Strategic partnership

DTU strengthens biotechnology collaboration with top US university

DTU and North Carolina State University intensify their collaboration in research, education, and lifelong learning.

NC State is located in ‘Research Triangle Park’, one of the largest and fastest growing markets in biotechnology and life science in the United States. Photo: NC State.

Thursday 05 October 2023

Christina Tækker

North Carolina State University (NC State) in the United States and DTU have entered into a strategic partnership aimed at strengthening education and research opportunities in biotechnology.

NC State and DTU already work closely together on developing biotechnological solutions. The new agreement intensifies the exchange of students and researchers between the two universities, including through new continuing education opportunities and greater collaboration with DTU’s new part-time MSc programme in Biomanufacturing in Kalundborg. Here, highly qualified engineers are educated to run the complicated processes contained in a bio-based production.

NC State is located in the southeastern part of the United States, in the so-called ‘Research Triangle Park’, one of the largest and fastest growing markets in biotechnology and life science in the United States. Here you will find a number of leading life science companies such as American GlaxoSmithKline, Biogen Idec, Merck, and Pfizer, as well as Danish Novozymes and Novo Nordisk.

“NC State has a strong biotech profile, just like DTU, and we’re working together on an increasing number of projects. In addition, there are strong Danish corporate interests in the area around NC State. By linking DTU’s strong Danish biotech environment with the US counterpart, I believe that we can develop innovative biotechnological solutions with global impact and give DTU’s researchers and students an even greater international outlook,” says DTU Senior Vice President Carsten Orth Gaarn-Larsen.

Growing demand for pharmaceuticals

The international research and education programme Accelerated Innovation in Manufacturing Biologics (AIM-Bio) is an example of an existing collaboration between DTU and NC State.

The programme is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation with DKK 182.7 million and focuses on creating new bio-industrial processes based on biotechnology—and on developing study programmes for students and staff in the industry.

Today, the biopharmaceutical industry accounts for the main part of the global production of pharmaceuticals such as insulin or antibodies that help save and improve lives worldwide. But the industry is in a crucial phase. Increasing demand for pharmaceuticals requires larger and more efficient production of existing products, combined with a need for safe, cost-effective production processes for new pharmaceuticals.

The AIM-Bio programme involves researchers from NC State, DTU Chemical Engineering, and DTU Bioengineering. One of them is DTU Professor John Woodley, who works with therapeutic protein production using yeast and the subsequent purification.

“The biopharmaceutical industry is a complicated sector and one of the challenges is that the purification process for producing biopharmaceutical products is expensive. There is also a need to develop sustainable solutions for reducing water consumption in production and to find new up-scalable production processes.This can help make the pharmaceuticals more accessible to those who need them,” says John Woodley.

He points out that the further development of the industry requires both innovation and highly-qualified employees. With the AIM-Bio programme, DTU and NC State will therefore promote the exchange of Danish and American lecturers, researchers, and students—in terms of research projects, preparation of continuing education programmes, and teaching.

On exchange stay at NC State

Daniel Nymand Petersen. Photo: Victoria Sara Saad

One of the first DTU students to go on an exchange stay at NC State is Daniel Nymand Petersen, who has studied fermentation-based bioproduction at DTU. Earlier this year, he completed his Master’s thesis in fermentation-based production and purification of blood protein using cellulose membranes. This took place at NC State with John Woodley and Professor Ruben Carbonell from NC State as supervisors. Today, Daniel Nymand Petersen is employed at Novo Nordisk.

“NC State is a leader in its field in, for example, purification with membranes, so it was an obvious choice for me to apply for the AIM-Bio programme, where I gained hands-on experience with purification of proteins. At NC State, I worked in the laboratory and conducted experiments that I had only read about at DTU. It gave me a unique opportunity to learn about a state-of-the-art research area that is seeing constant and rapid development, both in Denmark and internationally,” says Daniel Nymand Petersen.

As an engineer, he wants to make a difference in the world. And there are several benefits in working with fermentation-based bioproduction, which can be used to produce medicine using living organisms, says Daniel Nymand Petersen:

“Fermentation can play an important role in the transition from oil-based production of chemicals to more sustainable and bio-based production. And it’s exciting to develop a purification technique with membranes. It looks like this could be the next step in purification. Where this technology used to be a theoretical concept, we’re now starting to come up with good solutions with great potential.”

Contact

Carsten Orth Gaarn-Larsen Rektoratet Mobile: +45 23230000 coglar@dtu.dk

John Woodley Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Mobile: +45 53503747 jw@kt.dtu.dk