Programme 2021

Karsten Flügel studied pharmacy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. He joined the Pharmaceutical Development at Merck KGaA in 2016 to pursue his PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology and works since 2020 as a Postdoctoral Researcher. He gathered advanced expertise about amorphous solid dispersions and their formulation and process development with a special focus on the influence of mechanical properties. Karsten’s current research focuses on the optimization and scale-up of processes for the manufacturing of solid oral dosage forms by applying mechanistic mathematical models.

Carolin is a pharmacist by training and studied pharmacy at the University of Freiburg. She spent her PhD student's time at Merck Healthcare KGaA on the topic of amorphous solid dispersions. After a PostDoc period within the department of Pharmaceutical Technologies/Drug-Delivery & Innovation, she is now responsible for Material Profiling/Powder Characterization as lab head and initiative project lead.

Dr. Olivier Brass earned a Ph.D. in 1992 from University of Lyon, Fr , in the biophysical and molecular interaction field in collaboration with Industrial and Academic partners (CNRS, INSERM and INSA labs). He worked with different Pharma and Biotech companies focusing on pharmaceutically active proteins. This included responsibilities in Research, Development, Quality control and Industrial Operation of API formulation (molecules, recombinant and purified proteins, and microorganisms). In 2001 he joined Sanofi Pasteur, Marcy l’Etoile, Fr, where he held various positions as project leader and team manager in R and IO. Since 2006, he had focussed on Formulation project from R&D to IO and specifically international corporate project for Vaccine stability prediction and stabilisation strategies for regulatory purposes. He led several initiatives enabling the formulation of different kind of vaccines (molecular, macromolecular, particle adjuvant, splitt and lived attenuated virus).

Naila El Kachai is a pharmacist and holds a PhD in Formulation and Physical Chemistry from the Université Paris-Sud. In her previous position, she worked at Stallergenes (Paris, France) in the development of protein formulations for subcutaneous delivery. In 2016, she joined Sanofi (Paris, France), where she currently work as a Lab Head in the Biologics Drug Product Development Department. Naila has a great experience in formulation of multi-specific antibodies; she is leading formulation and drug product development of several projects in this field.

Claus-Michael Lehr is a Professor at Saarland University as well as co-founder and head of the department Drug Delivery at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). Lehr has also been the co-founder of Across Barriers GmbH and acts as CEO of PharmBioTec GmbH, a not-for-profit contract research subsidiary of Saarland University. The research theme of his team is non-invasive drug delivery across biological barriers, in particular, the epithelia of the gastrointestinal tract, the skin, and the lungs. Recently, this has expanded to microbial barriers. He is (co)author of more than 350 papers with >12.000 citations (h‐index = 66). Recently, the British magazine “The Medicine Maker” rated him, for the third time, as one of the top 100 most influencing drug researchers in the world.

Gabriele Sadowski is full professor for Thermodynamics at TU Dortmund University. She is member of the Academy of Science and Arts North Rhine-Westphalia and of the German Academy of Engineering Sciences. She is the chair of the German working party Thermodynamics and the German Representative in the European working party Thermodynamics and Transport Properties. Gabriele Sadowski is author of about 200 scientific publications in high-reputation journals in the field of chemical, biochemical and pharmaceutical engineering. The main focus of her research is studying thermodynamic properties of complex systems with particular emphasis but not restricted to those containing biological and pharmaceutical molecules. To model the thermodynamic stability of those systems she developed the currently worldwide most-used thermodynamic model PC-SAFT which was published in 2001. She received numerous awards for her work, the most-prestigious one being the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation in 2011.

Robert studied pharmacy at the University of Leipzig, Germany and received his PhD from the University of Regensburg, Germany in the field of Pharmaceutical Technology for his work on active drug targeting with functionalized nanoparticles. In 2015 he joined the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Development of Merck KGaA as Principal Scientist and works as Associate Director in the department of Pharmaceutical Technology since 2019. His current focus lies on the formulation and process development for poorly soluble compounds and modeling & simulation of pharmaceutical processes for manufacturing of solid oral dosage forms. Robert is author of several peer reviewed publications.

As Head of Pharmaceutical Development Biologicals Kerstin is responsible for the early and late stage formulation and process, the parenteral primary packaging and parenteral combination product development of biologicals. She started her career 2000 at Boehringer Ingelheim and held several positions during this time.

Gabriele Sadowski is full professor for Thermodynamics at TU Dortmund University. She is member of the Academy of Science and Arts North Rhine-Westphalia and of the German Academy of Engineering Sciences. She is the chair of the German working party Thermodynamics and the German Representative in the European working party Thermodynamics and Transport Properties. Gabriele Sadowski is author of about 200 scientific publications in high-reputation journals in the field of chemical, biochemical and pharmaceutical engineering. The main focus of her research is studying thermodynamic properties of complex systems with particular emphasis but not restricted to those containing biological and pharmaceutical molecules. To model the thermodynamic stability of those systems she developed the currently worldwide most-used thermodynamic model PC-SAFT which was published in 2001. She received numerous awards for her work, the most-prestigious one being the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation in 2011.

Ijeoma Uchegbu obtained her PhD from the School of Pharmacy, University of London. Ijeoma is Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at the UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London (UCL), UCL’s Pro-Vice Provost for Africa and The Middle East, the Provosts’ Envoy for Race Equality and Chief Scientific Officer of Nanomerics Ltd. Nanomerics is a UCL spin out company, which was founded by Ijeoma and Andreas G. Schätzlein (http://www.nanomerics.com/). Nanomerics recently licensed NM133 to Iacta Pharmaceuticals. Nanomerics also recently won first prize for its Molecular Envelope Technology at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Emerging Technologies Competition 2017 in the Health category. Ijeoma has been awarded various prizes for her work, notably the UK Department for Business Innovation Skills’ Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science Engineering and Technology award (http://www.theukrc.org/women/women-of-outstanding-achievement/2007-collection/professor-ijeoma-uchegbu), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Pharmaceutical Scientist of the Year 2012 and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences Innovative Science Award 2016. Ijeoma was elected to the Controlled Release Society College of Fellows in 2013 and was made an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2013. Ijeoma is the editor of three books, a named inventor on 11 granted patents and has authored over 120 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Ijeoma’s research has been featured on BBC Woman’s Hour and more recently in The Guardian.

Matthew Clemente currently serves as the Vice President of Device Development at Novo Nordisk where he leads a development organization focused on the commercialization of drug delivery devices. He previously served as the Senior Director of Systems Engineering & Technology at Eli Lilly & Company, responsible for the leadership of the research and development organization driving the engineering and design of Eli Lilly’s delivery, device and connected solutions portfolio. From October of 2015 as the Chief Technology Officer and Director at Eli Lilly, he lead the technical development of their Connected Care Diabetes Ecosystem and an emerging portfolio of electromechanical delivery devices, applications and algorithms that served a variety of therapeutic areas and formulations. Prior to Lilly Matthew served as Director of Advanced Drug Delivery Systems at Unilife Corporation where he built and managed an integrated engineering and science organization focused on mechanical, electromechanical, digital and container closure systems for prefilled, preassembled, wearable drug delivery applications. Prior to Unilife, Matthew held a variety of roles of increasing responsibility at multiple Johnson & Johnson companies, where he primarily served in the new product development of insulin pumps at Animas Corporation for J&J’s Diabetes Care Franchise. By way of education, Matthew obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami and an MBA in Finance from Villanova University.