Assoc Prof Karen Hapgood - Researcher Profile

Karen Hapgood

Address

Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Clayton

Contact Details

Tel: +61 3 990 53428

Email: Karen.Hapgood@monash.edu


Biography

Drug research a recipe for success

The pharmaceutical industry spends billions of research dollars each year developing new medicines, but still relies on outdated processes to manufacture its products. Chemical engineer Dr Karen Hapgood believes it is time for change. Her mission is to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing processes into the 20th century, testing new technologies to reduce waste and speed up delivery.

Karen says the pharmaceutical industry is inherently conservative in its manufacturing processes. There are stringent regulations governing medicine production due to safety implications for consumers. But this means drug production techniques lag far behind those in the food, chemical and mineral industries. For instance, it is still common for some drug companies to test the consistency of batches by hand.

“We manufacture medicines like a Women’s Weekly cookbook. Add two kilos of this, one kilo of that,” says Karen, whose industry and research expertise is in the production of pharmaceuticals in tablet form.

She believes these processes have been shaped through trial-and-error rather than any deep understanding of the underlying science. A failed batch is often only discovered at the end of a production line.

“It’s an inflexible recipe. And that means lack of innovation. It takes much longer to get the medicine to market. You can’t even troubleshoot because you don’t know what’s going on within the process. We want to be able to test the product during intermediate stages – to test the batter, so to speak.”
 
The most common problems involve tablets being too soft and crumbling, or ingredients being unevenly distributed. She says such problems could be rectified if identified earlier, potentially saving entire batches and ensuring medicines get to market faster.

A specialist in particles, Karen focuses on the granulation part of the process. This is when the powdered mixture is mixed with a liquid until it binds into larger grains containing particles of each ingredient. Granulation prevents the ingredients from separating later in the process.

Karen conducts her research using small versions of factory machinery (a granulator the size of a teapot, instead of the size of a bathtub). She is charting the variables that affect product quality, such as temperature and speed of mixing. These can then be put into a ‘regime map’ to which other chemical engineers and production staff could refer to keep the batch on track. Her research is ongoing, supported by a mix of Australian Research Council (ARC) grants and industry funding.

Karen gained first-hand experience of problems in drug production when working in the United States. The large pharmaceutical company that employed her received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to distribute HIV drugs to the developing world, but production got stuck. The existing factories just could not make the large quantities required.

Karen and the project team set to work pinpointing those parts of the manufacturing process that needed fixing or discarding. Not only did she fix the problem, but she also won the company’s award for the quickest transition of a new manufacturing process.

“One of my goals is to stamp out the hand test,” Karen says. She dreams of granulators fitted with lasers that read the state of a product and simultaneously send this information to a computer to control the batch. But first comes the proof-of-concept stage, which will take another few years, she says.

Keywords

granulation and agglomeration of powders, particle technology projects , pharmaceutical manufacturing (especially of powders, tablets and capsules)

Qualifications

GRADUATE CERTIFICATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Institution: Monash University
Year awarded: 2009
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Institution: University of QLD
Year awarded: 2000
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Institution: University of QLD
Year awarded: 1993

Publications

Book Chapters

Hapgood, K., Lister, J., 2010, Wet Granulation Processes, in Chemical Engineering in the Pharmaceutical Industry R&D to Manufacturing, eds David J. am Ende, John Wiley & Sons, USA, pp. 757-780.

Hapgood, K.P., Iveson, S.M., Litster, J.D., Liu, L.X., 2007, Granulation Rate Processes, in Handbook of Powder Technology, eds Agba Salman, Michael Hounslow, Jonathan PK Seville, Elsevier, Netherlands, pp. 897-977.

Journal Articles

Viduka, S.M., Feng, Y., Hapgood, K., Schwarz, P., 2013, CFD-DEM investigation of particle separations using a sinusoidal jigging profile, Advanced Powder Technology [P], vol Early View, Elsevier Science BV, Netherlands, pp. 1-9.

Kariuki, W.I., Freireich, B., Smith, R., Rhodes, M.J., Hapgood, K., 2013, Distribution nucleation: Quantifying liquid distribution on the particle surface using the dimensionless particle coating number, Chemical Engineering Sciences [P], vol 92, Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, UK, pp. 134-145.

