CME Seminar Series: Development of Pharmaceutically Relevant Oxidations Leveraging Data-Rich Experimentation

In this talk, Shane Grosser will showcase how collaborative efforts across the Data-Rich Experimentation and Process Research and Development communities are contributing towards building deep, fundamental understanding of these novel oxidation methods. He will highlight past and ongoing efforts showcasing novel synthetic transformations and sustainable chemistry and engineering, underpinned by data-rich experimentation methods including; high-throughput experimentation and analysis, automation, novel reactor design and more.

About the speaker:

Shane Grosser obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Rochester and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Shane's PhD was focused on DNA sequencing technologies working for Jim Schneider. Since 2007, Shane has worked at Merck in Rahway NJ, initially in Chemical Engineering Research and Development and currently within Process Research and Development Enabling Technologies.

In addition to roles supporting Merck’s late-stage development pipeline, Shane led the Process Development Intensification Lab within Chemical Engineering Research and Development focused on development of high-data-density tools and methodologies to streamline acquisition of deep process understanding.

Additionally, Shane has spent a significant part of his career supporting Merck’s biocatalysis efforts as a subject matter expert in process engineering of biocatalytic processes with particular expertise in enzyme immobilization, protein removal and aerobic biocatalytic oxidations. In 2020, Shane was named the head of a newly-formed group focused on Data-Rich Experimentation, or DRE, which expanded the capabilities of the Process Development Intensification Lab to a multi-disciplinary, cross-modality, enabling technologies team, focused on developing and deploying digitally-enabled, data-dense solutions aimed at maximizing the knowledge gained from each and every experiment conducted across PR&D’s Vaccines, Biologics and Small Molecule portfolio.

Currently, Shane serves as the DRE group’s Executive Director, leading an incredibly skilled team of ~50 individuals from a multitude of disciplines including synthetic chemistry, analytical chemistry, biology, chemical engineering, mathematics, statistics, data-science, computer science, software engineering and more.