Professor Alastair Florence

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences

Personal statement

Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (CMAC) and associated 45 PhD Doctoral Training Centre. Leads the new world-class CMAC National Facility within the Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) at the University of Strathclyde offering access to academic and industrial users to state-of-the art processing, analysis and characterisations facilties and support. Expertise in crystallisation and physical form control and characterisation of pharmaceuticals spanning polymorphism, solvate, co-crystal and salt formation and studies of amorphous systems. Extensive experience in the formation of pharmaceutical particles in continuous processes using a range of technologies as part of the CMAC programme. Interests also in the development and application of new technologies to control and monitor crystallisation and pharmaceutical solids.

Approaches for the characterisation of particles are also widely used and physical analysis of crystalline pharmaceuticals with a focus on the influence of crystallisation processes on structure and critical pharmaceutically relevant attributes that dictates product performance. Exploitation of X-ray powder diffraction techniques for phase identification, structure determination from powder diffraction data and in-situ phase surveys including local order using variable-temperature X-ray powder diffraction are key areas.

Has published over 120 peer reviewed research papers in these areas and currently supervises a large multidisciplinary research group including pharmacists, chemists and chemical engineers.

Expertise

Back to staff profile

Prize And Awards

Best Poster Award @ CMAC Annual Open Day 2018: Recipient; 25/10/2018
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Conference Science Medal: Recipient; 9/2004

More prizes and awards

Publications

Back to staff profile

Publications

Optimisation of additively manufactured coiled flow inverters for continuous viral inactivation processes: Barrera Maria Cecilia, Leech Damien, Josifovic Aleksandar, Tolouei Anita, Alford Gareth, Wallace Martin J, Bennett Nicholas, Wildman Ricky, Irvine Derek J, Croft Anna, Özcan Ender, Florence Alastair J, Johnston Blair, Robertson John, Brown Cameron J; Chemical Engineering Research and Design Vol 213, pp. 126-136 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2024.11.040
A hybrid system of mixture models for the prediction of particle size and shape, density, and flowability of pharmaceutical powder blends: Salehian Mohammad, Moores Jonathan, Goldie Jonathan, Ibrahim Isra, Mendez Torrecillas Carlota, Wale Ishwari, Abbas Faisal, Maclean Natalie, Robertson John, Florence Alastair, Markl Daniel; International Journal of Pharmaceutics: X Vol 8 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpx.2024.100298
Probing the interplay between drug saturation, processing temperature and microstructure of amorphous solid dispersions with synchrotron X-ray phase-contrast tomography: Bordos Ecaterina, Das Gunjan, Schroeder Sven LM, Florence Alastair, Halbert Gavin W, Robertson John; International Journal of Pharmaceutics Vol 669 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2024.125018
Flow‐Xl : a new facility for the analysis of crystallization in flow systems: Turner T D, O'Shaughnessy C, He X, Levenstein M A, Hunter L, Wojciechowski J, Bristowe H, Stone R, Wilson C C, Florence A, Robertson K, Kapur N, Meldrum F C; Journal of Applied Crystallography Vol 57, pp. 1299-1310 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1107/s1600576724006113
Integration of a model-driven workflow into an industrial pharmaceutical facility : supporting process development of API crystallisation: Pickles Thomas, Svoboda Vaclav, Marziano Ivan, Brown Cameron J, Florence Alastair J; CrystEngComm Vol 26, pp. 4678-4689 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1039/d4ce00358f
Emerging applications and regulatory strategies for advanced medicines manufacturing - towards the development of a platform approach: Srai Jagjit Singh, Bauer Paul, Badman Clive, Bresciani Massimo, Cooney Charles L, Florence Alastair, Hausner Doug, Konstantinov Konstantin, Lee Sau L, Mascia Salvatore, Nasr Moheb, Trout Bernhardt L; Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Vol 113, pp. 1701-1710 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xphs.2024.04.016

More publications

Research

Back to staff profile

Professional Activities

Finance and Public Administration Committee: Speaker; 17/12/2024
Association for Crystalization Technology (ACT) 25th Larson Workshop: Invited speaker; 30/9/2024
PharmaTech Integrates 2024: Participant; 19/9/2024
2024 Process Development Symposium Europe | AIChE: Invited speaker; 26/6/2024
CMAC Summer School 2024: Participant; 12/6/2024
ACHEMA 2024: Participant; 10/6/2024

More professional activities

Projects

SHARPEN: SHARing data to accelerate Pharmaceutical manufacturing Efficiency across trusted Networks: Johnston, Blair (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Markl, Daniel (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2026
A Regulatory Science Network for the Digital Transformation of Medicines Development and Manufacturing (10113547): Markl, Daniel (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2024
Correlating Digital and Experimental Chemical Space to Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Processes: El-Habbak, Omar (Researcher) Brown, Cameron (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator); This project will deliver a novel, interpretable machine-learning model for predicting powder flow considering physical, chemical, and computed molecule/particle features. The output of this model will facilitate the rapid development of new medicines manufacturing.; 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2027
DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | El-Habbak, Omar: Brown, Cameron (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) El-Habbak, Omar (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2027
DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | Clark, Connor: Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator) Clark, Connor (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2027
Industrial Case Account - University of Strathclyde 2023 | Tierney, Colette: Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Robertson, John (Co-investigator) Tierney, Colette (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2027