Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 9th Annual

Developing BioPharmaceutical Workflows

Innovations to Streamline Production from Benchtop to R&D

13 November 2025 ALL TIMES WET (GMT/UTC)

The rapid growth of biopharmaceuticals is driving demand for more efficient protein production workflows. Expressing, extracting, purifying, characterizing, and analyzing recombinant proteins involve complex, multi-step processes where traditional one-factor-at-a-time approaches often fall short. Thus, innovating the development roadmap from benchtop to R&D can streamline production of these valuable biomolecules by improving workflow efficiency and minimizing time and costs. Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 9th Annual Developing BioPharmaceutical Workflows conference at PEGS Europe unites global experts to share best practices and innovative strategies for enhancing protein production. Emphasis is given to cutting-edge technologies to support and refine workflows, highlighting how these innovations and renovations meet industry’s evolving demands.

Thursday, 13 November

07:30Registration and Morning Coffee

TRANSFORMING PURIFICATION WORKFLOWS

08:25

Chairperson's Remarks

Kim Remans, PhD, Head, Protein Expression & Purification Core Facility, EMBL Heidelberg

08:30

Enabling Mode-of-Action Studies of TEAD1 Ligands through Hydrogen Deuterium Exchange Mass-Spectrometry and Tailored Protein Purification Workflows

Alessio Bortoluzzi, PhD, Scientist, Merck Healthcare Satellite Lab, iBET Instituto de Biologia Experimental Tecnologica

This talk will demonstrate how hydrogen–deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS), supported by tailored protein purification strategies, enabled mechanistic insights into TEAD1 modulation by lipid and synthetic ligands. It will be shown how different P-site binders impact TEAD1 conformational dynamics and TEAD1/YAP interfaces behaviour. The presentation will also highlight the strategies and technical caveats employed to obtain the protein samples needed to interrogate the dynamics of the different TEAD1 states.

09:00

Elevating Success, Throughput, and Efficiency: Advancing Protein Purification with Platform Technologies and Automation

Sandeep K. Talapatra, PhD, Leader Protein Science, Protein Cell & Structural Sciences, GSK

At Protein Sciences, GSK, our focus is on producing high-quality, multivariant recombinant proteins swiftly, meeting the evolving demands and supporting various stages of drug discovery and beyond. The talk will showcase our commitment to advancing this field by exploring novel ways to implement and enhance automation and platform technologies. This is with the aim to optimise and increase throughput for high quality recombinant protein generation.

09:30 Talk Title to be Announced

Speaker to be Announced, Evonik Industries AG

10:00Coffee Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

STREAMLINING EXPRESSION & PRODUCTION WORKFLOWS

10:45

FEATURED PRESENTATION: Streamlining Gene Expression Workflows: The Use of Baculovirus-Mediated Gene Expression in Mammalian Cells for Recombinant Protein Production

Kim Remans, PhD, Head, Protein Expression & Purification Core Facility, EMBL Heidelberg

Baculovirus-mediated gene expression in mammalian cells, BacMam, is a useful alternative to transient transfection for recombinant protein production in various mammalian cell lines. Due to the large cargo capacity of baculoviruses, BacMam is also ideal for the production of multi-subunit protein complexes. Furthermore, BacMam allows for easy streamlining of insect and mammalian gene expression workflows, as it is straightforward to parallelise the baculovirus generation for both types of eukaryotic cells.

11:15

Artificial Expression System for High-Performance Production of Biomedicines: From Concepts to Reality

Philippe H. Jais, MD, PhD, President & CSO, Eukarys SAS

With the exception of mRNA, most expression platforms rely on the host cell's endogenous transcription machinery, where the rate-limiting step in recombinant protein production arises from limited processivity, nuclear accessibility, and competition with host transcription. We present the C3P3 system, a biologically inspired artificial expression platform enabling high-yield, autonomous synthesis of exogenous mRNA, bypassing host machinery. Utilising a DNA-dependent RNA polymerase, C3P3 ensures both transcription and post-transcriptional modifications (e.g., capping, polyadenylation). In its current fourth generation, this system demonstrates up to 7-fold enhanced expression in HEK-293 and CHO-K1 cells, offering an efficient and versatile alternative for biologic production.

11:45

Producing Challenging Protein Targets for Drug Discovery

Hazel Mak, PhD, Senior Protein Scientist, Discovery Sciences R&D, AstraZeneca

Targets for drug discovery projects are becoming more diverse and challenging. They are chosen based on evidence linking them to human disease and not on the challenges, which need to be overcome to express these proteins in suitable quantity and quality to support drug discovery projects. A number of examples of recent AstraZeneca projects will be presented, in which difficult expression/purification challenges have been overcome.

12:15 LUNCHEON PRESENTATION: The FOLDTEC® Solution for Producing Difficult-to-Manufacture Proteins

Arndt Dietrich, Ph.D., Senior Expert, Downstream Processing Development, Wacker Biotech GmbH

The FOLDTEC® solution is a toolbox designed to enable the production of proteins that are challenging to produce in their native structure and functionality using common systems. It encompasses proprietary expression strains, systematic development strategies, advanced production systems, and analytical methods. A case study highlights its successful application in the production of a therapeutic protein.

