Michael Christopherson

Coordinated a 12 person team in developing robust MFG friendly downstream purification processes.

• Rebuilt and stabilized faltering department
• Repaired strained relationships with other departments
• Mentoring and developing junior staff members in technical and operation skills
• Allocating FTEs
• Scheduling and successfully adhering to aggressive purification timelines
• Advising across departments including MSAT and MFG
• Instituted structural reforms to increase efficiency and retention rates
• Writing and presenting proposals
• Resolved intrapersonal conflicts among direct reports

Assisted in developmental projects for large scale antibody purification for use in therapeutics. Primary project operator and contributor to project experiments and planning. Presented experimental data and project progress to clients.

• Client Presentations
• Process scale up and material ordering
• Use of Protein A capture steps with subsequent viral inactivation steps. Analysis of contamination and structural integrity via SEC-HPLC, SDS PAGE, and Elisa Assays.
• AEX membranes for clearance of host cell proteins (HCP) and DNA.
• CEX development for clearance of low and high molecular weight species and contaminating proteins.
• UFDF
• Viral filtering product for removal of viruses for therapeutic uses. Includes scaling studies for future throughput of large scale batches.
• Mammalian cell culture harvesting

Production Biochemist for expression and purification of enzymes. Performed enzyme purifications and formulations along with editing and creation of upstream purification procedures. Responsible for the planning and fulfillment of production orders.

• Use of Fast Performance Liquid Chromatography (GE AKTAs) for enzyme purification including Nickel, CHT, Q-Sepharose, G25, and SP Fast Flow. Primary focused on DNA interacting enzymes.
• Analysis of solutions through Ion-Chromatography. Along with method validation for different solutes.
• Growing primary and bulk cultures for plasmid/enzymes expression and extractions. Including upstream processes such as cellular transformations and glycerol stocks preparation. Prepped and analyzed DNA sequences by PCR and Sanger Sequencing.
• Chemical and mechanical (Emulsiflex) lysing of Ecoli cultures along with extraction from endogenous plant cells.
• Various amounts of biologicals assays including but not limited to DNA Polymerases and Exonucleases.
• End user QC testing on all products. This includes EDTA/Mg Titrations, dNTP analysis, contamination of DNase/RNase/Endotoxin, pH, conductivity, and gel electrophoresis. Machines used for testing: Nanodrop, UV Cary (UV Spec), Titration Burettes, Chemi-Doc, Light Cycler, Plate Reader, pH Meter, and SDS.
• Use of refractive index for testing of incoming reagents such as detergents.
• Formulation of sterile solutions containing enzymes (Gene Expression Master Mix, Next Gen Sequencing Buffers, ect) along with buffer preparation for subsequent procedures and use of ERP inventory picking system (SAP and AX).
• Editing and creation of operational procedures. Including but not limited to plasmid isolation, glycerol stock preparation, and sequencing.

• HPLC machines
• AKTA Explorer
• Use of Liquid Scintillation counting machine
• Protein preparation, expression, translation, and purification
• Growing primary and bulk cultures of Ecoli
• Chemical and centrifugation mechanical lysing
• Plasmid insertion and ligation with colony growth
• Native gels, westernblots, and SDS-Page
• Using Stop-Flow machine for pre-steady state assessments
• Activity Assays