As part of our BBSRC-supported collaboration with the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at University College, London, we are co-presenting a DoE for BioProcess Optimisation 3-day workshop at UCL on 15-17 March 2010.  The scope is described here by our presenter Craig Gershater:

Teddy Bears, catapults and Ishikawa

What do Teddy Bears, catapults and Ishikawa (this is not a motorbike!) have to do with doing better science? The answer lies in a new course being offered by ACBE (The Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering) under the MBI® banner, Design of Experiments (DoE) for Bioprocess Optimisation. Every graduate emerging from university with a hard-won science degree may well feel that they are fully equipped to carry out test-tube-rattlingly good experiments. Certainly we can recognise that scientists of recent and more mature standing now have access to staggeringly powerful technologies. What is becoming increasingly apparent is that no matter how sophisticated the laboratory toys are, the data they generate are really only as good as the experimental design to which they have been assigned. Staff at UCL have come to realise that they are uniquely positioned to offer an introductory course on a topic that will transform the way scientists will come to look at their experimental systems and radically increase the efficiency of experimental data acquisition as well as information and knowledge generation. 

Participants from Academia and Industry 

This approach to experimentation has been under discussion in UCL for some time and scientists within the ACBE have been actively investigating these techniques within research projects; the time has now come to offer DoE training as a full external 3 day training course. To facilitate the delivery of this exciting new venture staff have formed a powerful alliance with industrially based scientists who have been practitioners of these techniques over many years. Craig Gershater has over 30 years of industrial bioprocess development experience and is CEO of Cambridge Bioprocess Management Ltd, he has been delivering lectures on various MBI® courses over many years and has employed these types of DoE techniques for over 15 years. Ian Macpherson is a statistician also with 30+ years of industrial experience and is MD of PRISM Training and Consultancy, a company offering statistical training, software and experimental design support to the science based industries. Together Craig and Ian offer close to 70 years expertise and have a profound understanding of the issues emerging from the application of these techniques as well as the immense impact the application of these techniques can have on any type of experimental system. Prof Gary Lye and Dr Frank Baganz have worked very closely with Ian and Craig over many years and will act as the cornerstone for the delivery of this course. In addition recognised experts from academia and industry (e.g. Protherics and Xenova) have been invited to talk on the course on the various DoE and related systems that have already been applied at the sharp end of research objective attainment.

Zero Maths 

The course is designed to have as near to a 'zero maths' policy as possible, the intention is to provide front line scientists and research managers with a sound introduction to the techniques so that all participants should be able to leave the course and immediately carry out vastly more efficient experiments. The development of this course is Research Council funded and the intention is that this is the first of perhaps other courses taking in more advanced ideas and techniques designed to equip the Bioprocess business and related sectors with some of the most powerful experimental design and data analysis approaches. Despite the fact that Biotechnology may be regarded as one the most advanced sciences in terms of technologies and potential, the truth may also be that we biotechnologists are lagging behind other research based industries in the application of these types of industrial approaches, hence the UCL initiative.

Workshop contact details 

So to get back to the question about Teddy Bears, the reader is directed to obtain the answer from Gary or his colleagues but one thing should perhaps be apparent, the course is intended to be fun as well as hugely rewarding - in every sense.

By the end of the module attendees will be able to:

• Generate appropriate experimental designs within fixed research budgets and timescales
• Ensure analytical methods can be validated and provide reliable data for process evaluation
• Rapidly screen and optimise different fermentation media and operating conditions
• Obtain the highest yield of active product throughout their downstream process sequence

The course will run from the 15th-17th March 2010; anyone interested in participating should contact mbi-training(at) ucl.ac.uk or via the registration page on the UCL website.