DTU hosted the 4th annual AIM-Bio Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Symposium Oct. 30–31, 2023. Faculty, staff, and students from NC State were excited to travel to Denmark to meet in person with their DTU colleagues. Due to the pandemic travel restrictions during the early years of the AIM-Bio program, this was the first trip to Denmark for several NC State University collaborators. The planning committee at DTU organized an excellent meeting that resulted in knowledge exchange and networking to strengthen the collaborative partnership.
Day 1 of the meeting was held on campus at DTU and included a full agenda of interesting presentations. Talks by the following guest speakers were especially relevant to the program:
- Dr. Mark Duerkop, CEO Novasign GmbH
- Dr. David Pollard, Head of Advanced BioProcessing, Sartorius
Next, the graduate students and postdocs supporting AIM-Bio presented their research, and principal investigators presented the expected/realized translational outcomes for their research.
The day concluded with an informative joint talk on lifelong learning by DTU’s Head of Teaching Malene Bonné Meyer and BTEC Executive Director Gary Gilleskie. In summary, the Day 1 agenda provided an opportunity to share and reflect on the accomplishments of the program and recognize new opportunities for the future. The group concluded the day with a dinner nearby at Bernstorffs Slot.
The agenda for Day 2 of the meeting included a bus trip to Biotech City of Kalundborg, where the group gathered at the Helix Lab and listened to key industry stakeholder talks including:
- Michael Hallgren, Senior Vice President, Novo Nordisk
- Per Møller, Senior Symbiosis Developer, Kalundborg Symbiosis
- Allan Vedel Andersen, Team Leader Production, Unibio A/S
- Anette Birck, Director of Helix Lab
- Jacob Haurum, Recovery Specialist, Novozymes
Next, the group participated in industry tours of Novo Nordisk, Helix Lab, Novozymes, and the Kalundborg Utility. In the afternoon, the course leads and researchers participated in a poster session followed by a group dinner. Overall, about 75% of the participants indicated that the meeting was quite or extremely effective at achieving the meeting goals of providing the opportunity to network, increasing understanding and engagement with AIM-Bio, and increasing collaboration in the program.
