BIOT presents 2018 awards

The ACS Division of Biochemical Technology (BIOT) is presenting its 2018 awards on this week during the spring ACS national meeting in New Orleans.

Chase Beisel,associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, is the recipient of the Biotechnology & BioengineeringDaniel I. C. Wang Young Investigator Award, which honors young researchers who have shown commitment to publishing in the journal. Beisel is being recognized for his work with CRISPR-based tools in bacteria.

Anne Kantardjieff, director of early-stage process development at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, is receiving the James M. Van Lanen Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her outstanding leadership within BIOT. She has served as secretary of the division as well as a conference cochair.

Brian Pfleger, the Jay & Cynthia Ihlenfeld Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is the recipient of the BIOT Young Investigator Award, sponsored by Genentech. The award recognizes his work in developing synthetic biology tools and deploying them in microbes to implement metabolic engineering strategies for sustainable chemical production.

Kirk Roffi, a scientist at Pfizer, is the recipient of the Young Professionals Award in Upstream & Downstream Processing, sponsored by 3M. He is being recognized for his poster presentation “Rational Molecular Tweaking of an IgG1 Monoclonal Antibody for Improved High-Concentration Solution Properties” at the spring 2017 ACS national meeting in San Francisco.

Gene Schaefer, a senior director at Janssen R&D, is receiving the Industrial Biotechnology Award on behalf of the combined Janssen Pharmaceutical Development & Manufacturing Sciences and Biogen Manufacturing Technical Operations teams. They are being recognized for their partnership in developing and scaling up the Darzalex active pharmaceutical ingredient process, which was approved in less than three years and followed by a second-generation process less than two years later.

Michael L. Shuler, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering and in the Smith School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, is the recipient of the Biotechnology & BioengineeringElmer Gaden Award Lecture, which recognizes a high-impact paper reflecting exceptional innovation, creativity, and originality.

Pamela Silver, the Elliot T. & Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry & Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, is the recipient of the David Perlman Memorial Lectureship, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb. The award recognizes her contributions and leadership in the areas of systems and synthetic biology.

Huimin Zhao, the Steven L. Miller Chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering and professor of chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will receive the Marvin J. Johnson Award in Microbial & Biochemical Technology, sponsored by Pfizer. Zhao is being recognized for his work in developing directed evolution and synthetic biology for industrial and medical applications.

The winners of the 2018 W. H. Peterson Awards are Lisa Tostanoski, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, for her oral presentation “Engineered Polyelectrolyte Multilayers to Promote Immune Tolerance,” and Silvia Pirrung of Delft University of Technology for her poster titled “Chromatographic Process Development for Complex Biological Feedstock.” The W.H. Peterson Awards are presented annually by the division to student members who present outstanding research work in sessions sponsored by the division at ACS national meetings.

For more information about the BIOT awards, visit the division website at acsbiot.org/index.php/awards.

Please send announcements of awards to l_wang@acs.org.