(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-06)
Liu, Yi
Cell therapy is an emerging field in regenerative medicine that uses living cells to treat disease. The potential therapeutic benefit of cell therapy is creating a rapidly growing industry estimated to be a $55 billion global market by 2024. However, meeting this massive demand requires the development of novel tools and technology to solve the unique challenges facing the manufacturing of cell therapy. Compared with traditional biopharmaceutical manufacturing, cell therapy product manufacturing is considerably more challenging due to the greater complexity of working with living cell products. As a result, the cost of cell therapies remains unattainable for most patients, with a long lead time and low production capacity.
This Ph.D. thesis will describe the development and application of an agent-based simulation platform that can create digital representations of a single or multi-network of manufacturing facilities throughout a large region. The platform incorporates a customized manufacturing process for autologous products that are customized per patient, as well as a batch manufacturing process for allogeneic products. A set of case studies will be presented in the thesis to demonstrate how the platform enables manufacturers to devise system-level decisions to improve facility design, plan “what if” scenarios for unexpected disruptions, and address an unmet need for reducing costs, increasing speed, and improving yields for cell therapy production and distribution.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-11-13)
Liu, Yi
New approaches through grafting initiators onto the surface of inner-wall of mesoporous silica to synthesize polymer inside the nano-channels to obtain mesoporous silica/polymer nanocomposites were developed and investigated. Using the newly developed approach, PMMA was successfully synthesized through free radical polymerization and nylon 6 though in situ anionic ring-opening polymerization inside the nano-channels. The spherical mesoporous silica/PMMA composites we obtained showed a higher degradation temperature and narrower degradation range than pure commercially available PMMA. Spherical PMMA capsules were obtained after the silica network was dissolved with hydrofluoric acid, these pure PMMA spheres had the same thermal properties and morphology as they had with in the composites. The BMS/nylon 6 nanocomposites were spheres with the same diameter as pure BMS. About 50 wt% of the composites was newly synthesized nylon 6. The synthesized nylon 6 was proven to contain both α-form crystallite and γ-form crystallites with covalent bonds with the surface of silica inside the nano-channels.