Scott Altern

Background

About Scott Altern

Recently completed my PhD in Chemical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Professor Steven Cramer's group. Current role is at AbbVie in Worcester, MA where my focus is on mechanistic modeling of preparative chromatography, computational fluid dynamics, and molecular/multiscale modeling. I am also highly involved in using high-throughput (HT) experimentation to expedite PD and model generation. Overall, I have a keen interest in digital transformation of industrial bioprocess development and am highly interested in academic/industrial collaboration. My PhD research was centered on advancing the state-of-the-art in mechanistic modeling of preparative column chromatography and HTPD. These focuses were targeted through an array of investigative studies while partnering with a diverse group of industrial and federal (NIIMBL) collaborators and are described below. Rapid development of column models using HT batch isotherm data for mAb targets with a variety of ligand chemistries Creation of an open-source software IsoFit (github.com/alters9595/IsoFit) for rapid fitting of batch isotherm data using a variety of isotherm formalisms using robust global optimization routines Identification of simplified isotherm formalisms suitable for modeling of multimodal chromatography using applied mathematical and statistical analyses Application of HT-modeling workflows towards PD and PC to accelerate timelines and expand process understanding Model development for a novel size-exclusion multimodal resin used for flow-through removal of mAb fragments Model development for emergent therapeutic candidates such as lentiviral vectors and bispecific antibodies Development of hybrid column models for modeling of protein A chromatography Synthesis of mathematical frameworks to advance understanding of orthogonality in multimodal chromatography Fundamental analysis of complex pH and salt-dependent elution behavior in multimodal chromatography