VectorBuilder Q&A series: An interview by Christina McClure with:
Marc Hummersone, Senior Director R&D
Discussing the Bioprocessing Field for Gene and Cell Therapies C: Hi Marc! Would you like to start by introducing yourself Marc? Let us know what you do. M: Of course! My name is Marc Hummersone, I’m Senior Director of R&D at Astrea and to give you a brief product history of who I am, a good place to start is at the beginning. I’m a qualified chemist, I’ve been involved in biotech since finishing my postdoc in the total synthesis of natural products. I ini�ally applied my skills to drug discovery and development and was proud to be part of a team that brought the PARP inhibitor Lynparza to market. It was around about that �me that I started to learn and hear more about biological therapeu�cs and I developed and interest in how they’re produced and it quickly became apparent that there was a clear and unmet need for purifica�on solu�ons. I then had the opportunity to become part of a company that was developing fibre based chromatography technologies and became the Chief Scien�fic Officer. That company was called Puridify, we worked away before being acquired by General Electric Healthcare. GE Healthcare then became Cy�va where I was the Director of Fibre Chromatography at Cy�va. More recently, I’ve had the opportunity to join the Astrea team as Senior Director of R&D. My role here is to oversee the R&D func�on and contribute to the business strategy while developing innova�ve new products for Astrea and customers alike. I work with a fantas�c team who like me are dedicated to delivering to the needs of the customer and the pa�ents and in this regard, I’ve got a par�cular interest in serving the needs of the cell and gene therapy sector which definitely requires next genera�on purifica�on solu�ons. So, in a nutshell that’s me. C: Brilliant! Yes, so you’ve been in this industry for a good while and you’ve seen all the changes I’m sure that have been happening throughout the years. Would you like to comment on how the industry has evolved over this �me? M: I think for me some of the biggest changes that have been observed are around the manufacturing efficiency. And this has allowed the industry to address what was once a bo�leneck for manufacture. That was seen several years ago but now this has been overcome and it’s a really good thing to see. This has been mainly a�ributed to expression systems that allowed the industry to produce more grams per litre of target molecule without having to increase the size and number of bioprocessors. This in turn has been driven by improvement in cell lines and growth media and that’s helped to push the increase in �ters forward too. In addi�on to that, I see the adop�on of single use components in manufacturing and that’s made a real impact where producers are able to use single components to avoid laborious cleaning and quality control of reusable stainless steel devices. The increase in produc�vity from the upstream guys has really required innova�on in downstream bioprocessing. And this has required the downstream processing guys to come up with solu�ons such as high throughput devices for effec�ve bioprocess op�misa�on and use of disposable systems, con�nuous upstream processing, con�nuous chromatography and integrated con�nuous bioprocessing, among several other techniques as well. What I’m trying to stress here is the pressures from upstream produc�vity have forced innova�on in downstream processing and so that’s really where the industry has changed significantly over the last 20 years. C: That’s amazing, So, is the downstream processing the key area for Astrea? Is that where your focus is in the cell and gene therapy sector?