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Orientador: Rubens Maciel Filho Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Quimica Resumo: Os processos biotecnológicos ou Bioprocessos necessitam de maiores cuidados do que a maioria dos processos químicos comuns devido, principalmente, à sensibilidade a variações nos estados do sistema como, por exemplo, temperatura e concentração. O crescente aumento da importância dos Bioprocessos e a maior dificuldade em seu controle e simulação resultaram na procura e utilização de novas ferramentas como a Inteligência Artificial (IA). Inteligência Artificial é uma parte da ciência da computação relacionada ao projeto de sistemas computacionais inteligentes. Nos últimos anos houve um aumento substancial do uso de ferramentas de IA tais como Redes Neurais Artificiais (R.N.A), Sistemas Especialistas e Lógica Fuzzy no controle e simulação de Bioprocessos. Este trabalho teve como objetivo o desenvolvimento de um software que atue como um assistente, auxiliando na simulação de Bioprocessos. O Bio-PSA (BioProcess Simulation Assistant) possui quatro módulos: Módulo 1: Simulação de Bioprocessos, incluindo funcionalidades para simulação de produção de etanol e dextrana, ambos com modelagem normal e híbrida. Módulo 2: Simulação de processos para purificação de proteínas, incluindo a modelagem de processos baseados no modelo CARE (Continuous Affinity Recycle Extraction). ?Módulo 3: Sistema Especialista e uma base de conhecimento que auxilia o usuário no design de processos biotecnológicos. Módulo 4: Software para treinamento de R.N.A Abstract: The biotechnical processes or Bioprocesses require larger cares than common chemical processes due, mainly, the states of the system variations sensibility, for example, temperature and concentrations. The increasing raise of the Bioprocess importance and the largest difficulty in its control and simulation resulted in the search and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Artificial Intelligence is a part of the computer science related to the project of intelligent computational systems. In the last years there was a substantial increase in the use of AI tools such as Artificial Neural Networks (A.N.N), Expert Systems and Fuzzy Logic in the Bioprocess control and simulation. This work had the objective of the development of software that acts as an assistant, aiding in the Bioprocess simulation. The Bio-PSA (BioProcess Simulation Assistant) has four modules: Module 1: Bioprocess simulation, including applications for simulation of ethanol and dextran production, both with normal and hybrid modeling. Module 2: Simulation of proteins purification processes, including processes modeling based in the CARE (Continuous Affinity Recycle Extraction) model. Module 3: Expert System and a knowledge base that aids the user in the Bioprocesses design.?Module 4: Software for A.N.N training Doutorado Desenvolvimento de Processos Biotecnológicos Doutor em Engenharia Química

Entrepreneurship in the science-based industries is often the result of collective actions undergone by entrepreneurial groups. The origins of the biotech industry provide many examples. In the plasma protein industry, which has registered a continuous growth since 1910 and an accelerated process of mergers and acquisitions in the last decades, there are three leading corporations whose history reflects collective entrepreneurship: Baxter with headquarters in the United States (start 1931), CSL Behring in Australia (start 1916) and Grifols in Spain (start in plasma business in 1940). This article provides a historical overview of the industry and how the making of collective entrepreneurship allowed a challenger like Grifols, from a late industrialized country such as Spain, to cross entry barriers in the plasma industry, buy many of the pioneering corporations, and establish a global leadership position. This article argues that the long-term trust-based personal and professional relationships established by the entrepreneurial Spanish family lab, with managers from the US and Japanese corporations, produced a collective entrepreneurial hub of connections that made possible a long-term sustained process of innovation and globalization in a highly specialized biomedical industry.

