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Machine Learning for Bioprocess Sensor Innovation

By Gareth John Macdonald - January 31, 2024

Machine learning (ML) could allow drug firms to create predictive process models that optimize development, production, and quality control. But, before embracing ML on the factory floor, manufacturers will need data to “train” the computer algorithms that drive the approach. And this means having process sensors sophisticated enough to track multiple parameters in real-time in highly complex cell cultures according to an industry expert.

Machine learning is a specialized form of artificial intelligence in which computer programs learn to solve tasks or understand the dynamics of complex systems with minimal or no direction. The process is iterative, and the solutions improve over time as more data is introduced.

This need for training data is driving innovation in process sensors, says Govind Rao, PhD, who is director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

“At the end of the day, AI/ML tools will allow for process monitoring to be simplified once data are generated at scale to relate process conditions to critical quality attributes. The need to run QC tests on quarantined bulk drug substance will be greatly reduced,” he explains. “However, to get there will require high-density process monitoring to allow ML/AI algorithms to relate process conditions to off-line measurements such as glycosylation, aggregation, etc.”

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National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences highlight Professor Upal Ghosh’s work cleaning contaminated waterways

By: Catherine Meyers | Published: Feb 23, 2024 | UMBC NEWS

The positive environmental and health impacts of work led by Upal Ghosh, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering at UMBC, was recently highlighted by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The agency showcased a low-cost technology that Ghosh and his colleagues developed to clean waterways contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a group of likely carcinogenic chemicals that were used in insulation, coolants, and electrical equipment for decades before being banned in the U.S. in 1979. 

The chemicals are stable and persist in the environment, often accumulating in fish that live in contaminated waterways and posing a risk to humans who consume those fish. NIEHS funded Ghosh’s research into using activated carbon pellets to bind the chemicals in place at the bottom of the waterways. This prevents the PCBs from circulating through the aquatic food chain. In projects carried out in contaminated lakes, rivers, and harbors in Delaware, Maryland, and elsewhere, Ghosh’s team demonstrated that the technique could significantly reduce the concentration of PCBs in the water and in aquatic lifeforms. Importantly, the technique is also significantly cheaper than standard clean-up approaches, such as dredging and disposing of contaminated sediment. 

In related work performed with Kevin Sowers, from the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, Ghosh’s team also developed a way to combine the activated carbon with microbes that break down PCBs, reducing their toxicity.

With NIEHS support, Ghosh has co-founded two companies—Sediment Solutions and RemBac—to commercialize the technology and deploy it at full-scale to clean up contaminated sites across the country, such as at Mirror Lake in Delaware.

“The technology brings together innovations in material science and biology,” says Ghosh. It’s an honor, he says, that the NIEHS, the leading agency in the country that funds research on public health and the environment, recognized “the real impact our research is having on improving public health.”

Celebrating our CBEE students at the GEARS (Graduate Experience, Achievements & Research Symposium) 2024. Sahar Souizi, Environmental Engineering PhD student in Dr. Blaney’s Lab, clinched the runner-up title, and Revati Kadolkar, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering PhD, under Dr. Frey & CAST, seized the People's Choice Award. 

Congratulations Sahar and Revati, for your outstanding achievements!

GEARS provides a platform for students to showcase their creative achievements, present research accomplishments, and share their experiences with peers. GEARS aims to provide a friendly atmosphere to promote collaboration, improve communication skills, and celebrate the hard work of UMBC graduate students.

Hundreds of East Coast chemical engineering students to gather at UMBC for regional conference

 By: Catherine Meyers | Published: Mar 29, 2024 | UMBC NEWS

Over the weekend of April 6 – 7, the UMBC student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will host the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference on campus. The event will feature workshops, research presentations, and a career fair with companies such as AstraZeneca and Astek Diagnostics and schools including Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers University, the University of Delaware, and Lehigh University. It will also feature the conferences’ two signature competitive events: Chemical Engineering Jeopardy and ChemE Car—a competition to build and operate a car powered and stopped by chemical reactions.