Tan, M., Hapgood, K., 2013, Mapping of regimes for the key processes in wet granulation: Foam vs. spray, Aiche Journal [P], vol Early View, Wiley-Blackwell, USA, pp. 1-11.

Eshtiaghi, N., Hapgood, K., 2012, A quantitative framework for the formation of liquid marbles and hollow granules from hydrophobic powders, Powder Technology [P], vol 223, issue SI, Elsevier Science SA, Lausanne Switzerland, pp. 65-76.

Hapgood, K., Biggs, M.J., 2012, Editorial to Chemeca 2010 Special Issue, Powder Technology [P], vol 223, issue SI, Elsevier Science SA, Lausanne Switzerland, pp. 1-2.

Tan, M., Hapgood, K., 2012, Foam granulation: Effects of formulation and process conditions on granule size distributions, Powder Technology [P], vol 218, Elsevier Science SA, Switzerland, pp. 149-156.

O'Brien, K.R., Hapgood, K., 2012, The academic jungle: ecosystem modelling reveals why women are driven out of research, Oikos [E], vol 121, issue 7, Wiley-Blackwell, USA, pp. 999-1004.

Tan, M., Hapgood, K., 2011, Foam granulation: Binder dispersion and nucleation in mixer-granulators, Chemical Engineering Research & Design [P], vol 89, issue 5A, Institution of Chemical Engineers, Rugby UK, pp. 526-536.

Tan, M., Hapgood, K., 2011, Foam granulation: Liquid penetration or mechanical dispersion?, Chemical Engineering Sciences [P], vol 66, issue 21, Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, Oxford UK, pp. 5204-5211.

O'Brien, K., Hapgood, K., 2011, Part-time balance, Nature [P], vol 479, Nature Publishing Group, UK, pp. 257-258.

Nguyen, T.H., Eshtiaghi, N., Hapgood, K., Shen, W., 2010, An analysis of the thermodynamic conditions for solid powder particles spreading over liquid surface, Powder Technology [P], vol 201, issue 3, Elsevier Science SA, Switzerland, pp. 306-310.

Nguyen, T., Shen, W., Hapgood, K., 2010, Effect of formulation hydrophobicity on drug distribution in wet granulation, Chemical Engineering Journal [P], vol 164, issue 2-3, Elseviere Science SA, Switzerland, pp. 330-339.

Eshtiaghi, N., Liu, J., Hapgood, K., 2010, Formation of hollow granules from liquid marbles: Small scale experiments, Powder Technology [P], vol 197, issue 3, Elsevier Science SA, Switzerland, pp. 184-195.

Hapgood, K., Amelia, R., Zaman, M.B., Merrett, B.K., Leslie, P., 2010, Improving liquid distribution by reducing dimensionless spray flux in wet granulation-A pharmaceutical manufacturing case study, Chemical Engineering Journal [P], vol 164, issue 2-3, Elsevier Science SA, Switzerland, pp. 340-349.

Nguyen, T., Hapgood, K., Shen, W., 2010, Observation of the liquid marble morphology using confocal microscopy, Chemical Engineering Journal [P], vol 162, issue 1, Elsevier Science SA, USA, pp. 396-405.

Hapgood, K., Tan, M., Chow, W., 2009, A method to predict nuclei size distributions for use in models of wet granulation, Advanced Powder Technology [P], vol 20, issue 4, Brill Academic Publishers, Netherlands, pp. 293-297.

Hapgood, K., Farber, L., Michaels, J.N., 2009, Agglomeration of hydrophobic powders via solid spreading nucleation, Powder Technology, vol 188, issue 3, Elsevier S.A., Switzerland, pp. 248-254.

Nguyen, T., Shen, W., Hapgood, K., 2009, Drop penetration time in heterogeneous powder beds, Chemical Engineering Sciences [P], vol 64, issue 24, Elsevier, Netherlands, pp. 5210-5221.

Kale, K.P., Hapgood, K., Stewart, P.J., 2009, Drug agglomeration and dissolution - What is the influence of powder mixing?, European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, vol 72, issue 1, Elsevier BV, The Netherlands, pp. 156-164.

