PhD position: Process Engineering of Pharmaceutical Production Processes, scholarships essays

PhD position: Process Engineering of Pharmaceutical Production Processes, scholarships essays

This PhD project aims at developing mechanistic (and also empirical) process models for innovative pharmaceutical production processes (e.g., continuous processing, hot-melt extrusion, freeze-drying,…), and to exploit those models in the development of advanced process control systems. The research will be conducted in close cooperation with pharmaceutical companies. Research results will be published in important scientific journals.

Pharmaceutical companies can only release drug products (e.g., tablets, capsules, …) when the product quality is guaranteed. Since the publication of the Process Analytical Technology guidance by the FDA (2004), product quality should be built into the drugs already during production process design. During manufacturing, several pharmaceutical raw materials (i.e., active drug compounds and excipients) are processed by several consecutive process steps or process phases, leading to a final product formulation with the predefined quality. Currently, pharmaceutical production processes are developed by empirically testing how the process and input material variables affect the product quality parameters. Herewith, end product quality is mainly determined off-line and after processing.

However, there is a huge need within pharmaceutical industries to implement in-line and real-time quality control systems and to obtain detailed knowledge on how all raw materials behave during processing. Therefore, theoretical/physical/phenomenological modeling of the production processes is required and advanced control systems are to be implemented. The mechanistic process models should help to increase process understanding (processes should not be a black box) and to simulate processes. Process simulations should allow predicting the input material behavior during processing and should contribute significantly to guaranteeing the end product quality. Furthermore, the developed models should help to determine how input material variability can be managed by the process without losing product quality. The ultimate goal is to develop processes that are continuously under control and hence allow real-time release.


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master’s degree in bio-engineering, engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry. Candidates must have strong interest for mechanistic modeling and pharmaceutical engineering.

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The PhD projects will be guided by the PAT research group (Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Prof. Dr. Thomas De Beer), the Process Engineering and Technology research group (Technical University of Denmark, Prof. Dr. Krist Gernaey) and the BIOMATH research group (Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Prof. Dr. Ingmar Nopens).

PAT research group (Ghent University) Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Prof. Dr. T. De Beer Thomas.DeBeer@UGent.Be +32-496-498322

BIOMATH research group (Ghent University) Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Prof. Dr. I. Nopens Ingmar.Nopens@UGent.be +32-9-2645939

Process Engineering and Technology research group (Technical University of Denmark) Prof. Dr. K. Gernaey KVG@kt.dtu.dk +45 4525 29 70