Peter Dunnill Lifetime Achievement Award and Richard Wilson Impact Award winners announced for the bioProcessUK conference

The winners of this year’s Peter Dunnill Lifetime Achievement Award and Richard Wilson Impact Award have been announced today ahead of the 2017 bioProcessUK conference, taking place in Cardiff between 28-30 November.

Alan Dickson, Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Manchester is the winner of this year’s Peter Dunnill Award and he will be giving a lecture titled: Hindsight is a powerful teacher at bioProcessUK. The award was established following the death of Professor Peter Dunnill to mark his lifetime contribution to bioprocessing. Dr Mark Bustard, Business Development Director, National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, CPI, will receive the Richard Wilson Impact Award that acknowledges individuals or groups who are making an impact on the bioprocessing sector. The award was named in honour of Richard Wilson, co-inventor of the Lonza GS system, who passed away in 2015.

BIA CEO Steve Bates said: “The UK’s medicines manufacturing capabilities are world leading and we have some of the top talent in the world working to produce life changing medicines for patients here and around the globe. These awards highlight two key people in the sector who have both helped to strengthen the UK’s medicines manufacturing capabilities and I would like to congratulate both Alan and Mark on their well-deserved prizes and I look forward to celebrating their achievements at bioProcessUK this week.”

This year’s bioProcessUK conference will bring together more than 250 bioprocessing professionals to discuss the key issues likely to impact on the sector over the next year and to look back at just some of the sector’s success stories from 2017. The full agenda and details on how to register can be found at http://www.bioprocessuk.org/

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Notes to editors

Background on this year’s winners

Professor Alan Dickson Professor of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester

Alan is a molecular cellular biologist and works with industrial partners to enhance expression and manufacture of recombinant proteins in bioprocessing. Current grant funding includes Research Council and industrially funded projects. He is a member of the Steering Group of the BBSRC Bioprocessing Research Industry Club (BRIC) and the Executive Committee of the European Society for Animal Cell Technology (ESACT). He leads the multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence in Biopharmaceuticals (COEBP) based in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. The COEBP links researchers from biological, chemical, chemical engineering, medical and physical sciences backgrounds, applying novel approaches to challenges of manufacture of biologics, promoting industrial-academic linkages and providing access to research technologies including high-throughput and high-content cell culture robotics. Alan is Co-Director of BioProNET, a BBSRC NIBB co-sponsored by EPSRC, which promotes industrial-academic interactions.

Dr Mark Bustard, Business Development Director, National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, CPI

Mark currently leads in identifying and securing opportunities for the National Biologics Manufacturing Centre at CPI to engage, collaborate with and support large corporates, SMEs, academia and charities to enable the delivery of innovative manufacturing solutions to accelerate the growth of new and emerging biologic medicines. Prior to this he was the Medicines Manufacturing Specialist at the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Technical Director for Medicines at the previous HealthTech and Medicines KTN and worked for seven years developing the growth of bioprocessing across the UK as part of bioProcessUK. In these roles he assisted companies build collaborations, raised awareness of funding opportunities and made academic links as appropriate for their business needs. During this time Mark has also been a steering group member for the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership and has recently led the secretariat function for the Advanced Therapies Manufacturing Taskforce.  For the last five years he was also the Programme Coordinator for the Bioprocessing Research Industry Club (BRIC), a BBSRC led research club supported by EPSRC, KTN and member companies. Prior to joining KTN, he held senior positions in academia being the Director of Research for Chemical Engineering and Lecturer in Bioprocessing at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Mark has also worked in biomanufacturing, development and consultancy with Biopharm Services and in delivering projects across Biopharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Biotechnology and Food and Drink sectors.

Contact

Ed Sexton, BIA Communications and Media Relations Manager – [email protected] 0207 630 2196

About the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA)

Established over 25 years ago at the infancy of biotechnology, the BioIndustry Association (BIA) is the trade association for innovative enterprises involved in UK bioscience. Members include emerging and more established bioscience companies; pharmaceutical companies; academic, research and philanthropic organisations; and service providers to the bioscience sector. The BIA represents the interests of its members to a broad section of stakeholders, from government and regulators to patient groups and the media. Our goal is to secure the UK's position as a global hub and as the best location for innovative research and commercialisation, enabling our world-leading research base to deliver healthcare solutions that can truly make a difference to people's lives.

For further information, please go to www.bioindustry.org and twitter.com/BIA_UK