1. CASE STUDY
Lauren Johnston
Home County: Renfrewshire
Pre-University
YINI Placement Company: Vascutek Ltd
Going on to study Biomedical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde
Investigate the feasibility of Vapour formaldehyde fixation and reduce product yield loss
Summary
Lauren undertook two core assignments whilst at Vascutek Ltd. Firstly, she was tasked with
investigating whether formaldehyde vapour could prove a feasible alternative method of fixation to
formaldehyde liquid. Additionally, Lauren investigated and aimed to reduce product yield loss by
analysing the factors causing whole graft porosity failures. Initially, she familiarised herself with the
manufacturing process of the grafts, in order to understand their process flow, and the properties
of formaldehyde, to identify the parameters that would affect a vapour system.
As project manager of these assignments, Lauren was given a great deal of responsibility,
including writing experimental protocols, conducting testing and leading a project team, alongside
the recording of 6 months of manufacturing data and its analysis. Lauren also worked
collaboratively throughout her projects; for example, by cooperating with microbiology to run an
experimental protocol which investigated the sterilisation potential of vapour fixated grafts.
Results
Lauren’s work proved the feasibility of vapour formaldehyde fixation at an experimental level and
by eliminating and reducing key steps she reduced the time for fixation from 13 hours to just 3
hours - allowing for a 433% increase in process capacity. However her extensive testing showed
that changing to a vapour process would not be commercially viable for the company due to the
cost of controlling 3 independently complex parameters. These findings have allowed Vascutek to
progress a £2 million capital project without the risk of investing project spend on this new method
and allowed the project to focus on optimising existing parameters.
To investigate product yield loss at the whole graft porosity test stage, Lauren recorded 6 months
of Quality Control data. She then analysed this data and ran experimental protocols to eliminate
factors leading to whole graft porosity failures.
“As project manager of two technically and operationally challenging projects during her
time at Vascutek, Lauren has increased her technical, laboratory and networking skills to
drive projects to a definitive conclusion; she has developed into a valuable member of the
Manufacturing Engineering Team. Lauren’s feasibility work has allowed a multi-million
pound automation project to move into detail design phase without the risk of failing at
scale-up, whilst her second piece of work has eliminated sources of yield loss and provided
a valuable data baseline for multiple projects”.
Scott Warnock, Senior Manufacturing Process Engineer, Vascutek Ltd