The practical effect of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. and Alice Corporation Pty. v. CLS Bank International has been to deny patent eligibility to innovative patent applications and patents, particularly in the fields of biotechnology and computer software. On July 5, 2016, the Federal Circuit in Rapid Litigation Management Ltd. v. CellzDirect, Inc. ruled that the claimed methods of cryopreserving hepatocyte cells are patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because they are not directed to a natural phenomenon. The patentees discovered that some cells in a hepatocyte pool could survive multiple freeze-thaw cycles. The claims recite a method of producing a preparation of hepatocytes that can be frozen and thawed at least twice. The method steps include freezing and thawing a sample of hepatocytes, performing density fractionation to separate viable and non-viable cells, recovering the viable hepatocytes, and refreezing the recovered hepatocytes.The Federal Circuit decided that, although dependent on a natural phenomenon, the inventors’ claims were a patent eligible application of their natural discovery. As a result, the court may have opened up a new avenue for patent seekers to circumvent the restrictive eligibility requirements established by the Supreme Court. This Note provides a brief history of patent eligibility doctrine and the cases leading up to the decision in CellzDirect. It next analyzes the CellzDirect decision and its possible interpretations. Finally, it argues that this case represents an effort by the Federal Circuit to limit the Supreme Court’s extreme anti-patent position in Mayo and Alice by cabining the eligibility restrictions to diagnostic discoveries.

Svinterikos, E., & Zuburtikudis, I. (2016). Carbon nanofibers from renewable bioresources (lignin) and a recycled commodity polymer [poly (ethylene terephthalate)]. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 133(37)., Utilizing inexpensive biorenewable and waste raw materials for the production of carbon nanofibers can pave the way for lowering their manufacturing cost. In this research, lignin is combined with recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) to fabricate precursor fibers via electrospinning. The process is optimized using the Design of Experiments statistical methodology and fibers with minimum average diameter equal to 191 ± 60 nm are prepared. Investigation with Attenuated Total Reflection – Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy reveals the lignin structural changes induced by the solvent (trifluoroacetic acid), which is used for the preparation of homogeneous solutions of lignin and PET in various concentrations, while it gives an indication of the blending of the two electrospun polymers. The good miscibility between lignin and PET is also confirmed with Differential Scanning Calorimetry. The subsequent carbonization of the precursor fibrous mats results in a fibrous carbon structure with average fiber diameters similar to those of the precursor fibers. The successful transformation into carbon nanofibers is affirmed by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy. The Carbon content of these nanofibers amounts to 94.3%.

Panayotidou, E., Kroustalli, A., Baklavaridis, A., Zuburtikudis, I., Achilias, D. S., & Deligianni, D. (2015). Biopolyester‐based nanocomposites: Structural, thermo‐mechanical and biocompatibility characteristics of poly (3‐hydroxybutyrate)/montmorillonite clay nanohybrids. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 132(11)., In this work, the structural, thermal, mechanical, and biocompatibility characteristics of biopolyester-based nanocomposites with phyllosilicate clays, namely those of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) with octadecylamine-modified montmorillonite (C18MMT), are reported. PHB/clay nanocomposites with various loadings were prepared by melt mixing. X-ray diffraction measurements and transmission electron microscopy images revealed the coexistence of intercalated and exfoliated states in the produced nanocomposites. Atomic force microscopy imaging also shed light to the morphological characteristics of the pure PHB and the prepared nanocomposites. The thermal stability of the nanohybrid materials was improved with the 5 wt % loading nanocomposite to show the best improvement. In addition, the nanohybrids have lower melting point compared to pure PHB and enhanced storage modulus (E′). Finally, the biocompatibility of pristine PHB and the 5 wt % nanocomposite was assessed by studying the morphology and proliferation of osteoblast cells attached on their surfaces. The results after 3 and 7 days of cell culturing indicate the incorporation of nanoclays does not change the cell adhesion and spreading as compared to those on pure PHB.

El treball consta de dues parts. La part 1 presentada per Mercè Farràs Costa i la part 2 per Berta Capella Roca.

Conté: Part 1, General vision and presentation of the plant / Ferran Vila. Part 2, Technical characteristics of the process / Carla Sánchez. Part 3, Analysis and future perspective / Ramon Roca

This article is the introduction to the special issue' Health Industries in the Twentieth Century'. It offers a broad literature review of scholarly works about the history of health and medicine, and stresses the opportunities for business historians to tackle the field of healthcare.