Tan, M., Wong, L., Lum, K., Hapgood, K., 2009, Foam and drop penetration kinetics into loosely packed powder beds, Chemical Engineering Sciences [P], vol 64, issue 12, Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, UK, pp. 2826-2836.

Hapgood, K., Khanmohammadi, B., 2009, Granulation of hydrophobic powders, Powder Technology, vol 189, issue 2, Elsevier S.A., Switzerland, pp. 253-262.

Eshtiaghi, N., Liu, J., Shen, W., Hapgood, K., 2009, Liquid marble formation: Spreading coefficients or kinetic energy?, Powder Technology [P], vol 196, issue 2, Elsevier Science SA, Switzerland, pp. 126-132.

Eshtiaghi, N., Arhatari, B., Hapgood, K., 2009, Producing hollow granules from hydrophobic powders in high-shear mixer granulators, Advanced Powder Technology [P], vol 20, issue 6, Brill Academic Publishers, Japan, pp. 558-566.

Hapgood, K., Nguyen, T., Hauw, S., Iveson, S., Shen, W., 2009, Rewetting effects and droplet motion on partially wetted powder surfaces, Aiche Journal [P], vol 55, issue 6, John Wiley & Sons Inc., USA, pp. 1402-1415.

Michaels, J.N., Farber, L., Wong, G., Hapgood, K., Heidel, J.S., Farabaugh, J., Chou, J., Tardos, G.I., 2009, Steady states in granulation of pharmaceutical powders with application to scale-up, Powder Technology, vol 189, issue 2, Elsevier S.A., Switzerland, pp. 295-303.

Farber, L., Hapgood, K., Michaels, J.N., Fu, X., Meyer, R., Johnson, M., Li, F., 2008, Unified compaction curve model for tensile strength of tablets made by roller compaction and direct compression, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, vol 346, Elsevier Science BV, NETHERLANDS, pp. 17-24.

Hapgood, K., Litster, J.D., White, E.T., Mort, P.R., Jones, D.G., 2004, Dimensionless spray flux in wet granulation: Monte-Carlo simulations and experimental validation, Powder Technology, vol 141, issue 1-2, Elsevier, pp. 20-30.

Tardos, G.I., Hapgood, K., Ipadeola, O.O., Michaels, J.N., 2004, Stress measurements in high-shear granulators using calibrated "test" particles: application to scale-up, Powder Technology, vol 140, issue 3, Elsevier, pp. 217-227.

Hapgood, K., Litster, J.D., Smith, R., 2003, Nucleation Regime Map for Liquid Bound Granules, AIChE Journal, vol 49, issue 2, AIChE, New York NY USA, pp. 350-361.

Hapgood, K., Litster, J.D., Biggs, S.R., Howes, T., 2002, Drop Penetration into Porous Powder Beds, Jounal of Colloid and Interface Science, vol 253, issue 2, Elsevier, pp. 353-366.

Litster, J.D., Hapgood, K., Michaels, J.N., Sims, A., Roberts, M., Kameneni, S.K., 2002, Scale-Up of mixer granulators for effective liquid distribution, Powder Technology, vol 124, Elsevier, London UK, pp. 272-280.

Litster, J.D., Hapgood, K., Michaels, J.N., Sims, A., Roberts, M., Kameneni, S.K., Hsu, T., 2001, Liquid distribution in wet granulation:dimensionless spray flux, Powder Technology, vol 114, issue 1-3, Elsevier, Switzerland, pp. 32-39.

Iveson, S.M., Lister, J.D., Hapgood, K., Ennis, B.J., 2001, Nucleation, growth and breakage phenomena in agitated wet granulation processes: a review, Powder Technology, vol 117, issue 1, Elsevier, pp. 3-39.

