Overview

The growing demand for sustainable and health-promoting novel foods (eg, alternative protein, cultivated meat etc), along with increasingly complex pharmaceutical products, has brought downstream processing (DSP) into the spotlight as a critical yet often underestimated component of bioprocess development. While upstream innovations often catalyse attention, downstream separation plays an equally crucial role in ensuring product quality, safety, scalability, and regulatory compliance.

This one-day symposium will provide a focused platform for researchers, industry experts, and regulatory stakeholders to discuss the current challenges, recent innovations, and future directions in downstream separation. The event will emphasise the importance of DSP in the successful commercialisation of novel foods and biopharmaceuticals, especially in the face of evolving regulatory landscapes, sustainability requirements, and the need for cost-effective manufacturing processes.

Attendees will hear from leading experts in cellular agriculture, pharmaceutics, and novel food technologies. A panel discussion will bring together academic and industry voices from both the pharmaceutical and food sectors, fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue. The aim is to identify shared challenges and collaborative solutions that can accelerate progress in DSP across bioprocessing applications.

• Abstract submission now open: Submit your abstract
• Abstract submission by: 11 January 2026
• Event registration by: 15 January 2026

Key themes include

• DSP challenges and roadblocks in processing novel proteins, cell-based foods, conventional food products and biopharmaceutics
• Innovations in membrane technologies, chromatography, extraction, and purification techniques
• Scalability and integration of DSP in continuous bioprocessing
• Future research path for sustainable downstream processing in biotech.

By facilitating open dialogue across disciplines, this symposium aims to catalyse new thinking and research focus on DSP as a bottleneck and opportunity area in bioprocessing innovation.

Expected outcomes

• Awareness building: Increase recognition of downstream separation as a pivotal, research-worthy component in the commercialisation pipeline of novel food and pharmaceutical products.
• Research gaps identified: Clarify current technological, regulatory, and economic bottlenecks in downstream processing and identify high-impact areas for future research and development.
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration: Foster dialogue between separation experts, food technologists, bioprocess engineers, pharmaceutical scientists, and industry stakeholders to encourage integrated problem-solving.
• Innovation showcasing: Highlight emerging technologies and methods with the potential to revolutionise DSP efficiency, scalability, and sustainability.
• Strategic road mapping: Lay the groundwork for strategic partnerships, consortia, or funding proposals targeting downstream separation innovations.

Organising committee

• CARMA team: Dr Fatima Anjum, Lucinda Brook, Dr Madhurima Dutta, Isa Senica, Dr Hannah Leese, Dr Davide Mattia
• IChemE team: Dr Marcus Cook, Aaron Matin

Organising institution/body

IChemE Fluid separation SIG / CARMA-Hub / Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bath.

Panel discussion

The panel discussion aims at bringing together experts from food, cell ag. and pharma to discuss challenges in Biotech downstream processing and how we can support each other in advancing biotech DSP.

The primary goal of the discussion is to understand the major bottlenecks in downstream processing and their impact on overall progress of bioprocessing in novel foods and pharmaceutics.

Additionally, the discussion will include future research paths and how progress in one sector can support the other as well as what collaborative research opportunities can be created to advance over downstream processing in biotech.

Programme

9:00-10:00 Registration & networking

10:00-10:10 - Welcome note - Prof. Davide Mattia & Dr. Fatima Anjum

10:10-10:30 - CARMA WP2 Update - Dr Hannah Leese (University of Bath)

10:30-11:20 - Downstream Processing for Cellular Agriculture; need & future

10:30-11:00 - Keynote speaker: Dr. Andrea Rayat (UCL)

11:00-11:20 - Invited speaker: Dr. Monika Tomecka (CEO Ufraction8)

11:20-11:40 - Downstream processing in Biopharmaceutics & lessons to learn

11:40-12:00 - Invited speaker: Prof. Jerry Heng (Imperial) Downstream processing in pharmaceutical industry Invited speaker: Ida Amura (Astrazeneca)

12:00-12:30 - Abstract / ESRs talks (10 min each)

12:30-13:00 - Lunch

13:00-14:10 - Poster session

14:10-14:30 - Current downstream processing in Food industry with lessons to learn Invited speaker: Prof. Lilia Arhne (University of Copenhagen)

14:30-15:20 - Abstract / ESRs talks (10 min each)

15:20-15:50 - Coffee & Networking

15:50-16:30 - Panel discussion Challenges in Biotech downstream processing and how we can support each other in advancing biotech DSP. Chair: Prof. Marianne Ellis & Prof. Davide Mattia (University of Bath) Panellists Pharma: Prof. Daniel Bracewell (UCL) Biotech: Dr. Nigel Jackson (Cytiva) Cell Ag.: Prof. Gary Lye (UCL)

16:30-17:00 - ESRs prizes & Closing remarks

Time

09:00–17:00 GMT.