Organizers expect more than 350 attendees from more than 30 universities across the region. UMBC students are encouraged to register to attend, even if they aren’t chemical engineering majors. “As the premier student chemical engineering conference in the region, this event will offer great opportunities for networking, presenting research, landing internships and jobs, and general professional development,” says Terra Miley ’25, chemical engineering, who is serving as the communications chair for the student organizing committee.

Photo credit: The UMBC campus will host hundreds of chemical engineering students in early April for a regional meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

Evalynn Ellison, ‘25 chemical engineering, secured the title of top junior presenter in the engineering, physics, and mathematics category for presenting the poster based on her summer research project titled, "In-Frame Cloning of Chimeric Antigen Receptors to Improve Cancer Therapeutic Discovery" at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) conference held in November 2023.

Poster title: In-Frame Cloning of Chimeric Antigen Receptors to Improve Cancer Therapeutic Discovery 

Authors: Evalynn Ellison (1), Azady Pirhanov (2,3), and Brandon DeKosky (2,3)

¹Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

²Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

³The Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard

Abstract: Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) are being used to create promising cancer immunotherapies; however, high-throughput CAR discovery remains a challenge due to the many possible proteins that must be screened for activity. In particular, creating very large and diverse CAR gene libraries for effective CAR discovery has been a limitation. This research project focused on developing and optimizing a system to identify productively inserted CAR genes after cloning into expression vectors. To accomplish this, we developed a high-throughput in-frame CAR clone identification strategy based on a fluorescent protein mCherry assay. The changes in fluorescent reporter mCherry expression levels would signal that a potential CAR was expressed in-frame. After cloning test genes, samples were analyzed by flow cytometry to measure the level of fluorescence and percentage of cells expressing fluorescent protein mCherry. We concluded that the designed mCherry-based fluorescent reporter system was sensitive and specific, making it a successful validator of cloned CAR genes. These CAR platforms can be used for cancer therapeutic discovery toward cell-based immunotherapies, such as CAR-Ts. Our new approach to identify CAR candidates will make therapeutic development more streamlined and efficient. 

Photo credit: Evalynn Ellison

Here at the Career Center, we meet with students whose work experiences run the gamut. If you are finding yourself lacking this area, here are some suggestions to build out your resume.

Entrepreneurship. Have a good idea and want to see what you can do with it? Consider starting a small business. By becoming an entrepreneur, you can demonstrate you’re motivated, passionate, innovative, and have good decision-making skills. You can also tie your business to your industry of interest as well. Need guidance in this area? The Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is another UMBC resource that you could turn to for mentorship and ideas.

Micro-internships. These are short-term professional assignments that allow you to work on a real project in a limited amount of time. Micro-internships are a great option if you’re still searching for semester-long work and need more experience. Go to parkerdewey.com to find available projects. You can also look into theforage.com to gain experience through their job simulations.

On-campus leadership. If you are already active with a student organization on campus you can add relevant experiences to your resume by stepping into a leadership role. You can even try to find something tied to your major depending on the organization’s needs. For example, if you’re a finance major you could be the treasurer of a student organization.

Research. As a research institution, UMBC is home to many research projects being conducted by faculty members across the university. If you are interested in learning more about research and obtaining research experience, you could inquire with faculty members to see if there’s an opening in their labs and/or research teams. If you’re especially interested in pursuing graduate school, conducting research with a faculty mentor is a great way to determine if you want to go down that path, while building experience for your resume.

Volunteer. Connect with a local non-profit or community organization that works for a cause you feel passionate about and see if they need volunteers. You can find out if they need help in your area of study to make it even more relevant for your resume. For example, if you’re a Media & Communication Studies major you could help with the organization’s social media. Another great way to get involved in service-learning and community engagement opportunities is through The Shriver Center.

As you can see, there are a number of different ways you can add work experiences to your resume outside of the more traditional internship positions. Want to hear more about how others do it? Join us at our Inside Scoop: Entrepreneurs Panel Discussion on April 15^th at University Center 312 from 12-1 PM.