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Improving biotech production with real-time testing

Marieke Klijn detects changes in biotechnological processes in real-time, with the use of new monitoring techniques. She wants to move biotechnological research away from old-fashioned manual sampling to much more efficient continuous testing: “We can now know at once how many cells are alive during the production process, or how fast they are eating glucose, for example – all without the need to take a sample.” “My research focusses on ways to optimize production processes for biotech companies, by developing methods for continuous testing,” Marieke Klijn, assistant professor at the biotechnology department of the TU Delft, begins. “My team aims to make measurements an automatic part of production processes in biotechnology. I want to integrate sampling directly into the process – real-time testing: that way, we no longer need to rely on time-consuming manual handling in order to know how well the production process is going.” She set up her lab at TU Delft in September 2020. Read more Higher quality and more sustainable Klijn explains that continuous testing will lead to biotechnological products with higher quality and processing efficiency: “Real-time testing improves product quality, because the biotech company has continuous control of the product: the computer can easily detect deviations in the production chain at a much faster pace and change parameters so as to prevent failure, like a loss of product or unhappy cells. Real-time testing is also required if you want to move to continuous manufacturing, which allows companies to reduce their footprint and become more sustainable.” The biopharmaceutical industry is actively searching for more continuous processing setups that can lead to more efficient and affordable production of medicine, such as vaccines or cancer medicine. Klijn: “A continuous process flow already exists in other types of industries, such as the petrol industry. But in the case of biological matter, continuous processing and testing is more difficult: it has more technological, biological and regulatory challenges. You can’t be sure of the result in advance.” Eating habits of cells in real-time “In my lab we have a setup to insert analytical techniques into a bioreactor and extract processing data in real-time,” Klijn explains. “A bioreactor is basically a vessel with nutrients and cells. These cells can produce a specific biotechnological product, for example a food additive or a drug compound, in a highly controlled environment. We would like to monitor different cells to find out how to make these models robust for industrial application: so that when products or cell lines change, the company doesn’t need to go through the whole development phase again.” The main analytical tool that Klijn’s lab uses is Raman spectroscopy: a technique in which laser light is scattered due to molecular vibrations. Each molecule will have a different scattering pattern, making it possible to study all kinds of changes in different molecules in real-time: “With this technique we now know at once how many cells are alive during the production process, or how fast they are eating glucose, for example – all without the need to take a sample. The combination of this analytical technique and machine learning makes it possible to look at many different parameters at the same time.” The main analytical tool that Marieke Klijn uses is Raman spectroscopy, a technique in which laser light is scattered due to molecular vibrations. Blurry lines The biotechnological industry already makes use of Raman spectroscopy: they show a lot of interest in the models that the team can build for the process control systems. “We would like to capture as much information as feasible. For example, in addition to Raman spectroscopy, we want to use real-time imaging data to tell us how the cells are changing during the process of glucose eating.” The sheer amount of data this entails presents a challenge in itself, Klijn says: “Our dilemma here is how to effectively use the huge amount of information that we acquire.” How has this new focus on improvements during bio-production influenced the research field? “Before I started this work, each specialist would focus on their own part of the manufacturing process. Now the lines are blurry and they all work together. This makes the work very diverse. I can combine implementation of data analytical tools, with how the cell works and bioprocess engineering solutions. I work with experts from many different fields on the upstream part of processing, such as cell cultivation, and the downstream part such as modellers: all to make the production process into one single continuous flow.” Dr. ir. Marieke Klijn Assistant Professor +31 15 27 81280 m.e.klijn@tudelft.nl Room C0.550 Building 58 Van der Maasweg 9 2629 HZ Delft linkedin More stories

The Academic Fringe Festival - Aaron Halfaker: Designing to Learn - Aligning Design Thinking and Data Science to Build Intelligent Tools That Evolve

