Webinar Series:
Modeling and Simulation in Biotechnology & Biochemical Engineering
11th Webinar: Bioprocess development: A journey through different scales
- Date: 8 April, 2026
- Time: 15:30 - 16:30 AM
- Plattform: Teams
- Moderation: Nico Lingg (acib GmbH)
Overview
This webinar explores the challenges and opportunities of bioprocessing across different scales, from early-stage experiments to industrial production. As processes move from small-scale screening to large-scale manufacturing, understanding and managing scale-dependent effects becomes essential to ensure consistent performance and product quality.
The session will highlight how combining experimental approaches with advanced simulation tools can support more efficient and reliable process development. By integrating first-principles modeling, computational fluid dynamics, and digital twin concepts, modern bioprocess development can be accelerated, enabling better process understanding, improved scale-up strategies, and reduced development time.
Topics
Our first speaker, Prof. Gerald Striedner from BOKU Vienna will address one of the key challenges in modern bioprocess development: understanding and managing scale effects. Bioprocess development typically starts with straightforward, high-throughput, small-scale trials. These are then followed by more complex laboratory-scale trials that should largely meet the requirements of commercial production. This approach inevitably results in scale effects on the process and the product. Therefore, it is essential to have a sound scientific understanding of how process and product are influenced by scale, and how these effects can be addressed during development.
Dr. Christian Witz, CEO from SimVantage will present how computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and digital twin approaches can help us better understand and optimize bioprocesses. He will explore how experimental data are used for validation — and why this step is essential for reliable modeling. The session will also introduce the ECONTI project and its role in the digitalization of continuous bioprocessing. Finally, Dr. Witz will demonstrate how these technologies can be applied to scale-up and explain the concept of in-silico scale-up.