Biochemical Engineering

Entry requirements

A UK Master’s degree, or a minimum of an upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree, in a relevant discipline, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Our PhD projects allow for fundamental 'blue-skies' research that will have an eventual impact on the bioprocess industries. Research areas are broadly grouped in three main areas: Biocatalysis/Biorefining, Biopharmaceutical bioprocessing, and human cell therapy bioprocessing. The type of research is project specific and can include multiple combined elements from areas such as: synthetic biology, cell engineering, protein engineering, enzyme engineering, metabolic engineering, process engineering, downstream processing, bioreactor engineering, mathematical bioprocess modeling, fluid dynamics, biophysical analysis, biocatalytic reaction engineering, microfluidics, development of novel unit operations. PhD projects are funded by different mechanisms (including the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies), but the application process is always the same.

Department specialisms

Research in the Department of Biochemical Engineering focuses on three major areas: Biocatalysis, Biopharmaceutical bioprocessing, and human cell therapy bioprocessing. These fields each explore similar research goals which include the following: Environment and sustainability: exploiting green biological catalysts for biorefining and high-value pharmaceutical syntheses Harnessing genomics: directed evolution, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology can deliver efficient cell systems for producing biopharmaceuticals and enzymes Making the outcome affordable: business approaches coupled with engineering paradigms offer new healthcare opportunities Processing of complex biological materials: epitomised by the use of human proteins and stem cells for therapy, the challenge is to process materials of increasing complexity to make them available to all who need them Speed from discovery to benefit: using small mimics, microfluidics and mathematical models provides process understanding for effective scale-translation enhancing the precision and rate of process development.

Information for international students

See: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/international-students

Fees and funding

Funding opportunities available for students is provided by the UCL Graduate School.
See: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/scholarships

Qualification and course duration

PhD

MPhil

Course contact details