The Academic Fringe Festival - Aaron Halfaker: Designing to Learn - Aligning Design Thinking and Data Science to Build Intelligent Tools That Evolve 04 April 2022 17:00 till 18:00 - Location: Online by Aaron Halfaker | Microsoft Research Abstract “Design to learn" is a collaborative approach to developing intelligent systems that leverage the complementary capabilities of designers and data scientists. Data scientists develop algorithms that work despite the noisy, messy realities of human behavior patterns, and designers develop techniques that reduce noise by aligning interactions closely with how users think about their work. In this talk, I'll describe a set of shared concepts and processes that are intended to help designers and data scientists communicate effectively throughout the development process. This approach is being applied and refined within various product contexts in Microsoft including email triage, meeting recap, time management, and Q&A routing. Speaker Biography Aaron Halfaker is a principal applied research scientist working in the Office of Applied Research in Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices organization. He is also a Senior Scientist at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Halfaker’s research explores the intersection of productive information work and the application of advanced technologies (AI) to support productivity. In his systems building research, he’s worn many hats from full stack engineer, ethnographer, engineering manager, UX designer, community manager, and research scientist. He’s most notable for building an open infrastructure for machine learning in Wikipedia called ORES. His research and systems engineering have been features in the tech media including Wired, MIT Tech Review, BBC Technology, The Register, and Netzpolitik among others. Dr. Halfaker reviews and coordinates for top-tier journals in the social computing and human center-AI space including ACM CHI, ACM GROUP, ACM CSCW, Transactions on Social Computing, WWW, and JASIST. Homepage: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/ahalfaker/ . More information In this second edition on the topic of "Responsible Use of Data", we take a multi-disciplinary view and explore further lessons learned from success stories and examples in which the irresponsible use of data can create and foster inequality and inequity, perpetuate bias and prejudice, or produce unlawful or unethical outcomes. Our aim is to discuss and draw certain guidelines to make the use of data a responsible practice. Join us To receive announcements of upcoming presentations and events organized by TAFF and get the Zoom link to join the presentations, join our mailing list . TAFF-WIS Delft Visit the website of The Academic Fringe Festival

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TU Delft jointly wins XPRIZE Rainforest drone competition in Brazil

TU Delft jointly wins in the XPRIZE Rainforest competition in the Amazon, Brazil Imagine using rapid and autonomous robot technology for research into the green and humid lungs of our planet; our global rainforests. Drones that autonomously deploy eDNA samplers and canopy rafts uncover the rich biodiversity of these complex ecosystems while revealing the effects of human activity on nature and climate change. On November 15, 2024, after five years of intensive research and competition, the ETHBiodivX team, which included TU Delft Aerospace researchers Salua Hamaza and Georg Strunck, achieved an outstanding milestone: winning the XPRIZE Rainforest Bonus Prize for outstanding effort in co-developing inclusive technology for nature conservation. The goal: create automated technology and methods to gain near real-time insights about biodiversity – providing necessary data that can inform conservation action and policy, support sustainable bioeconomies, and empower Indigenous Peoples and local communities who are the primary protectors and knowledge holders of the planet’s tropical rainforests. The ETHBiodivX team, made of experts in Robotics, eDNA, and Data Insights, is tackling the massive challenge of automating and streamlining the way we monitor ecosystems. Leading the Robotics division, a collaboration between TU Delft’s Prof. Salua Hamaza, ETH Zurich’s Prof. Stefano Mintchev and Aarhus University’s Profs. Claus Melvad and Toke Thomas Høye, is developing cutting-edge robotic solutions to gather ecology and biology data autonomously. “We faced the immense challenge of deploying robots in the wild -- and not just any outdoor environment but one of the most demanding and uncharted: the wet rainforests. This required extraordinary efforts to ensure robustness and reliability, pushing the boundaries of what the hardware could achieve for autonomous data collection of images, sounds, and eDNA, in the Amazon” says prof. Hamaza. “Ultimately, this technology will be available to Indigenous communities as a tool to better understand the forest's ongoing changes in biodiversity, which provide essential resources as food and shelter to the locals.” . . . .

