10/26/2026
By Dongming Xie

As part of the Alfred A. Donatelli Endowed Chemical Engineering Seminar, Dr. Chris Lowe of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company will be presenting “Biotherapeutics Process Development: Approaches, Constraints, and Opportunities.”

  • Date: Thursday, Oct. 29
  • Time: 3 – 4:45 p.m.
  • Location: Ball Hall 214

Abstract

Bioreactor cell culture for protein expression is a critical enabler for bringing complex medicines to patients. As promising new drug candidates are identified by discovery groups, the baton is passed to process development teams to generate larger quantities of material for preclinical studies, clinical trials and, eventually, commercial production. This presents the challenge of establishing small lab-scale processes (less than 1 L to 10 L) that will be representative of manufacturing scales at 2,000 L and beyond. This presentation will provide an overview of upstream process development activities for protein therapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies; examples of process development approaches and studies; and discussion of the evolving tools to accelerate workflows and extract deeper understanding of processes in action.

Bio

Dr. Chris Lowe is a principal engineer, process development, at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. He earned his B.S. in chemical engineering from UMass Amherst and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University, where his thesis focused on cell culture and drug delivery. Since beginning at Takeda in 2018, Dr. Lowe has led or contributed to the development, scale-up and tech transfer of candidate biologics, including complex multispecifics, antibody-drug conjugates and traditional monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Lowe has also championed the development and implementation of automated tools for 50-plus bioreactors throughout Takeda’s process development labs and pilot plant. These tools have reduced the need for hands-on operations by replacing regularly required manual sampling and feeding activities, enabling high-frequency data collection and feedback control, and increasing bioreactor throughput within the labs. Dr. Lowe has a long history of involvement with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) dating back to his time as an undergraduate in the UMass Amherst student chapter and has included service as a volunteer leader with multiple entities, most recently with the Pharmaceutical Development, Discovery, and Manufacturing Forum (PD2M) and the Career and Education Operating Council (CEOC).