The Systems Research Institute (SRI) for Chemical and Biological Processes, established in 2004 under the direction of Dr. Christos Georgakis, operates independently of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. The Institute’s long-term mission includes:

• Fostering research initiatives in modeling, optimization and operation of chemical and biological systems and processes;
• Cultivating inter-disciplinary academic collaborations with other Tufts departments and schools, as well as neighboring universities;
• Develop strong industrial interactions.

The Institute’s first initiative, the Industrial Consortium on Batch Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals (BMPC), is currently in development. The Consortium is a cooperative research program that will focus on improving the development, design, and operation of batch pharmaceutical and chemical processes, with the ultimate goal of reducing in half the time it takes to design new processes. The Consortium will bring together leading pharmaceutical and chemical companies to define and support research that will ultimately benefit all member companies. Initial research areas encompass designing batch reactors for multi-step synthesis; enantiomeric and polymorphic crystallizations; plant-wide simulations, scale-up and process sensitivities; and statistical process monitoring and process control that will effectively contribute to the implementation of the FDA’s Process Analytical Technology Initiative.

Future Institute initiatives, collaborations and research areas include on-line monitoring and control during anesthesia (pharmacokinetic modeling, systems physiology and feedback control); dynamic modeling of metabolic pathways; optimal operation of bioreactors for new drugs; and multi-scale modeling.