Students Amos Yusuf, Mick Dam & Bas Brouwer winners of Mekel Prize 2024

Master students Amos Yusuf, from the ME faculty (Mick Dam, from the EEMCS faculty and graduate Bas Brouwer have won the Mekel Prize 2024 for the best extra scientific activity at TU Delft: the development of an initiative that brings master students into the classroom teaching sciences to the younger generations. The prize was ceremonially awarded by prof Tim van den Hagen on 13 November after the Van Hasselt Lecture at the Prinsenhof, Delft. They received a statue of Professor Jan Mekel and 1.500,- to spend on their project. Insights into climate change are being openly doubted. Funding for important educational efforts and research are being withdrawn. Short clips – so called “reels” – on Youtube and TikTok threaten to simplify complex political and social problems. AI fakes befuddle what is true and what is not. The voices of science that contribute to those discussion with modesty, careful argument and scepticism, are drowned in noise. This poses a threat for universities like TU Delft, who strive to increase student numbers, who benefit from diverse student populations and aim to pass on their knowledge and scientific virtues to the next generation. It is, therefore, alarming that student enrolments to Bachelor and Master Programs at TU Delft have declined in the past year. Students in front of the class The project is aimed to make the sciences more appealing to the next generation. They have identified the problem that students tend miss out on the opportunity of entering a higher education trajectory in the Beta sciences – because they have a wrong picture of such education. In their mind, they depict it as boring and dry. In his pilot lecture at the Stanislas VMBO in Delft, Amos Yusuf has successfully challenged this image. He shared his enthusiasm for the field of robotics and presented himself as a positive role model to the pupils. And in return the excitement of the high school students is palpable in the videos and pictures from the day. The spark of science fills their eyes. Bas Brouwer Mick Dam are the founders of NUVO – the platform that facilitates the engagement of Master Students in high school education in Delft Their efforts offer TU Delft Master Students a valuable learning moment: By sharing insights from their fields with pupils at high school in an educational setting, our students can find identify their own misunderstandings of their subject, learn to speak in front of non-scientific audiences and peak into education as a work field they themselves might not have considered. An extraordinary commitment According to the Mekel jury, the project scored well on all the criteria (risk mitigation, inclusiveness, transparency and societal relevance). However, it was the extraordinary commitment of Amos who was fully immersed during his Master Project and the efforts of Brouwer and Dam that brought together teaching and research which is integral to academic culture that made the project stand out. About the Mekel Prize The Mekel Prize will be awarded to the most socially responsible research project or extra-scientific activity (e.g. founding of an NGO or organization, an initiative or realization of an event or other impactful project) by an employee or group of employees of TU Delft – projects that showcase in an outstanding fashion that they have been committed from the beginning to relevant moral and societal values and have been aware of and tried to mitigate as much as possible in innovative ways the risks involved in their research. The award recognizes such efforts and wants to encourage the responsible development of science and technology at TU Delft in the future. For furthermore information About the project: https://www.de-nuvo.nl/video-robotica-pilot/ About the Mekel Prize: https://www.tudelft.nl/en/tpm/our-faculty/departments/values-technology-and-innovation/sections/ethics-philosophy-of-technology/mekel-prize

New catheter technology promises safer and more efficient treatment of blood vessels

Each year, more than 200 million catheters are used worldwide to treat vascular diseases, including heart disease and artery stenosis. When navigating into blood vessels, friction between the catheter and the vessel wall can cause major complications. With a new innovative catheter technology, Mostafa Atalla and colleagues can change the friction from having grip to completely slippery with the flick of a switch. Their design improves the safety and efficiency of endovascular procedures. The findings have been published in IEEE. Catheter with variable friction The prototype of the new catheter features advanced friction control modules to precisely control the friction between the catheter and the vessel wall. The friction is modulated via ultrasonic vibrations, which overpressure the thin fluid layer. This innovative variable friction technology makes it possible to switch between low friction for smooth navigation through the vessel and high friction for optimal stability during the procedure. In a proof-of-concept, Atalla and his team show that the prototype significantly reduces friction, averaging 60% on rigid surfaces and 11% on soft surfaces. Experiments on animal aortic tissue confirm the promising results of this technology and its potential for medical applications. Fully assembled catheters The researchers tested the prototype during friction experiments on different tissue types. They are also investigating how the technology can be applied to other procedures, such as bowel interventions. More information Publicatie DOI : 10.1109/TMRB.2024.3464672 Toward Variable-Friction Catheters Using Ultrasonic Lubrication | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore Mostafa Atalla: m.a.a.atalla@tudelft.nl Aimee Sakes: a.sakes@tudelft.nl Michaël Wiertlewski: m.wiertlewski@tudelft.nl Would you like to know more and/or attend a demonstration of the prototype please contact me: Fien Bosman, press officer Health TU Delft: f.j.bosman@tudelft.nl/ 0624953733