Joan Sebastián
Gallego Murillo

Sanquin Blood Supply & Delft University of Technology (NL)

PhD Candidate • Nov, 2017 — Present

Collaboration project between the Department of Hematopoiesis at Sanquin, and the Bioprocess Engineering section at TU Delft aiming to scale-up the production of cultured red blood cells for transfusion purposes.

• Scaled-up human erythroblast cultures from static culture dishes to 500 mL and 3 L stirred tank bioreactors.
• Developed a perfusion cultivation method using acoustic cell retention, leading to a 5X increase in maximum cell concentrations.
• Determined nutrient requirements of cultured human erythroblasts using a metabolomics approach.
• Reduced culture medium cost (-35%) replacing transferrin by a low-cost organic iron chelator.
• Participated in the translation of the developed upstream protocols to a new GMP facility at Sanquin's Laboratory of Cellular Therapies for the large scale production of cultured red blood cells.
• Supervised 6 master students during their thesis, and a lab technician.
• Collaborations with Applikon Biotechnology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and VU Amsterdam (Systems Biology Lab).

BioscienZ (NL)

Bioprocess Technology Intern • May, 2017 — Sep, 2017

• Screened fungal strains for the production of microbial animal feed, based on high biomass yield, ability to grow on a wide range of carbon sources, tolerance to low pH and high temperature, and high protein content.
• Cultivated selected strains on 10 L stirred tank reactors and 12 L bubble column under batch and fed-batch modes.
• Optimized dewatering conditions for improved processing of biomass (filtration, pressing and fluid bed drying).
• Internship results ultimately led to the patent EP3497203A1 (co-inventor).

Delft University of Technology (NL)

Researcher as Master Student • Aug, 2016 — May, 2017

Work for the Master End Project, in the Industrial Microbiology (IMB) research group. Work under the supervision of Jean-Marc Daran and Anja Brickwedde.

• Constructed several Saccharomyces strains for the characterization of sugar transporters
• Characterized the constructed strains under different temperature and substrate compositions using microplate and shake flask assays.

Universidad de los Andes (CO)

Graduate Research Assistant • Aug, 2013 — Aug, 2015

Assistance to a master student on their project Water physical chemistry and its relationship with atmospheric electricity.

• Performed analysis of the ozone asymmetry around Antarctica using spherical statistics.
• Participated in the design of an experimental set-up to monitor pH and conductivity while freezing ultra-pure water without contamination with carbon dioxide, ammonia and other gas impurities.
• Contributed to the development of a new model of the relationship between water freezing and atmospheric electricity.

Carnegie Mellon University (US)

Visiting Scholar • Jan, 2012 — May, 2012

Research work in the Civil Engineering Department under the supervision of Kelvin Gregory on the environmental effect of nanoparticles. I measured the interactions between nanoparticles (titanium oxide, silver) and dissolved organic matter, and their toxicology mechanism at the microbial level using techniques such as HPLC, atomic absorption spectroscopy, and toxicity assays.

Universidad de los Andes (CO)

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant • 2008 — 2013

Teaching assistant of six courses in the departments of Chemical Eng., Environmental Eng., and Microbiology (Genomics and bioinformatics, Unit operations, Wastewater treatment, Hydraulics, Modeling and numerical analysis, and Algorithmic and object-oriented programming).

• Designed assignments, quizzes and exams according to the curriculum of the courses.
• Conducted weekly practical lessons and discussion sessions for 20-60 students.
• Assisted in the standardization of the grading system of some courses according to the requirements for the ABET certification.

Delft University of Technology (NL)

MSc. Life Science & Technology • Aug, 2015 — Aug, 2017

• Cum Laude graduate (GPA 8.9/10.0)
• Full tuition scholarship (Justus & Louise van Effen Excellence Scholarship)
• Honours Programme

Followed the two tracks Biochemical engineering and Cell factory. The latter is focused on metabolic engineering and molecular biology techniques.

Universidad de los Andes (CO)

BSc. Chemical Engineering • 2009 — 2013

• Cum Laude graduate (GPA 4.6/5.0)
• Partial tuition scholarship (Quiero Estudiar Scholarship)
• Bachelor End Project with distinction (2013), Identification of enzymes with a potential application in the degradation of pollutants using a metagenomic library from High Andean forest soil. Supervisors: Andréz González, Johanna Husserl.

Universidad de los Andes (CO)

BSc. Environmental Engineering • 2008 — 2012

• GPA 4.6/5.0.
• Partial tuition scholarship (Quiero Estudiar Scholarship)
• Bachelor End Project with distinction (2011), Design and implementation of a mathematical model of the sylvatic cycle of Chagas disease transmission in Colombia. Supervisor: Juan Cordovez.

Programming languages

MATLAB (advanced), R (intermediate), Python (basic), Java (basic).

Engineering software

COMSOL, SuperPro Designer, Aspen Plus, Aspen HYSYS, GAMS.

Other software

FlowJo (flow cytometry), Lucullus PIMS (recipes for reactor cultivations), MetaboAnalystR.

Laboratory

Mammalian cell culture of suspension cell lines, cultivations in stirred tank reactors (0.5 L - 10 L), flow cytometry, microplate-based growth assays, molecular biology techniques for construction of E. coli and Saccharomyces strains, HPLC, atomic absorption spectroscopy, western blots.

Languages

Spanish (Native), English (TOEFL iBT 113/120), Dutch (A2).

• Electric bass
• Live coding (audio)
• Tarot iconography
• Social justice and info tech

• Gallego-Murillo et al. "Expansion and differentiation of ex vivo erythroblast cultures in scalable stirred bioreactors". Manuscript in preparation (2021).
• Abay et al. "Orbital shaking accelerates erythroblast differentiation to enucleated reticulocytes". Manuscript in preparation (2021).
• Gallego-Murillo et al. "Iron-loaded deferiprone can support full hemoglobinization of cultured red blood cells in the absence of transferrin". Manuscript submitted for publication, preprint available in bioRxiv (2021).
• Brickwedde et al. "Structural, physiological and regulatory analysis of maltose transporter genes in Saccharomyces eubayanus CBS 12357^T". Front. Microbiol. 9:1786. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01786 (2018)
• Patent EP3497203A1 "Single cell protein from thermophilic fungi" (2017).

19^th Mexican Congress of Biotechnology and Bioengineering • Oct 2021 (planned)

Oral presentation — Scale-up of the ex vivo production of red blood cells for transfusion purposes.

13^th European Congress of Chemical Engineering and 6^th European Congress of Applied Biotechnology (ECCE & ECAB) • Sep 2021 (planned)

Oral presentation — Scale-up of the ex vivo production of red blood cells for transfusion purposes.

8^th Conference on Metabolic Pathway Analysis • Aug 2021

Oral presentation — Metabolic profiling of cultured erythroblasts for the large scale production of red blood cells.

International Society for Stem Cell Resarch (ISSCR) Annual Meeting • Jun 2021

Poster presentation — Upscaling of ex vivo production of red blood cells for transfusion purposes.

Applikon Webinar Series • Sep 2020

Oral presentation — From cell biology and modelling to technology for high cell density cultivations of erythroblasts.

Scientific discussions on Clinical Hematology • Oct 2019

Oral presentation — Upscaling the ex vivo expansion of erythroblasts.

15^th Annual Conference of the Metabolomics Society • Jun 2019

Poster presentation — Metabolomics analysis reveals depletion of key intermediates in oxidative stress-related pathways in high cell density erythroblast cultures.

Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (BioSB) Conference • Apr 2019

Poster presentation — Metabolomics analysis of high cell density erythroblast cultures9: small molecules trigger cellular oxidative stress.