Mark Duerkop

Chief Executive Officer at Novasign

Speaker, Advisor

With over 15 years of dedicated experience in biopharmaceutical process development, Mark has established himself as a leading expert in the field. His extensive work with various pharmaceutical companies has centered around optimizing process development and deepening process understanding. Following the completion of his PhD in Bioprocess engineering, Mark founded a company to advance bioprocess optimization. As the CEO of Novasign, Mark has spearheaded the development of digital bioprocess twins based on a groundbreaking hybrid modeling software designed for both upstream and downstream processes. By integrating AI with first-principle models, these digital twins enable the prediction of critical quality attributes (CQAs) from critical process parameters (CPPs) with unmatched speed and accuracy.

This innovation has dramatically reduced experimental efforts in the lab by 35% to 70%, significantly accelerating bioprocess development and characterization. Novasign's tool is not only transforming biopharmaceutical companies but is also widely adopted by CDMOs, biosimilar manufacturers and the industrial biotechnology sector.