MPI Colloquia Series: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jørgen Magnus, RWTH Aachen: Current Research Topics at the Chair of Biochemical Engineering

The Max Planck Institute Magdeburg invites you to its series of colloquia.
Top-class scientists, from notable German and worldwide research institutions, give a survey of their research work.

Everybody who is interested, is invited to attend.

Dial-in via Zoom: https://eu02web.zoom-x.de/j/7302508065

Abstract

The Chair of Biochemical Engineering (BioVT) at the RWTH University of Aachen is part of the Aachen Chemical Engineering (Aachener Verfahrenstechnik). After heading the BioVT for almost 27 years, Prof. Jochen Büchs handed over the chair to Prof. Jorgen Magnus in April 2023. The research at the BioVT focuses on the development of biotechnological processes in industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnology and strives to advance the science of biochemical engineering in those areas. In industrial biotechnology, we focus on the transition to a circular bioeconomy and the reduction of CO2 emissions. In pharmaceutical biotechnology, we focus on the development of novel production technologies for biologics in the fields of cell and gene therapy as well as protein therapeutics. We develop and optimize overall bioprocesses with the aim of technical and economic feasibility. The various online measurement technologies developed at the chair are used in this context for a science-based optimization and scale up. On June 6th, 2024, Jorgen Magnus will present more details on the current and future focus research areas of the chair.

About the speaker (personal website)

Jørgen Magnus holds a Master of Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology and a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from the Research Center Jülich and the University of Stuttgart. He worked for NNE Pharmaplan on design, construction, and commissioning of pharmaceutical production facilities before he joined Bayer AG in 2009. There, he worked on topics related to Industrial and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and initiated process development programs for the fermentative production of aniline and phenol from sugar. In addition to being project lead for the development of a continuous process for monoclonal antibodies, he was head of the Bioprocess Technology group for five years, before taking the position as Strategic Program Management Lead Cell and Gene Therapy.
In April 2023 Jørgen Magnus took over the Chair of Bioprocess Engineering at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. There, his research focuses on the characterization of processes in bioreactors of all scales - from microtiter plates to fermenters – with applications in industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnology.