RYAN BALLINA

Award-winning QC Microbiology Specialist II with 5+ years of expertise in microbiology, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance. Recognized with the prestigious 2025 Carvykti President's Award for pioneering MALDI-TOF implementation, delivering $1M in site cost savings. Adept in sterility testing, growth promotion, aseptic techniques, and cleanroom operations. Proven leader in cross-functional collaboration, process mapping, and data integrity initiatives that drive continuous improvement and audit readiness.

• 2025 Carvykti President's Award - MALDI-TOF Implementation, Led the end-to-end initiative to bring MALDI-TOF microbial identification in-house at the Raritan site, eliminating costly third-party testing contracts. Achieved a $1M reduction in site expenditures within a single fiscal year while simultaneously decreasing sample turnaround time and significantly increasing testing throughput - enabling the site to support accelerated production timelines for the Carvykti cell therapy program.
• Desiccation Study Project - Designed and executed a study to evaluate the desiccation of TSA Settle Plates under 3-4 hour intervals under elevated laminar flow velocity conditions across multiple biological safety cabinets for Raritan-site expansion. Performed all associated growth promotion testing, compiled and analyzed results, and authored a comprehensive executive summary documenting methodology, findings, and recommendations for site-wide implementation.