Why we need engineers in vaccine manufacturing?

I studied Microbiology (B.Sc Hons, Cardiff) and Biophysics (Ph.D Kings College London).

During my career started in biochemistry/cell biology, working for many years on multi-protein complexes, intracellular trafficking machinery and ion channels. This led to my interest in the cell biology of viruses and the generation of new vaccines.

I have worked in academic institutions in the UK, Germany and USA, and spent a number of years developing VLP based vaccines in the UK Biotech Industry.

I am now part of the UCL Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hubs (VaxHub). Initially as Research Fellow specialising in the use of high throughout methodologies for vaccine bioprocess development and analytics. With an emphasis on the transfer of these technologies for use in Low to Middle Income Countries (LMIC).

My teaching activities include lecturing to B.Sc, B.Eng, M,Sc and M.Eng students on Vaccine Bioprocessing. In 2022 I started the VaxHub Schools Outreach program. 

Since February 2024 I hold the position of VaxHub Outreach and Public Engagement Manager and Lecturer.

Anca Tacu is a Policy Adviser in UCL Engineering’s Policy Impact Unit. She is currently working closely with researchers at the Manufacturing Research Hub for a Sustainable Future (Vax-Hub Sustainable) and the Vaccines Manufacturing Hub for LMICs (Vax-Hub Global) to facilitate and enhance the policy impact of their work.

Anca has previously held roles in UCL in the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) and School of Pharmacy, which included managing and developing the growing collaboration with New Giza University to support undergraduate education in Egypt. Anca’s background includes a particular emphasis on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She was the founding network manager of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network UK, growing this into a thriving collaborative space for UK HEIs to contribute actionable research to policy making. Anca’s work at IIPP was within an innovation research/policy interaction space and included the Biscay Fiscal Policy and the SDGs project, the SDG data gaps project in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and work towards the post-2030 Agenda.

Since joining UCL in 2019, Salomé has gained expertise in addressing key challenges in the scale-up and optimisation of vaccine bioprocessing. This has complemented her previous experience from her PhD at IST (Portugal) and Nofima (Norway), focusing on the development of new strategies to improve DNA vaccine resistance to nucleases. Including the use of marine resources as DNAse inhibitors. Furthermore, as Head of Biology (Orphidia), Salomé also has experience in developing point-of-care diagnostics. 

Currently her research interests focus on strategies for simplified process development and quality control to accelerate vaccines to market, namely by introducing versatile and continuous platform processes.