The Latest in Solid-State NMR for Pharma and BioPharma

Webinar Overview

Therapeutic modalities continue to advance for the benefit of our patients, and in the meantime, exhibits complexity from molecular structures and chemical and biological processes. Hence, the analysis of multicomponent and multiphase pharmaceutical systems in natural abundance increasingly challenge the resolution and sensitivity of the spectroscopic techniques used.

Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool that can precisely characterize the structure and dynamics of complex molecules and materials. The past decade has witnessed significant technical advancements in the field of ssNMR for overcoming the challenges of low sensitivity and poor resolution, such as dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), proton-detected spectroscopy, ultrafast magic angle spinning (UF MAS) and the development of multi-nuclear and multi-dimensional methods. These advances have opened new avenues for ssNMR in application to emerging modalities in the pharmaceutical industry, especially for understanding liposomal and liquid crystal formulations, lipid nanoparticles, amorphous dispersions and lyophilized biologic products. ssNMR techniques can obtain structural, dynamic and spatial information at macroscopic and microscopic scales, offering critical knowledge to help understand and optimize drug delivery, chemical and physical stability, bioavailability, formulation composition, and manufacturing processes for simple small molecule formulation to complex modalities and drug delivery systems.

Thursday July 15, 2021

Speaker

Yongchao Su, Ph.D

Principal Scientist and Head of Biopharmaceutical NMR Laboratory (BNL) in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Merck & Co, Inc.

Dr. Su is a Principal Scientist in the department of Analytical Research and Development at Merck & Co, Inc., United States, and an analytical lead of material and biophysical characterization. His solid-state NMR work focuses on investigating molecular basis of drug delivery and stability for drug product development. He teaches as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin and Purdue University. Yongchao has recieved postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Prof. Robert G. Griffin after his PhD at Iowa State University with Prof. Mei Hong. He is a member in Physical Analysis Expert Committee in United State Pharmacopeia, a Board Member of Eastern Analytical Symposium, a Co-vice Chair of Gordon Research Conference on molecular structure elucidation. He currently serves in the Editorial Advisory Board for Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Research, Molecular Pharmaceuticals, and Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and as an Editor of the section of protein conformation forAmino Acids. He has contributed over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a coinventor of patents on drug developments of therapeutic chemicals and proteins.

Anuji Abraham

Associate Scientific Director, ssNMR Team Lead
Bristol Myers Squibb

Dr. Anuji Abraham is an Associate Scientific Director and ssNMR Team leader in the Materials Science and Engineering Division in Product Development at Bristol Myers Squibb, New Jersey, USA. She has a Ph.D. from ETH-Zurich, Switzerland. She was a postdoctoral fellow at EPFL, Switzerland and Durham University, UK.

  • Materials Scientist and Physical Chemist with 17 years’ experience working on pharmaceuticals, biomolecules, and novel formulations and ~10 years’ experience at BMS.
  • Subject Matter Expert for NMR spectroscopy at BMS expanding applications of NMR from small molecules to complex and biomolecules across departments in Product Development and Discovery
  • She also a cross functional team leader for 5 BMS assets, leading preformation, formulation, CMC and IP filing strategies, both for oral and parenteral programs.
  • She has co-authored 35+ research publications.
  • She is in the executive committee and is a member of Broad of Directors of PANIC NMR conference.
  • She is a mentor internally and externally (AAPS, HBA, Rutgers) and is a champion of Women in Science at BMS.
  • She is the author of a Kid’s book titled My Story: A little boy’s narration of his mom’s journey across the world and is a half marathoner.
  • Joe Lubach

    Principal Scientist Genentech

    Dr. Joe Lubach is a Principal Scientist in the Small Molecule Pharmaceutical Sciences department at Genentech, Inc., where he has been since 2007. In his current role, he leads the Solid-State Chemistry & Characterization subgroup within Small Molecule Pharmaceutics, working on physical form screening and solid-state characterization of small molecule drug substances and drug products. His personal research interests center around expanding applications of solid-state NMR spectroscopy across the pharmaceutical discovery and development landscape, and he has authored or co-authored forty-six peer-reviewed publications and three reference chapters stemming from his work. Joe holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas (2007), where he worked with Prof. Eric Munson.

    Michail Lukaschek

    Senior Scientist Janssen Pharmaceutical NV

    Since 2017 - Senior Scientist at Janssen Pharmaceutical NV· Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic resonance in analytical development, AMCI (Advanced Material Characterization and Investigation)· Small molecule solid state characterization (DS, DP, excipients)

    2013 – 2017 - Service Engineer at Bruker BioSpin GmbH· Installation/service of NMR systems with focus on solid-state NMR and micro-imaging

    2002 – 2013 - Research Associate at the Institute of physical chemistry, University of Freiburg· Maintenance and support for magnetic resonance equipment – liquid, ssNMR, Benchtop NMR and EPR.· Method development magnetic resonance.