Alexandra Galbon on how chemical R&D skills span industries
Alexandra Galbon joins BioOra with a chemical engineering background and over seven years’ experience in new product development ranging from automotive coatings to personal care products. For Alexandra, the skills she learned in these niche markets are now coming together to work on a potentially life-saving product. Her experience within R&D innovative groups led her to manage various technical projects from the concept to the commercialisation of a new product.
Alexandra joins BioOra, a Bridgewest funded company, as their Project Analyst. Her role is to support the scale-up of BioOra’s manufacturing process, one the company hopes will revolutionise cancer immunotherapy. She explains what drew her to product development in the first place.
“I really enjoy turning an idea or concept into a reality. It’s exciting to see an idea grow through different phases– from early innovation and lab trials to scaling up into full-fledged production. GMP is an important part of that product development, it allows a company to de-risk their manufacturing, develop efficient systems, and create safe products ready for market.”
For BioOra the manufacturing process is what sets their company apart. They are automating the labour-intensive production of CAR T-cells - the main ingredient in a less invasive cancer treatment. Reducing the time in the lab and simplifying the equipment required for production means reducing the treatment cost and recovery time for the patient.
Before taking the job at BioOra, Alexandra grew her product development career in various industries.
Her journey started studying chemical engineering at ESCOM in France and earning her Chemistry Masters at the University of Technology of Compiegne. She completed her first internship in the Netherlands, working as an R&D chemist in an aeronautic coating innovation and development department.
“A great part of attending engineering school in France is being exposed to the professional world early and having opportunities to work for companies abroad,” says Alexandra.
Her second internship took her to England, where she worked for Reckitt Benckiser, a Fast Moving Consumer Goods company that commercialised products like Airwick, Nurofen, Finish, Clearasil, Veet. At Reckitt Benckiser, Alexandra was a sustainability assistant working within the innovation group. In this role, she was responsible for checking the environmental footprint when ingredients were selected for a new product.
Following her internship working closely with personal care and household products, Alexanrda returned to France and started a job at Nof Metal Coating. She led the research of a new product development project creating a water-based anti-corrosion coating for the automotive industry.
The experience gained in this role led to the biggest move yet, an opportunity to relocate across the world and join Resene in New Zealand. Alexandra took the job and worked at Resene for the past five and a half years until she joined BioOra.
“Although I built up many niche skills and knowledge in the coating industry, a lot of the skills are also transferable and could be useful for other companies and industries. I’m looking forward to applying my skills to a potentially life-changing company like BioOra.”
For Alexandra, product development is all about understanding the end-user and observing the issue they’re facing. She says this understanding leads to an innovative idea with a positive impact.
When asked what she hopes to achieve while at BioOra, Alexandra said, “I would love to make sure that every person who needs access to this treatment has it. It’s a much gentler process than going through chemotherapy. Currently, the treatment is a last resort. Hopefully, once we can prove efficiency through medical trials, this treatment can be the first thing we turn to. Imagine being able to skip weeks of chemotherapy treatment and only needing a single injection. It would save so much time and could save lives.”
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