Module Review: CN5173 (AY19/20 Semester 2)

CN5173 Downstream Processing of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Products is a 4 MC Technical Elective (TE) non-pathway module which teaches downstream separation units used in biopharmaceutical plants. The emphasis of this module is a lot on the biopharmaceutical industry or biologics but the key concepts in utilising the separation equipment is linked to Chemical Engineering concepts. That is why this is still a Chemical Engineering module and not a Biomed one.

This module kind of provided a new perspective for me, in the sense that this is another career prospect that I can look into. The module itself is rather content heavy and it requires knowledge from CN2121, CN2122, CN2125 and CN3132. Also, it is actually a Part 2 module in bioprocessing. Part 1 is actually CN5172 Biochemical Engineering where the focus is on upstream bioprocessing (mainly on reactions). I didn't know about this 2-parter thing and took CN5173 first. Nevertheless, the content of the 2 modules are not entirely linked (like CN5172 is not a pre-requisite to take CN5173) and it is totally fine to take CN5173 first before CN5172. 

(On a side note, Prof Loh usually teaches only one of the 2 modules every semester. So, if CN5172 is available in a particular semester, CN5173 is likely only available in the next or following semester.)

Also, this is a post-graduate module as well since it is a level-5000 module. So, there will be a combination of undergraduates and master students taking this module (which means it'll get competitive!). Since I'm an undergraduate, the module review here will be in the perspective of an undergraduate.

(I will be providing my review for both this semester (circuit breaker/online lessons) and a General Semester. If next semester is still fully online, my review for this semester is likely to be helpful. If all things are back to normal, then I guess the review portions on General Semester is pretty sufficient.)

Assessment (For this semester)

30% Quiz 1 & Quiz 2 (Open Book, 45 mins each, 2 - 4 structured questions)
(I'm not sure whether Quiz 1 and 2 is split exactly in half, i.e. 15% each. Because for my semester, Quiz 1 was 40 marks and Quiz 2 was 60 marks. So, it seems like Quiz 1 is 12% and Quiz 2 is 18%. Regardless, the 2 quizzes add up to 30%.)
20% Individual Paper  
50% Finals (Open Book, 2 hours, 44 questions consisting of MCQ and fill in the blanks questions)

Assessment (For a General Semester (without circuit breaker))

30% Quiz 1 & Quiz 2 (Closed Book, 45 mins each, 2 - 4 structured questions)
20% Individual Paper 
50% Finals (Closed Book, 2 hours, 4 - 5 structured questions)

Lecturer: 
Prof Loh Kai Chee

Textbooks/Readings
Belter, Cussler & Hu: Bioseparations - Downstream Processing for Biotechnology, 1988

This is the main textbook that Prof Loh uses. The lecture schedule for the module follows the textbook content and his lecture notes are mostly based on this textbook. There is no online pdf version of this, so you can either view the book from CLB or buy a copy online. I found the textbook to be helpful and supplements the things learnt in class (especially because most of Prof Loh's slides are usually very brief and when I was unable to catch what he's explaining in class verbally, the textbook comes in handy). I think that if it's really inconvenient to get the textbook, the handwritten summarised notes I've provided below may serve as some form of alternative although it's not entirely perfect.

ALSO, Prof Loh likes to use some of the content in this textbook:
Harrison et. al.: Bioseparations Science and Engineering, 2015
to set some questions for quizzes and finals. So, do take a look at this textbook briefly. Not all of the chapters of this textbook are relevant anyways, so reading through this textbook briefly should be sufficient (I mean even if you don't look at this textbook, I wouldn't say that you're losing out in a big way, just a little. I still feel the first textbook is more crucial).

Lectures
Well, this is a TE module. So, the module only has a weekly 3 hour session and has no "tutorial" session per se. It is a night module which takes place every Wednesday from 6 - 9 pm. For most sessions, the sessions will end around 8.30-ish and there was only one time when he was really rushing through the content that it went over till 9.15-ish. 