12:45Luncheon in the Exhibit Hall with Last Chance for Poster Viewing

ACCELERATING & AUTOMATING WORKFLOWS

13:55

Chairperson's Remarks

Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Life Science Solutions, Thermo Fisher Scientific

14:00

Hinge-Engineering the Antibody with Expression First in Mind

Zahra Jawad, PhD, CEO & Founder, Creasallis

As antibody formats get more complex, it is easy to focus on the biology and neglect the expression and scale up. CreaTap is a hinge modification of antibodies to improve their penetration into solid tumours. Our proof-of-concept data put expression and manufacturing at the forefront of our proof of concept, emphasising the biological action alongside the manufacturing considerations. 

14:25

Accelerating Recombinant Protein Labelling Workflows Using in vivo Biotinylation in Different Host Platforms

Christopher Cooper, PhD, Director and Head of Protein Sciences, CHARM Therapeutics

The coenzyme biotin binds with very high affinity to streptavidin, and this is exploited in a variety of assay formats such as SPR and HTRF, commonly used in drug discovery screening. Recombinant proteins can be selectively and covalently biotinylated using bacterial biotin ligase (BirA), and whilst biotinylation of proteins can be carried out using exogenous BirA, co-expressing with BirA may lead to significant advantages. These include reduced processing times and more complete modification, accelerating workflows using labelled proteins. Here we discuss approaches for co-expression of BirA in three common protein expression platforms.

14:50

Antibody Expression Strategies to Meet Accelerated Timelines in Small Biotech

Dana Moreno Sanchez, Protein Expression Scientist, Alchemab Therapeutics

Alchemab's target-agnostic and patient-oriented drug discovery platform identifies novel disease-relevant antibody therapeutics and antigens by screening patients resilient to disease. Our approach allows us to build new therapies for challenging disease areas such as neurodegeneration. Rapid antibody production is critical for biotechs advancing novel therapies from research into clinical stages. This presentation explores strategies for optimising early high-quality antibody production and achieving cost-effective, rapid development of lead candidates.

15:15 Talk Title to be Announced

Speaker to be Announced, Abselion

15:30Sponsored Presentation (Opportunity Available)

16:00Networking Refreshment Break

16:10

An End-to-End Automated Workflow for Characterisation of Next-Generation Biotherapeutics

Miroslav Nikolov, PhD, Senior Scientist & Laboratory Head, Roche Pharma Research and Early Development pRED, Roche

The rapid advancements of automation and digitalisation have the potential to transform every step in the complex process of biopharmaceutical research and development. This presentation highlights the recent innovations within Roche's pharma research and early development unit (pRED), focusing on a fully E2E automated MS analytics workflow, which is an integral component of a broader, modular, and interconnected automation network that spans the entire biopharmaceutical R&ED value chain.

16:35

From Expression to Insight: Automating Protein Workflows for Modelling

Sarah Westarp, Group Lead, Applied Biocatalysis, Bioprocess Engineering, Technische University Berlin

Optimising microbial production strains remains challenging due to scale differences between screening and industrial processes. Miniaturised, high-throughput systems enable cost-effective testing of strain-condition combinations but require improved mimicry of production conditions. We developed a unified scale-down model to evaluate the cultivation parameter to yield dependencies. Central to this is a workflow management system ensuring reproducible, traceable data flows across scales and facilitating model-based analysis of microbial physiology and process conditions.

17:00

Accelerating Drug Discovery: The Power of in silico-Assisted Antibody Discovery at Bayer

Vanessa Verissimo, Research Scientist, Therapeutic Antibodies, Bayer Pharma AG

In the evolving field of antibody-drug discovery, accelerating the identification of therapeutic molecules while ensuring precision is crucial. This presentation will explore our innovative workflow, highlighting improvements in speed, data quality, and scalability that enhance molecule discovery and pipeline success. We will discuss the transition from traditional high-throughput screening to in silico-assisted processes and the integration of next-generation sequencing and machine learning to expand antibody diversity and reduce wet-lab characterisation. Furthermore, we will demonstrate how Bayer's “virtual Biotech” model, has enabled a faster and more cost-effective early-stage process.

17:25 FEATURED PANEL DISCUSSION:

Higher-Throughput Biopharmaceutical Workflow Challenges

PANEL MODERATOR:

Richard Altman, MS, Field Application Scientist, Life Science Solutions, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Protein expression/production laboratories provide crucial support to drug discovery efforts. This panel discussion focuses on the concepts, technologies, and strategies necessary to meet the ever-increasing need for recombinant proteins.

  • Strategies on how to manage multiple “top priority” projects         
  • Total workflow efficiency
  • The importance of tech development to long term success
PANELISTS:

Nicola Burgess-Brown, PhD, Professorial Research Fellow, UCL, London; COO, Protein Sciences, Structural Genomics Consortium

Kim Remans, PhD, Head, Protein Expression & Purification Core Facility, EMBL Heidelberg

Bjørn Voldborg, MSc, Head, National Biologics Facility, DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark

18:10Close of Summit


For more details on the conference, please contact:

Mary Ann Brown
Executive Director, Conferences
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
Phone: (+1) 781-697-7687
Email: mabrown@healthtech.com

For sponsorship information, please contact:

Companies A-K
Jason Gerardi
Sr. Manager, Business Development
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
Phone: (+1) 781-972-5452
Email: jgerardi@healthtech.com

Companies L-Z
Ashley Parsons
Manager, Business Development
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
Phone: (+1) 781-972-1340
Email: ashleyparsons@healthtech.com