Biography:
Gary Lye is a Professor of Biochemical Engineering at University College London (UCL) and the Director of the UCL East Manufacturing Futures Lab (MFL). He has broad research interests related to the rapid design, optimisation and scale-up of bio-based manufacturing processes. He is also the Co-Director of the EPSRC Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA) and is one of the leads of the EPSRC Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub (FBRH). He has a particular interest in how bioprocess skills develop in his capacity as Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Bioprocess Engineering Leadership and Co-Director of the recently funded Innovate UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence (RESILIENCE).

Biography:
James is an academic researcher working at the interface between fundamental biological science and industrial bioprocessing at the University of Kent. After completing his PhD in 2016, he undertook a variety of post-doctoral positions in Mark Smales’ lab at the university with various collaborators including Lonza Biologics and as part of a consortium Global Challenges Research Fund. Research into the cellular mechanisms involved in upstream manufacturing processes has directly led to granting of three internationally recognised patents in the biotherapeutics field. James also joined the ESACT Frontiers committee in 2024 who provide personal and professional development opportunities for early career scientists. In January 2025 he started his current position as Lecturer in Industrial Biotechnology and is now establishing his group as an independent principal investigator where he will continue to focus on developing tools and bioprocesses to enhance the biotherapeutic field.

TBC

Biography:
Francesca graduated in Pharmaceutical Biotechnologies from the University of Bologna and obtained a PhD in Bioengineering from the same university. In 2013 she joined Imperial College London as Research Associate in Synthetic Biology in the groups of Prof. Tom Ellis and Prof. Guy-Bart Stan. Her work aimed at examining the causes of burden in Escherichia coli.
In 2016 Francesca was awarded the Junior Research Fellowship of Imperial College London to deepen her interests in mammalian synthetic biology. In October 2018 she was appointed Lecturer and since October 2025 she is Reader (Associate Professor) in Cell Engineering in the Department of Chemical engineering at Imperial.

Title: Glyvantis Bio: Precision control of mAb glycosylation for optimal therapeutic efficacy

Biography:
Ioscani leads the Animal Cell Technology Group (ACTG) at the School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin. ACTG is a multidisciplinary team that integrates advanced experimentation (synthetic biology tools) and computational strategies (hybrid modelling) to optimise the production of biopharmaceuticals. Ioscani graduated with a BE in Chemical Engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2006 and received his PhD from Imperial College London in 2013. Before joining UCD in 2014, he worked as a Postdoctoral researcher with Prof Cleo Kontoravdi and Prof Karen Polizzi at Imperial.

Title: Accelerated generation of monoclonal and bispecific antibodies via a production-phase promoter and MSX-free process

Biography:
Yusuf Johari is a Senior Principal Scientist at Lonza R&D, Cambridge, where he leads a research team dedicated to advancing expression vector technologies to enhance bioproduction performance in CHO cells. With over 15 years of experience in bioprocessing research across academia and industry, Yusuf brings deep expertise in DNA engineering and cell line development. He holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield.

Title: HIV-1 Packaging Cell Lines: Bridging the gap from Transient production to stable producer cell lines

Biography:
Louis Frost is a Senior Scientist at OXB with eight years of experience in cell and gene therapy. He began his career in the Cell Engineering Group, where he developed basal, packaging, and producer cell lines for a variety of viral vectors, and supported the implementation of automated cell line development technologies. Currently, Louis is part of Process Development Department, where he onboards clients’ products using OXB’s platform and technologies. Louis’s work spans the full biologics development journey, and he is passionate about translating scientific innovation into impactful therapies for patients.

Title: Antibody discovery and engineering by computational design

Biography:
Pietro Sormanni is a Royal Society University Research Fellow leading a group at Imperial College London (previously at the University of Cambridge) and the recipient of the 2025 Norman Heatley Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research lies at the interface of computational method development and experiments. The group’s main goal is to create computational protein-design technologies to transform antibody discovery and engineering. Their work, also through industrial and academic partnerships, already shows that these methods can streamline antibody development and deliver faster, cheaper alternatives to traditional routes. Previously, Pietro was a Borysiewicz Biomedical Sciences Fellow at Cambridge. He holds a PhD in Chemistry (Cambridge) and an MSc in Theoretical Physics (University of Milan).

Title: Computational modelling of glycosylation to tailor therapeutic antibody quality

Biography:
Following a PhD at the MPI of Biophysics in Frankfurt (Germany), Daniel Ungar studied vesicle trafficking in the mammalian Golgi as a PDRA at Princeton University. Once starting his group at the University of York, he combined the investigation of Golgi cell biology with studying glycans. Currently a Professor of Biochemistry at York, his group uses a combination of molecular cell biology, glycan analytics and computational modelling to understand the regulation of glycan biosynthesis in mammalian cells.

Title: Current and Future Digital Trends in Biomanufacturing

Biography:
Stephen is a Lecturer in Digital Bioprocess Engineering at UCL, specialising in advanced data analytics and mathematical modelling for bioprocess optimisation. His research develops digital twins and PAT-enabled soft sensors to support real-time monitoring, predictive control, and intelligent biomanufacturing.

Title: Use of computational fluid dynamics in bioprocess development and manufacturing

Biography:
Eva Antonopoulou completed her BSc in Mathematics at the University of the Aegean, followed by an MSc at Heriot-Watt University and an integrated MSc/PhD in Mathematics and Fluid Dynamics at the University of Leeds. She worked as a Research Associate in Mathematical Biology and Fluid Dynamics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, where she also contributed to college teaching. For the past three years, she has been applying her expertise to pharmaceutical development at Fujifilm Biotechnologies, developing mathematical and CFD models to improve biologically driven manufacturing processes.

TBC

Will Milligan is Founder & CEO of Extracellular, a scale-up and development partner for novel foods, materials and cosmetics ingredients. Extracellular supports the rapid commercialisation of products using animal and plant cell culture. Extracellular has established world-leading capabilities in the UK, with expertise in small-scale optimisation for process development, high-throughput media development, and scale-up capabilities to produce large quantities of cell-based products. Will is an biomanufacturing specialist, with more than a decade of experience in process development and scale-up across stem cells, gene therapies and non-health biotech products. Will was formerly Head of Upstream Processing at a UK-based biotech CDMO and consultancy and holds an Engineering Doctorate in Biopharmaceutical Process Development.

Biography:
• Senior Scientist at Mesenbio, a University of York (UoY) spinout company developing extracellular vesicle (EV) based therapeutics with a focus on regenerative medicine.
• 8+ years of post-doctoral research (UoY) aimed at improving antibody production in CHO cells in collaboration with FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies.
• Strong capabilities in cell biology and bioprocessing.
• Currently leads the investigation into Mechanism of Action of EV therapeutics.
• PhD, University of Durham

Biography:
Dr Emma Hargreaves is Director of Education and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Kent. Her research background lies in translational control and industrial biotechnology, with a particular focus on the regulation of mRNA translation during recombinant protein production in mammalian cells, and she has over a decade of research experience in this area. Emma serves as an education technology specialist panel member for the Biochemical Society’s Education, Training and Public Engagement panel. In her current leadership role, she oversees educational strategy across the School of Natural Sciences, championing inclusive practice, academic wellbeing, and innovation in teaching and learning. More recently, she has developed a strategic interest in artificial intelligence in education, contributing to institutional leadership on AI strategy at the University of Kent. She now sits on the University AI Education Strategy Group and leads the School of Natural Sciences AI Strategy Group, bringing an informed perspective on the opportunities, limitations, and ethical considerations of AI for training and workforce development in biotechnology.