Konstantinos Tornesakis
PIPS Host Organisation: GSK
Project Title: Investigating Whether Quantitative Structure-Property Relationships Can Be Used to Predict Downstream Processing Characteristics During Biopharmaceutical Manufacture

Konstantinos Tornesakis’s project aimed to develop an automated workflow for generating molecular descriptor data of therapeutic proteins, mostly monoclonal antibodies, to be used by data-driven models to predict characteristics of downstream process development. He improved his research skills by quickly learning new processes and enhanced his programming skills in a completely new scripting language.

Konstantinos participated in frequent meetings with professionals from two different departments, learning to communicate his findings more effectively. At the end of the placement, he presented his full work to researchers from those departments. During the placement, Konstantinos also had the chance to learn how research is developed for downstream processing in an industrial environment. He became familiar with the complexities of investigating how a molecule will behave under various conditions necessary for delivery to patients. He also became aware of the tight deadlines for project delivery and how different departments communicate suggestions to complete the work timely.