From the Editor: March 2024

This year’s WCBP Symposium, an annual event presented by our friends at the CASSS organization, was my first business trip as editor in chief. Each January, WCBP brings industry, academic, and regulatory representatives together at the historic Mayflower Hotel in in Washington, DC. The theme for 2024 was “Embracing Revolution,” and it struck a chord with me in this time of great personal change after many years of relative consistency.

WCBP speakers and discussion leaders focused on chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) development approaches; innovative analytical methods; next-generation therapeutics and vaccines; and global regulatory strategies. We all enjoyed a wonderful reception at the International Spy Museum, where I magically kept running into just the right people I needed to speak with at every turn. And that week I also got to meet our new associate technical editor in person for the first time. Talk about a revolution: I never would have thought we’d hire someone without having done so already!

We returned to our respective home offices to discover a revolution of sorts waiting for us in the form of some corporate restructuring. Suddenly we’re all reevaluating what we do and how we do it as we adjust to a new paradigm. We’ve reluctantly said goodbye to our publisher — Chris Johnson, who’s moving on to other things — and more happily welcomed a new vice president of editorial, Lisa Henderson. Things are settling down a bit as I write these words, and I am optimistic about the future that we’ll be building together.

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to BioProcess International US West at San Diego’s Town and Country Resort in March. Actually, you might be reading this there — and if you are, do look me up. It’s my favorite meeting of the year, not least because it takes place in my home time zone and a city that I love. BPI West is smaller and more intimate than Biotech Week Boston, and the west-coast vibe brings with it a cheerful collegiality that inevitably comes with sunny weather. And of course, the program is always top-notch.

While I continue to get the hang of my “chiefly” position, let’s dive into this issue’s downstream processing theme. We cover the gamut from harvest and clarification through purification to viral safety and sterile filtration. And don’t miss our regulatory and process-modeling features alongside the conclusion of Beckwith et al.’s examination of skills gaps related to Biopharma 4.0. Finally, if you enjoy this month’s vaccine-themed insert, don’t miss the custom report from Thermo Fisher Scientific, which will be online by the time you read this and printed with our April issue.