The European Bioprocess Engineering Course Brac 2021 will again be held on the on the Island of Brac, Croatia in the Adriatic Sea. The last, held in 2018, was the 29th anniversary of this long-running, highly successful series of courses on Brac and the next one will take place from 19 to 25th September 2021 in Supetar. It is organised locally under the auspices of the Croatian Society of Biotechnology and all of the lectures will be given by internationally distinguished university teachers who also consult for industry or by leading experts from multinational companies who are also active in encouraging academic-industry collaboration.

This up-dated course covers the full spectrum of bioprocess engineering, from genetic concepts for micro-organisms used to produce pharmaceutical and other products via microbial physiology, bioreaction kinetics, bioreactor design and scale-up. The organisms considered range from simple bacteria to animal cell cultures including recombinant organisms, and stem and CAR-T cells for advanced medical therapy. There is also a strong coverage of measurement, control and optimisation and how they interact with each other and with the specific bioreaction of interest. Finally, there is a broad-brush coverage of downstream processing. The lectures are supplemented by computer-based exercises, discussions and a Design Case Study. Participants are also encouraged to bring posters of their work with selected candidates being invited to make short oral presentations (of approximately 5 minutes duration), at the ‘Chris Hewitt Speakers Corner’in recognition of the great contribution made by Chris to the course over recent years. Finally, there is a strong social programme, which also ensure that there are many opportunities to interact with the lecturers.

The course is directed specifically at Ph.D. students and experienced bioprocess engineers and biotechnologists from research institutes, universities and industry. Participants are expected to have a background in chemical/biochemical engineering, biotechnology, a biological science or a related discipline. The lecturers are all acknowledged specialists in their fields, so that the course also provides a forum for highlighting recent research in relevant areas.