Conference Proceedings

Barling, D., Morton, D.A.V., Hapgood, K., 2012, Analysis of dry powder mixing processes using a fine cohesive pigment, Proceedings of Chemeca 2012, 23 September 2012 to 26 September 2012, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Tang, E.C.W., Perkins, E.L., Hoadley, A.F.A., Hapgood, K., 2012, Development of lignite granulation regime map, Proceedings of Chemeca 2012, 23 September 2012 to 26 September 2012, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Nguyen, T.H., Morton, D.A.V., Hapgood, K., 2012, Understanding the unified compaction curve model for wet granulation and the tablet strength, Proceedings of Chemeca 2012, 23 September 2012 to 26 September 2012, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Nguyen, T., Morton, D., Hapgood, K., 2011, Linking the wet granulation conditions to the tablet properties through the unified compaction curve, Proceedings of CHEMECA 2011 - Engineering a Better World, 18 September 2011 to 21 September 2011, Engineers Australia, Sydney NSW, pp. 1-11.

O'Brien, K.R., Hapgood, K., 2011, Part-time academia: work-family balance utopia or female ghetto?, ICWES15 Proceedings, 19 July 2011 to 22 July 2011, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-10.

Nguyen, T., Shen, W., Hapgood, K., 2010, Examination of the liquid marble morphology using confocal microscopy, Chemeca 2010, 26 September 2010 to 29 September 2010, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-10.

Tan, M., Hapgood, K., 2010, Foam granulation in a high shear mixer-granulator, Chemeca 2010, 26 September 2010 to 29 September 2010, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-10.

Hauw, S., Hapgood, K., Hoadley, A., Desai, D., 2010, Investigating the role of lignite as a drying aid in rotary superheated steam drying of dewatered sludge, Proceedings of Chemeca 2010, 26 September to 29 September 2010, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Smith, R., Calvert, G., Hassanpour, A., Hare, C., Feng, Y., Rhodes, M., Hapgood, K., Ghadiri, M., 2010, Investigation of liquid distribution in fluidised bed granulation using a single particle surface coverage fraction, Proceedings of Chemeca 2010, 26 September 2010 to 29 September 2010, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-10.

Nguyen, T., Shen, W., Hapgood, K., 2010, Percolation concentration threshold: Connecting the murky region between hydrophilic and hydrophobic wet granulation, Proceedings of Chemeca 2010, 26 September 2010 to 29 September 2010, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Kariuki, W., Smith, R., Rhodes, M., Hapgood, K., 2010, Prediction of liquid coverage in fluid bed granulation, Chemeca 2010, 26 September 2010 to 29 September 2010, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-12.

Eshtiaghi, N., Hapgood, K., 2010, Step by step guidance for formation of liquid marbles and hollow granules, Proceedings of Chemeca 2010, 26 September 2010 to 29 September 2010, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Hapgood, K., Amelia, R., Zaman, M.B., Merrett, B.K., Leslie, P., 2009, Improving Liquid Distribution in Pharmaceutical Wet Granulation: A Case Study, CHEMECA 2009, 27 September 2009 to 30 September 2009, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 1-11.

Tan, M., Wong, L., Lum, K., Hapgood, K., 2008, Foam granulation: Comparison of nucleation via drops and foams, Chemeca 2008, 28 September 2008 to 1 October 2008, Engineers Australia, Newcastle, pp. 372-381.

Eshtiaghi, N., Liu, J., Hapgood, K., 2008, Key Factors in Stable Formation of Liquid Marble and Hollow Granules, Chemeca 2008, 28 September 2008 to 1 October 2008, Engineers Australia, Newcastle, pp. 182-191.

Everaert, A., Codner, G.P., Hapgood, K., 2007, Development and Implementation of a Dedicated ESL Tutorial Stream in Level One engineering, CHEMECA 2007 Proceedings, 23-26/09/2007, Engineers Australia, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 971-978.

Hapgood, K., Shen, W., Iveson, S.M., Sunarko, S., Nguyen, T.H., 2007, Drop Motion on Partially Wetted Powder Surfaces, CHEMECA 2007 Proceedings, 23-26/09/2007, Engineers Australia, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 460-467.

Kale, K.P., Hapgood, K., Stewart, P.J., 2007, Effect of mixing speed and time on dispersion of cohesive drug powder mixtures measured during drug dissolution, Proceedings of CHEMECA 2007: Academia and Industry Strenghtening the Profession, 23 September 2007 to 26 September 2007, Engineers Australia, Australia, pp. 475-484.