There are 11 chapters in total and Prof Loh utilises a RIPP layout to breakdown the major process steps in downstream processing:

Chapter 1: Introduction (Yes, this gets tested too in Finals)

Removal of Insolubles (R):

Chapter 2: Filtration
Chapter 3: Centrifugation

Chapter 4: Cell Disruption

Isolation (I):
Chapter 5: Extraction

Chapter 6: Adsorption

Purification (P):
Chapter 7: Chromatography

Chapter 8: Precipitation
Chapter 9: Membrane Filtration
Chapter 10: Electrically Driven Purification

Polishing (P):
Chapter 11: Crystallisation

On a General Semester, these 11 chapters will be spread over 10 lectures. As such, lessons for this module will only take place from Week 1 to Week 10/11. 

For this semester, there were some disruptions here and there so, the lessons were split into 11 lectures and ended on Week 12. So, the good thing about this module is that the lectures end early and there will be like around 2 - 3 weeks to prep for finals. We had physical lectures for like the first 2 or 3 weeks and then, we shifted to zoom for the rest of the lessons (due to the virus situation). Prof Loh did not provide any recorded webcasts, so you have to be present in zoom at the lecture timeslot to listen to his lectures.

For each chapter, Prof Loh would usually go through the lecture slides first. As mentioned before, his lecture slides are rather brief and he likes to explain additional content that is not on the slides (BUT WILL BE TESTED FOR QUIZZES AND FINALS). So, do take them down. I advise bringing foolscap or a notebook for his lectures. Then, after going through the lecture content, Prof Loh will solve 1-2 problems related to the lecture content. So, in this sense, we do not actually have to do tutorials in advance; we'll just attempt the question together with Prof Loh (So, in this aspect, I didn't have to spend a lot of time doing tutorial questions for this module. More time was spent on understanding the concepts taught.) 

Besides the need to write down quite a bit of content during lectures, I would say Prof Loh is a really good lecturer. He explains the concepts clearly and in a manner that can be understood by us students. He likes to use analogies to compare the downstream processes to something we see everyday in our lives. That way, we could understand the concept more easily. Furthermore, he would answer every query that we have (no matter how stupid our queries sound) and he is generally a very helpful and supportive lecturer. 

As for setting questions for quizzes and finals, Prof Loh doesn't go easy on us. HE SETS TOUGH QUESTIONS. The problem statements he provides during lectures (and he solves with us) seem manageable and he would always say that the problem statements will have the same difficulty level as the finals/quizzes. THAT IS A LIE. Be prepared. The quizzes and finals will be tougher than the problem statements (Some of the problems were indeed past year paper questions but he did shortened some of these questions to remove the "proofing" parts of the question (explained later)). Plus, the problem statements he provided will usually only cover one aspect of the chapter but there are other aspects of the chapter that can be tested as well! That's why I've provided additional questions as well as past year paper questions in the link below to practice.

For the content wise, the module content is TOUGH because you know, it is a level-5000 module. PLUS, the content doesn't cover the usual Chemical Engineering stuff and more of the biopharmaceutical side which can be pretty new to me. The similarity I feel for this module (and with the other Chemical Engineering modules) is that we care more about the equipment used and less on the actual products being produced, i.e. we do not need to know everything and anything about cells, proteins, antibiotics etc. We just need to know the basic chemical structure of these products and that should be sufficient.

Quiz 1 & 2
Alright, let's talk about the quizzes in general first. Quiz 1 takes place in Week 6 lecture and covers Chapters 2- 4 for the General Semester and Chapters 2 - 3 for this semester. Quiz 2 takes place in the last lecture (Week 11/12) and covers Chapters 5 - 6 for the General Semester and Chapters 4 - 6 for this semester. Each quiz is about 45 minutes long and has 2 - 4 structured questions. As mentioned before, the questions can be tricky and you have to be prepared. Prof Loh likes to test proofing questions as well (since this is a TE mod after all), so do know how to proof all the formulas in the lecture notes. As for the time wise, I feel it should be sufficient so long as proper revision is done. 

For the General Semester, the quizzes are likely to be closed book, so Prof Loh will likely test stuff that can actually be found in lecture notes like explaining how a certain equipment works, or what the different types of processes involved etc. Sooooo, I would say that there is some form of memorisation required (for finals too since it's closed book too). So, it'll be a sort of throwback to studying for A-levels hahaha. But, don't worry, you do not have to memorize any complex formulas because Prof Loh will provide such formulas in the questions itself (you can see so in the past year papers).

