CrySyst Launches to Revolutionize Pharmaceutical and Chemical Processes
International experts in process systems and operations have established a new high-tech startup, CrySyst. The company is focused on refining processes for businesses within the pharmaceutical and fine chemical sectors.
Zoltán Nagy, a researcher from Purdue University’s College of Engineering, is a co-founder of CrySyst. The company specializes in providing advanced crystallization monitoring, modeling, and control software solutions.
CrySyst’s cornerstone is their quality-by-control (QbC) framework. This framework, built on extensive research published in several leading journals, addresses critical aspects of crystallization, including monitoring, modeling, and control.
Co-founders Zoltán Nagy, the Arvind Varma Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, and Botond Szilágyi, formerly a postdoctoral research associate at Purdue and now a professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, bring a wealth of experience to the venture.
The Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization has licensed CrySyst to commercialize its proprietary technologies, CryMoCo and CrySiV.
Software Solutions: CryMoCo and CrySiV
Nagy highlights that determining the right experiments, choosing appropriate model structures, and obtaining reliable model parameters represent the biggest challenges in model-based process development.
“CrySyst’s tools directly address these pain points by providing guided experiment selection, offering a semiautomated framework for model development, and delivering reliable, high-confidence solutions,” Nagy said. According to Nagy, CrySiV and CryMoCo offer a streamlined, systematic, and scientifically sound approach to crystallization process development.
“These tools reduce time, material usage and risk while enhancing process robustness and scalability,” he added.
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CryMoCo:
CryMoCo is a vendor-independent process monitoring and control software package for crystallization. It includes industry-standard communication protocols used with process analytical technology (PAT) and advanced process control methods. These include direct nucleation and supersaturation control approaches.
“This enables the rapid direct design of robust crystallization processes using our innovative QbC framework,” Nagy explained.
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CrySiV:
CrySiV is a user-friendly, interactive simulator based on a population balance model. It’s designed for the digital design of crystallization processes. The tool includes kinetic parameter regression, process simulation, and comprehensive visualization capabilities. Nagy added, “CrySiV also includes process optimization features for both crystallization and integrated crystallization-wet milling processes, using state-of-the-art numerical methods for modeling and optimization.”
Nagy also noted these key benefits of CryMoCo and CrySiV:
- An Intuitive and User-Friendly Interface: Reduces the learning curve for industry professionals.
- State-of-the-Art Numerical Solvers: Ensures reliable, reproducible solutions and allows for rigorous model validation.
- A Structured Workflow: Guides users through model selection, parameter estimation, and model refinement while minimizing computation uncertainties.
Overcoming Industry Challenges
Pharmaceutical and fine chemical companies often face challenges in process development due to limited materials, experimental constraints, and lengthy optimization timelines, according to Nagy. He continued:
“These challenges can be effectively addressed through model-based digital design and model-free direct design approaches, which have seen increasing adoption. However, to achieve widespread implementation, there is a critical need for systematic workflows and robust tools to support their integration into industrial practice. This is what CrySyst solutions address. We are committed to helping our clients develop and scale their process technologies faster, using less material. We offer specialized software products for model-free and model-based crystallization process design as well as consultancy and training services for problem-solving with our software tools.”
CrySyst received financial backing from the Enabling Technologies Consortium.
“The consortium included more than 10 of the largest pharmaceutical companies,” Nagy noted. “We collaborated on a project with them for three years and, through close interaction with the crystallization scientists from the member companies, we developed the tools based on feedback we received to fit the needs of the industry.”