Khanmohammadi, B., Yeo, L.Y., Hapgood, K., 2007, Formation of hollow granules from hydrophobic powders, CHEMECA 2007 Proceedings, 23 September 2007 to 26 September 2007, Engineers Australia, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 451-459.

Hapgood, K., Tan, M., Chow, D.W.Y., 2007, Predicting nuclei size distributions in wet granulation using dimensionless spray flux, CHEMECA 2007 Proceedings, 23-26/09/2007, Engineers Australia, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1990-1998.

Hapgood, K., 2007, Women in Engineering: A Simple Mathematical Theory for the Rate of Adverse Experiences, CHEMECA 2007 Proceedings, 23-26/09/2007, Engineers Australia, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 943-948.

Hapgood, K., Farber, L., Wong, G., Chou, J., Tardos, G.I., Farabaugh, J., Bautista, B., Heidel, S., Michaels, J.N., 2006, One-dimensional scale-up of high-shear granulation, Proceedings of CHEMECA 2006, 17 September 2006 to 20 September 2006, University of Auckland SCENZ, Auckland New Zealand, pp. 1-6.

Other

Hapgood, K., 2012, Zinc oxide, Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients, vol monograph, Pharmaceutical Press, USA, pp. 908-910.

Viduka, S., Feng, Y., Hapgood, K., Schwarz, M., 2011, Discrete particle simulation of solid separation in a jigging device, Proceedings of IFSA 2011, Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Johannesburg South Africa.

Hapgood, K., 2009, Hydrophobic colloidal silica, Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients, vol monograph, Pharmaceutical Press, USA, pp. 309-310.

Hapgood, K., 2009, Sodium carbonate, Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients, vol monograph, Pharmaceutical Press, USA, pp. 635-636.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Controlled Granules for Paediatric Applications.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main), Selomulya, C (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Discrete particle simulation of solid separation in a jigging device.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Effect of surface coating via mechanical dry coating on the functionality of pharmaceutical powders.
Supervisors:
Morton, D (Main), Stewart, P (Associate), Hapgood, K (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Fabrication of ZIF-7 Membrane for Hydrogen Separation.
Supervisors:
Chen, D (Main), Hapgood, K (Associate), Woo, M (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Granulation and drying of brown coal.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Joint-co), Hoadley, A (Joint), Perkins, E (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Granule Breakage in a Controlled Shear Field - Modelling and Experiments.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main), Jagadeeshan, R (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Improvements in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical dry powder formulations..
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Joint-co), Morton, D (Joint).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Linking the granule properties to the tablet properties..
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main), Morton, D (Associate).
Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Liquid Marbles and Hollow Granules for Pharmaceutical Applications.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main), Shen, W (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Natural Organic Matter Removal by TiO2 Nanoparticles Photocatalytic Nanocrystalline Membrane.
Supervisors:
Wang, H (Main), Hapgood, K (Associate), Wang, K (Associate).
Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Spray Dryers as Micro-particulate Reactors.
Supervisors:
Chen, D (Main), Hapgood, K (Associate), Woo, M (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Understanding and preventing agglomeration during filter drying.
Supervisors:
Hapgood ((Double Id)), K (Main), Morton, D (Associate).

Completed Supervision

Student:
Eshtiaghi, N.
Program of Study:
Granulation of hydrophobic particles: production of hollow granules from liquid marbles. (PHD) 2009.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main).
Student:
Ho, M.
Program of Study:
VIBRO-FLUIDISED BED DRYING OF MILK POWDERS. (Masters) 2011.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main).
Student:
Kale, K.
Program of Study:
Influence of mixing parameters on dispersion and de-agglomeration within indomethacin interactive mixtures.. (Masters) 2007.
Supervisors:
Stewart, P (Main), Hapgood, K (Associate).
Student:
Nguyen, T.
Program of Study:
FUNDAMENTAL EFFECTS OF HYDROPHOBIC POWDERS ON NUCLEATON AND WET GRANULATION. (Masters) 2009.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main), Shen, W (Associate).
Student:
Tan, M.
Program of Study:
Foam granulation. (PHD) 2010.
Supervisors:
Hapgood, K (Main).