About

Fernando J. Muzzio is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University. His research focuses on pharmaceutical engineering, including mixing in reactive and multi-phase flows, blending of dry powders, and drug substance/product manufacturing. He has developed and applied systematic engineering methodologies for the design and optimization of pharmaceutical products and processes, studying various manufacturing methods such as liquid mixing, powder blending, granulation, tableting, and coating. Over the past 15 years, his work has increasingly centered on continuous manufacturing processes, leading a research consortium and the NSF Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems. As director of this center, he demonstrated the advantages of continuous manufacturing, which has become a priority at the FDA, BARDA, and within the pharmaceutical industry. His efforts contributed to the development of a continuous process for the anti-HIV medication Prezista, the first conversion from batch to continuous approved by the FDA in April 2016. Throughout his career, he has authored over 300 publications, with a significant portion related to continuous processes, and has built a strong team and infrastructure dedicated to materials characterization, process development, and product testing.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mathematics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Engineering
• Artificial Intelligence
• Chromatography
• Biological system
• Statistics
• Materials science
• Machine Learning
• Process engineering
• Optics
• Data Mining
• Medicine
• Telecommunications
• Biochemical engineering
• Pharmacology
• Geometry
• Mechanics
• Mechanical engineering
• Algorithm
• Composite material
• Mineralogy

Selected publications

• Comparison of granules obtained with two twin-screw granulators of different diameter working at the same shear rate

  Powder Technology · 2025-05-02

  articleOpen access

  We study the response of two twin-screw granulators of different barrel diameter to the variation of three process parameters (liquid-to-solid ratio, screw speed and throughput), while maintaining the same shear rate field along the screws. Various responses, including size distribution, porosity and content uniformity, were measured to determine granule characteristics. The set of experiments was based on a central composite design face-centered. Granules in both systems showed drug content consistent with expected values across varying process parameters. Relative granules size, normalized with the granulator gap, was larger for the equipment with the smaller gap. The liquid-to-solid ratio (LSR) was the most influential parameter affecting the granule size. Specifically, dimensional granule size increased with LSR values in both systems, consistent with previous studies. Elevated LSR values resulted in greater amounts of over-granulated material, whereas lower values produced exceedingly small (fines) or under-granulated material. The minimum amounts of both over- and under-granulated material were found at intermediate LSR values. Porosity varied differently between the systems, with a consistent reduction observed as LSR decreased from 0.3 to 0.4. Optimization studies revealed that central values of LSR and screw speed minimized fines and bigger granules while maximizing porosity, critical attributes for downstream processing. Granule size and porosity exhibited no significant correlation with tablet tensile strength across both systems. These findings offer valuable insights for optimizing pharmaceutical manufacturing processes to enhance product quality. • Granules produced at two twin screw granulators using a DoE were compared. • Ibuprofen content uniformity was consistent across both systems. • Moderate liquid-to-solid ratio maximizes porosity and usable granules. • Distinct granule properties observed, yet tablet tensile strength remains comparable.

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• Effect of tracer material properties and tracer amount on RTD characterization in continuous manufacturing

  Powder Technology · 2025-04-03 · 4 citations

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• Current state of machine learning implementation in pharmaceutical process modeling for oral solid dosage forms

  International Journal of Pharmaceutics · 2025-12-08 · 3 citations

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• Real-time monitoring of small changes in powder blends and ejected tablets in a low-dose formulation with 1 %w/w of active pharmaceutical ingredient using Raman and near-infrared spatially resolved spectroscopy within a tablet press

  International Journal of Pharmaceutics · 2025-01-04 · 7 citations

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• Accelerating Process Development and Product Formulation

  Pharmaceutical Research · 2024-05-01 · 2 citations

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• Exploring pharmaceutical powder cohesion through the Warren Spring cohesion test

  Advanced Powder Technology · 2024-11-26

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• On the synthesis of diphenhydramine: Steady state kinetics, solvation effects, and in-situ Raman and benchtop NMR as PAT

  Chemical Engineering Journal · 2024-05-11 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Diphenhydramine is a first-generation antihistamine that is available over-the-counter to treat maladies such as allergic reactions and insomnia. Despite its ubiquity in society and high demand, the kinetics for either step of diphenhydramine synthesis have not been explored in detail. In this work, for the first step, a methodology has been devised to obtain kinetics from the heterogeneous halogenation of benzhydrol with hydrochloric acid in a batch reactor equipped with in-situ Raman probe and further verified with ex-situ low-field NMR spectroscopy. For the second step, the kinetics of etherification have been explored using a microfluidic flow reactor and at-line NMR spectroscopy in a variety of solvents. Arrhenius and Eyring parameters are determined for Step 2. We find that the reaction performance is well correlated with the acceptor number of the solvent indicating that the Lewis acidity of the solvent plays a significant role in the overall performance

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• Powder agglomeration in continuous powder feeding by twin-screw feeder

  Powder Technology · 2024-06-15 · 4 citations

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• High-dose modified-release formulation of a poorly soluble drug via twin-screw melt coating and granulation

  International Journal of Pharmaceutics · 2024-12-14 · 6 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
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• Statistical data treatment for residence time distribution studies in pharmaceutical manufacturing

  International Journal of Pharmaceutics · 2024-04-19 · 3 citations

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Recent grants

• IGERT: NanoPharmaceutical Engineering and Science

  NSF · $3.1M · 2005–2012

• Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Structured Organic Composites for Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, and Agrochemical Applications(C-SOC)

  NSF · $35.5M · 2006–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Marianthi Ierapetritou

  52 shared

• Troy Shinbrot

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  39 shared

• Mario Moisés Álvarez

  Tecnológico de Monterrey

  31 shared

• Benjamin J. Glasser

  29 shared

• Rohit Ramachandran

  27 shared

• Ravendra Singh

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  24 shared

• Gerardo Callegari

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  22 shared

• Andrés D. Román-Ospino

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  21 shared

Awards & honors

• R&D Council of New Jersey Chairman's Award (2018)
• Elected member, USP expert committee on Quality Standards fo…
• Inventor of the Year Award 2016, NJ Inventors Hall of Fame
• Professor of the year Award, Rutgers School of Engineering (…
• Rutgers University Teacher Scholar Award (2015)