Dennis Hensen was named Director of the Biological Process Development Facility in the College of Engineering in September, 2021. He also serves as the project management lead for the facility.
Dennis came to the University of Nebraska in September 2012 and joined the BPDF as the facility Project Manager. He previously served as the Manager of Performance and Process Optimization, Manager of Study Toxicologists, and Senior Supervisor/Toxicologist at Covance Laboratories, Inc. in the Early Development Group as a member of the Toxicology, Neurotoxicology, and Safety Testing team. He has over 30 years of experience designing, conducting, monitoring, and reporting drug development projects along with building and leading successful teams for contract research and manufacturing organizations and their clients. He received his bachelor of science degree in Biology with a Business Concentration from the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse and is also a Six Sigma trained Green Belt.
Scott Johnson joined the Biological Process and Development Facility in 1997. As the GMP Coordinator, he oversees production and process development activities for both upstream and downstream activities. He has a broad background in microbial fermentation and protein purification as well as GMP production scale up. Mr. Johnson’s work has involved process development of high cell density microbial fermentations producing recombinant proteins, harvest method using disc-stack centrifugation, tangential flow filtration, cell disruption, column chromatography, enzymatic digestions and other chemical modifications of biomolecules. He holds a MS in Biological Chemistry and a BS in Biology from the University of Nebraska.
Sandra Williamson joined the BPDF in October 2014 as the Quality Systems Manager. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Regulatory Affairs for the BPDF. Prior to joining the BPDF, she worked in the food, drug and medical industries for 30 years. With experience at start-up, mid-size and Fortune 500 companies, her background includes product development, clinical manufacturing, product approvals, and post-commercialization compliance. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from New College of Florida, and a law degree from George Mason University School of Law. She is currently licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Cory Smathers joined the BPDF in 2007 as a Grants Specialist before moving into his current role in 2009. He began his career in production and operations management, eventually cofounding an automated mail processing facility, and later a software development company focusing on web site security. Prior to joining the BPDF, he served as the director for a microenterprise development program. His role at the BPDF includes grants and contracts administration, business operations, and serving as a member of the project management team. He received his bachelor’s degree for the University Nebraska-Lincoln and holds the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
Jay Harner joined the Biological Process Development Facility in May 2004 as a research technician and became the fermentation manager in May 2007. As the fermentation manager, he oversees process development and GMP production for upstream activities. His background is in high cell density microbial fermentations producing recombinant proteins. He also has experience working with anaerobes and probiotics and has over 20 years of experience designing fermentations using DOE and SCADA software including JMP®, BioCommand®, Batch Expert, and DeltaV™. Prior to joining the BPDF, Mr. Harner worked at Pfizer as a lab assistant in the tableting QA/QC department and as a lab technician in viral production working with mammalian cells. Mr. Harner holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Dustin Peterson joined the BPDF in April 2008 as a Research Associate in the Quality Control Laboratory before moving into his current role in August 2009. As the Quality Control Manager he is reponsible for overseeing analytical method development and qualification, technology transfer, routine testing of bulk drug substance and final drug product per cGMP requirements, and management of the Environmental Monitoring program for the BPDF GMP facility.
Prior to joining the BPDF he worked at Pfizer, Inc.as an Aseptic Technician in the biological production area and as a Quality Control Laboratory Assistant specializing in raw material release testing. He has over 20 years experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries with focus on small molecules, and novel therapeutic proteins, including extensive work developing new test methods, analytical method qualification/validation, analytical instrumentation and software qualification, and establishing and managing bulk drug and final product stability studies. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.