Research
Through its pharmaceutical and biotechnology innovation, the Young Institute works to develop new efficiencies for drug manufacturing.

OUR RESEARCH
Make safer, more affordable drugs closer to home
Purdue is a key part of the national push to manufacture more medicines in the United States, reversing the trend toward overseas manufacturing. To do this, more efficient using technology is a must. Here are just a few of the Young Institute’s projects that promote advanced manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
Because of the instability of biopharmaceutical products in their solution state, efficient freeze-drying is essential to the manufacture of modern medicines. Freeze-drying, also called lyophilization, gently removes water from materials to produce a dried product. It was developed during World War II to preserve blood products and penicillin. Lyophilization is often used to stabilize sensitive drugs, lengthening their shelf life while preserving the critical efficacy of the medicine. Purdue professor Alina Alexeenko is a key innovator in using radio-frequency-assisted techniques for lyophilization, to significantly accelerate the drying process.
Continuous manufacturing is a key innovative technology in pharmaceutical production. Unlike the traditional “batch” method with its stop-and-start cycles, continuous manufacturing offers the potential for greater efficiency and less waste. It also enables “on demand” production of personalized medicines and mobile manufacturing at the point of use. It allows for the production of “on demand” personalized medicines and mobile manufacturing at the point of use. Purdue professor Rex Reklaitis is an expert at continuous manufacturing and specializes in the use of online measurement technology and models to drive automation and control. Continuous manufacturing is common in some other industries but has been slow to gain adoption in pharmaceuticals, Reklaitis said. “It’s an anomaly in that it’s an industry that thrives on innovation in terms of discovering a new therapy but has really not worried about innovation and how to get it out to the patient and do it as cheaply as possible.” The Young Institute, and Reklaitis, are out to change that.
A team of researchers led by Purdue assistant professor Kurt Ristroph is developing new formulations and manufacturing processes for the messenger RNA (mRNA) delivery systems used in some COVID vaccines. The mRNA-based vaccines produced during the pandemic required storage at subzero temperatures, which made distribution challenging. Ristroph and Robert Prud’homme of Princeton University are making lipid nanoparticles and processing them into shelf-stable formulations. They’re looking for wide applications. “We care about making a process that is large scale and operates continuously at large scale rather than being a batch-to-batch process,” Ristroph said.

Young Institute Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Consortium
A new academic-industry consortium, spearheaded by the Young Institute in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company and Merck, will help to speed the evolution of pharma manufacturing. The Young Institute Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Consortium will focus on sterile injectables and innovative aseptic manufacturing technology to ensure quality, safety and compliance.
Partnerships
Critical cross-cutting partnerships
By collaborating across campus with leading academic institutions, industry pioneers and government agencies, the Young Institute fosters a multidisciplinary approach to solving critical challenges in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The Young Institute is among seven life sciences research organizations within the Institutes and Centers at Discovery Park District. Each works to advance large-scale research programs that enable breakthroughs and drive innovations to address society’s greatest challenges. Young Institute-affiliated faculty collaborate across the institutes and centers, bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing expertise to complement the more fundamental foci in drug discovery and innovation.
Measurement science is vital to pharmaceutical manufacturing. To improve measurement technologies, the Young Institute works with the Center for Bioanalytic Metrology, a National Science Foundation Phase II Industry-University Cooperative Research Center. CBM, which operates at Purdue, Indiana University and University of Notre Dame, is dedicated to addressing key measurement science challenges of industry. Current member organizations include AbbVie, Agilent, BASF, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Corteva Agriscience, Evonik, Exxon Mobil, Genentech, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck, Moderna, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and Takeda.
The Merck-Purdue Center for Measurement Science assembles cross-institutional teams to tackle problems of strategic importance to Merck and Purdue investigators. A central focus is on pre-competitive characterization of model and non-proprietary systems to promote industry-wide advances.
The Center for Pharmaceutical Processing Research (CPPR) is an industry/university research center focusing on new technology for pharmaceutical processing. The center fosters collaborative research projects between industrial and academic scientists, and promotes an interdisciplinary approach to training students in pharmaceutical process research and development. It is the only one of 80 such centers established by the National Science Foundation devoted to pharmaceutical processing research. The Center comprises three universities – Purdue University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Minnesota.

How Young Institute works with LyoHUB
LyoHUB is a Purdue University center and industry-led consortium that focuses on a crucial element of pharmaceutical manufacturing called lyophilization, a freeze-drying process for drugs. Recognized worldwide as the leader in this knowledge area, LyoHUB partners with the Young Institute. LyoHUB’s director, Alina Alexeenko, and scientific director, Eric Munson, are leaders in the Young Institute as well. Elizabeth Topp is a co-founder of LyoHUB.

Eli Lilly and Company and Purdue University Research Alliance Center
Purdue and Eli Lilly and Company are determined to discover the next generation of game-changing treatments by pursuing new technologies to advance research in every phase, from discovery to delivery. In the LPRC, research is conducted both through the formal strategic research collaboration and the opportunities for exploration of aligned research areas of genetic medicine, intrathecal delivery and nanoparticle delivery.