For this semester, well it's pretty interesting. Due to lessons going online, we had to do the quizzes at home. So, it had to be open book. Prof Loh conducted the quizzes via Zoom. So, we had to leave our mics on to make sure we don't speak to anyone during the quiz. We had to write our answers on foolscap, scan it (or take pictures of our answers), put them into a pdf and submit them on Luminus. It's definitely a new and interesting way of taking quizzes hahaha. BUT since it's open book, Prof Loh tests more on questions that require more math and computation plus the usual proofing questions. (The best part was that Prof Loh had no issues with us using the internet during the quizzes (and finals) because the answers can't even be found online (which is true hahaha). That's how tough these tests can be.) For me, I felt reading through the Belter, Cussler & Hu textbook examples were pretty helpful for the quizzes.

Individual Paper
The individual paper was the same for both semesters. We had to write a 4-page paper on a downstream purification process of a biologics drug. It's pretty much a freestyle paper and you can literally write anything about any downstream processes of a drug. Well, of course, the content you write has to be linked to what was covered in class. But how you want to structure your paper is really entirely up to you. There are sample term papers in the link below for you to reference. For me, I wrote about Cephalosporins and only covered three downstream processes (since there was only 4 pages to write). Andd I did fairly okay, so I would say you shouldn't be too worried about this paper and this paper actually is an opportunity to score well and pull your grades up for this module haha.

Final Exam
For the General Semester, the finals is a 2 hour closed book paper consisting of 4 - 5 structured questions. Each question is pretty long and DO NOT underestimate the finals haha. Similar to the quizzes, Prof Loh will ask proofing questions, and questions on explanations of certain processes (since it's closed book). Thus, again, some form of memorisation is actually required. The good thing about this finals is that whatever that was tested for the quizzes will not be tested again. Thus, the finals covered Chapters 1, 7 - 11. For every finals (if you see the past year paper), the first question will usually ask about the RIPP scheme (basically chapter 1 content), so do remember to revise Chapter 1 too! Doing past year papers do help as well as you'll get used to the way in which Prof Loh sets questions for this module.

For this semester, well it became a 2 hour open book exam on Luminus since the exam had to be done at home. It's 44 questions consisting of a mixture of MCQ and fill in the blanks questions. Each MCQ is 2 marks and each fill in the blanks questions is 2 - 4 marks. The questions are all forward moving, i.e. you can't go back to the previous question once you click next. Also, the questions are randomized to ensure that you can't discuss with your friends. (Well, this is the style of home online exams.)

You might think that having MCQ is easier but the finals now cover all 11 chapters hahaha. And, the MCQ are real tricky. For every question that involved concepts, there always seems to be two options that are correct (which sucks). So, you have to read the question real carefully. The only good thing about having finals in this format is that there is no memorizing required and no proofing required. The tough part is that there were a few questions (thankfully not many) Prof Loh asked that were not exactly covered in lecture notes but are in the two textbooks mentioned above. Sooo, having these 2 textbooks with you during the finals may be good (I mean if this format for finals is still applicable for the next semester). Other than that, as for time wise, I feel 2 hours is definitely sufficient to complete this paper.

Expected Grade: B+

Final Grade: A

Final Comments
I feel that I managed to do well for this module because I did pretty well for the two quizzes and the individual paper. You can find my notes for this module here. As for the workings for additional questions and past year papers, they are actually from a senior who uploaded his/her notes in his/her blog. However, his/her notes are handwritten and I helped to convert the workings into softcopy pdf versions so that it's easier to "Ctrl + F" while revising. As for the handwritten summarised notes, they are done by me and they may not be 100% correct. But, still a good point of reference for revision! 

I feel that you should only choose this TE if you are really interested to work in the pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical industry in future. This module is really helpful if you want to head to those sectors. However, if your interest is elsewhere (i.e. in petrochemical or microelectronics etc), then maybe you should not consider this TE at all (because it is not an easy module and there is no point in giving yourself unnecessary suffering).

I feel that this module requires quite a lot of time to understand the concepts taught. Do re-read the lecture notes a couple of times, redo all the tutorial problems and look through all the additional questions and past year papers I have provided. Do read all questions carefully for quizzes and finals as they can be rather tricky. 

Stay tuned for more updates.

- Alan