EPSRC - Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine

Dr Elizabeth Ratcliffe

  • Enterprise Fellow
  • Loughborough University
  • T: +44(0)1509 564 889
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Dr Elizabeth Ratcliffe, MSc PhD MSB CBiol CSci, is an Enterprise Fellow working within Healthcare Engineering and the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine at Loughborough University. Elizabeth has a biological background in molecular biology and vaccine research and gained her Microbiology BSc(Hons), Molecular Medical Microbiology MSc, and PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Vaccine Research from the University of Nottingham within a clinical commercialisation interface setting.

At Loughborough she focuses on providing solutions to barriers in the translation of Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products (ATMPs) to the clinic. She has worked with leading national and international commercial and academic collaborators to establish manufacturing processes and application of quality process engineering principles (6σ, QbD) for human stem cell-based products. She has extensive experience of industrial approaches to cell therapy manufacturing, development and novel use of advanced automated culture platforms, and culture of diverse therapeutic cell types with different process requirements specifically to address scale and process control issues (to GMP level). As Principle/Co-Investigator she has played a pivotal role in generating £750k of research funding to date with a further £1.6M in advanced stages of application.

Elizabeth has developed new opportunities and partnerships at the interface between her bioengineering expertise and Synthetic Biology, including being awarded an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account Enterprise Fellowship (£140k) by the Enterprise Office at Loughborough University. In her pathfinder role, Elizabeth is developing Synthetic Biology solutions to barriers in ATMP translation; working with Dr Michael Roberts, CSO and founder of Synpromics (a leading Synthetic Biology promoter company); Professor Michael Linden, Professor of Virology, University College London; UCL’s Gene Therapy Consortium and MHRA-regulated Gene Therapy Manufacturing Suite on challenge-led translational science.

Elizabeth has also been awarded a PhD studentship (2015-2018) in strategies for antimicrobial resistance product optimisation as part of the Loughborough University mini-Centre for Doctoral Training in Fighting Infectious Disease.

Elizabeth has also received international recognition through being awarded a Leadership Excellence Accelerator Programme (LEAP) Fellowship in Synthetic Biology (2016).