Connecting the Dots: Why You Should Consider Continuous

Yasser Kehail – Upstream Application Leader, Cytiva

Yasser has over 10 years’ experience in cell culture manufacturing, development and optimization. He currently supports customers working on different therapeutic modalities, offering consulting on upstream scale-up strategies and transitioning processes from traditional to single use. Before joining Cytiva, Yasser began his career at Biogen in cell culture manufacturing, and then moved to Upstream PD at Amgen.

Joakim Lundkvist – Modality Manager, Bioprocess Hardware, Cytiva

Joakim Lundkvist has over 11 years of experience working at Cytiva across a range of roles, including Research Scientist, Regional Service Manager, and Marketing Manager. Joakim’s current focuses are productivity improvements and cost effectiveness for customers.

Gunnar Malmquist – Principal Scientist, BioProcess R&D, Cytiva

Gunnar Malmquist focuses on resin design strategies, Quality by Design and PAT, as well as using multivariate data analytics and mechanistic modelling to understand biomanufacturing processes.

Gunnar started his career at Pharmacia Fine Chemicals in 1979, working with quality control of chromatographic separation resins. He was later involved in the development of the ÄKTA chromatographic system and the UNICORN software, before moving in 1997 to R&D for preparative chromatographic resins. He has been responsible for the design of several of the leading resins on the market, including MabSelect and Capto.

Andreas Castan – Strategic Technology Partnerships Leader, Life Sciences, Cytiva

Andreas Castan provides leadership and support to the Bioprocess business. His main area of expertise is in upstream processing. Prior to joining Cytiva, Andreas was Director Upstream Development at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, working with development of expression systems, process development of microbial and mammalian cell-based processes, and scale-up to cGMP manufacturing scales. During the last 20 years, Andreas has held several positions within biopharmaceutical development, including in project and line management, as well as manufacturing.

Avril Vermunt – Strategic Technology Partnership Leader, Cytiva

Avril is an innovative team and program leader in the biomanufacturing industry, with expertise in process development, design, scale-up, and engineering. Since joining Cytiva in 2015, she has contributed to the Commercial and Bioprocess organizations by driving customer collaboration and delivering impactful engagement, digital awareness, and value-driven solutions. Prior to this, she had roles in Amgen Process Development and Fujifilm Diosynth, where she gained extensive experience in commercial and clinical manufacturing processes, as well as capital projects.

Avril loves channeling her 20+ years of experience towards strategic partnerships, with a focus on intensified processes to enable next-generation manufacturing, and improving patient accessibility and affordability.

Bill Whitford – former Strategic Solutions Leader, Bioprocess, Cytiva

Bill Whitford has over two decades of experience in biotechnology product and process development. He first joined Cytiva as an R&D Leader, developing products supporting protein biological and vaccine production in mammalian and invertebrate cell lines. He has commercialized defined hybridoma and perfusion cell culture media, fed-batch supplements, as well as aqueous lipid dispersions.

An invited lecturer at international conferences, Bill has published over 250 articles, book chapters and patents in the bioproduction arena.