of the quality of compounds at every scale that can be supported by modelling of chemical processes.

Sanil Sreekumar is a Principal Scientist in Chemical Development. He joined BI in Ridgefield, CT in September 2020 and since then, he has been leading process development in the Catalysis Group.

Sanil brings to his position a well-established background in synthetic organic chemistry. Prior to joining BI, he worked as a Senior Scientist at Dow Chemicals in MI and later worked as a Research Investigator at DuPont following DowDuPont spinoff.

Sanil obtained his PhD degree in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Liverpool, UK. During his graduate studies, he worked on natural product synthesis with Prof. P. Andrew Evans. Following his doctoral studies, he pursued postdoctoral education with Prof. F. Dean Toste from UC Berkeley, CA where he worked on the biofuel and bio-lubricant syntheses.

Sanil lives in Newtown, CT. When not working, he enjoys playing table-tennis and cricket.

Biography: Oliver was awarded his BSc and Integrated masters in chemistry from the University of Leeds in 2018. Following visiting research positions at the University of Alberta in Canada and GlaxoSmithKline in Stevenage Oliver Joined AstraZeneca as a late-stage process chemist at their Macclesfield campus. In 2021 Oliver was promoted to senior scientist before relocating to their Gothenburg campus in Sweden where he now works in early-stage chemical development. Here he supports the design and optimisation of routes and processes for the kilo scale manufacture of APIs for use in pre-clinical activities. Oliver has a number of external academic collaborations recently having completed a visiting research sabbatical at the University of California, Los Angeles working on photoredox catalysis in the group of Abigail Doyle.