ENZOX2 - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director Biochemistry, Firmenich SA, Corp R & D, Route Des Jeunes 1, CH - 1211 Geneva 8, Switzerland
Description of the group AVA Biochem, a SME founded in 2012, is a subsidiary of AVA-CO2 Switzerland, founded in 2009. AVA Biochem developed the conversion from biomass to 5-HMF to industry scale. It managed to set up a reliable process and produce a consistent quality of 5-HMF. AVA Biochem managed to stabilize 5-HMF, which was a major problem in the past. A major breakthrough was reached in terms of economic feasibility: the process design makes large scale production (30,000 - 100,000 t/a) possible at a price which is close to comparable petro-based product. Right now, AVA Biochem is selling crystallized 5-HMF in purities of 95-99% on a small scale to research institutions worldwide.
Gilbert Anderer will be the person responsible for the AVA Biochem contribution. Other members of the company involved in EnzOx2 will be S. Krawielitzki, V. Wagner-Solbach, J-U Wichmann, F. Badoux and M.-J. Desroches.
François Badoux optimally combines his economic talent with his knowledge in chemical engineering. He began his career in 1983 at Ciba-Geigy and was then a consultant for 4 years with McKinsey & Co., where he specialized in industrial processes and strategies. Then, he led the International Engineering Consultancy Department at Sete SA, a large private industrial and finance group. After 12 years, he founded Mistral Engines S.A., an aerospace company. There he developed a new generation of light aircraft and helicopter engines to market readiness. François Badoux has a degree in chemistry from the ETH Lausanne and an MBA from the IMD.
Main role in EnzOx2 The main contributions of AVA Biochem will be produced in the supply of different HMF qualities and evaluation of biomass separation/pretreatment technologies, the comparison of these HMF preparations in the enzymatic production of FDCA, and the technical and economic evaluation of the enzymatic technology for FDCA production from HMF, compared with other relevant chemical and microbial technologies.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, and Katrin Scheibner, Unit of Scientific R & D Board
Job Titles:
- CSIC Research Scientist
- Department of Plant Biotechnology, IRNAS
Description of the group The group belongs to the Department of Plant Biotechnology at IRNAS (one of the CSIC institutes in the area of Agriculture), and has two senior members, Dr Ana Gutiérrez and Dr José C. del Río who have high expertise in the chemical and structural characterization of lipids and lignin by different analytical techniques. Additionally, they have expertise in the evaluation of the structural modifications of these organic fractions after industrial processing, and chemical or enzymatic treatments.
The IRNAS contribution to EnzOx2 will be led by Dr Ana Gutiérrez, CSIC Research Scientist, current Vice-director of IRNAS, recent elected member (2015) of the International Academy of Wood Science (IAWS) and of the IAWS Academy Board (2016), who has 130 SCI articles and has participated in the coordination of 5 EU projects. Other members of the group are Dr Jorge Rencoret (with expertise in 2D NMR, thioacidolysis and GC-MS) and several PhD students.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist, AIMPLAS
Description of the group The team has mutidisciplinar senior scientists formed by Dr. Amador García-Sancho, PhD in Organic Chemistry and BD in Pharmacy by the University of Valencia, Dra. Alba M. Ortiz, European PhD in Chemistry by the Universidad de Alcalá, Dra. Belén Monje, Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry by the University of Valencia, Ms. Itziar Carracedo, Chief Project Manager and Ms. Marta Estellés, Projects Manager. All of them have a wide experience in the synthesis and characterization of polymers and new polymers taking always into account the appropriate cost effectiveness of the polymer synthesis process, optimizing parameters as reaction time, temperature profile, amount of catalyst as well as the post-purification steps.
Job Titles:
- Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology
Dr. Frank Hollmann is an internationally renowned expert for the use of enzymes in organic synthesis. His research interests span diverse classes of oxidoreductases for preparative oxidation/reduction and oxyfunctionalization chemistry. The infrastructure of BOC can be described as a combination of base organic chemistry and molecular biology laboratories. In addition, spectroscopy facilities, such as NMR, and EPR are present within the group. For screening of enzymes, a dedicated laboratory is available, that allows performing high-throughput production and assaying of enzymes at advanced safety levels (ML2).
Main role in EnzOx2 Dr. Hollmann will be the scientist in charge (supported by staff of the Department of Biotechnology). The group will be involved in the optimization of the enzymatic reactions towards industrial application. They will act as facilitator between the groups discovering and optimizing new enzymes and the industrial partners wanting to commercialize them. Both, Prof. Hagen and Dr. Hollmann will be actively involved in the project, together with Dr. Florian Tieves, project contract at the BOC group.
Within the EnzOx2 project, the following people will be involved: Martin Hofrichter (professor, head of the department with >150 publications), Christiane Liers (assistant professor), René Ullrich (PhD, senior scientist), Harald Kellner (PhD, postdoc), Marzena Poraj-Kobielska (PhD, Postdoc), Alexander Karich (PhD student) and Ulrike Schneider (technician). Moreover, graduates preparing their MSc theses will be involved in the experimental work.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Novozymes a / S
The contribution to EnzOx2 will be led by Dr Francisco J. Ruiz-Dueñas, CSIC Tenured Scientist, who has large experience in heme peroxidases (molecular biology, structure-function and engineering) resulting in 65 publications. Dr Susana Camarero, CSIC Tenured Scientist with 70 publications devoted to ligninolytic fungi and oxdoreductases for biotechnology applications will also be involved in the project. Dr Marta Pérez-Boada, Project Manager with scientific background in the field of heme-peroxidases, will be in charge of the Project Secretariat (see Contact section) assisting in project coordination, management and dissemination.
Job Titles:
- Department of Bio and Environmental Sciences
Job Titles:
- Department of Biocatalysis, Institute of Catalysis, CSIC, Universidad Autónoma, Marie Curie 2, Cantoblanco, E - 28049 Madrid
Description of the group ICP is the main institute of the catalysis area of the Spanish CSIC. The Directed Enzyme Evolution group of the CSIC Institute of Catalysis is led by Miguel Alcalde, and primarily focuses its research on the engineering of enzymes for a wide range of biotechnological purposes; the development of high-throughput biomolecular screening tools and genetic methods for library construction and exploration, as well as synthetic biology studies for environmental and energy applications. The laboratory has participated in several consecutive European programs and research contracts with industries with several patents and 70-SCI papers in the field.
The following people will be involved in the EnzOx2 project: Mª Teresa Moreira (professor with > 210 JCR publications, h-index of 41 and Associated Editor of Journal Cleaner Production); Gumersindo Feijoo (professor with >200 JCR publications and h-index of 42), Yolanda Moldes (PhD student) and María Gamallo (PhD student).
Novozymes Novozymes is world leader in bio-innovation and the world largest producer of industrial enzymes, with a 48% market share. Its over 700 products are used in more than 40 industries to improve processes and quality, and save water, energy, raw materials and waste. In 2015 Novozymes reported sales of 1881 million and spend around 14% of its turnover on R&D. It is headquartered in Denmark and employs more than 6000 people in 30 countries, with production plants in Denmark, US, China, Brazil and India.
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator
- Research Professor of CSIC
Angel T. Martínez is Research Professor of CSIC and co-leader of the group of Biotechnology for Lignocellulosic Biomass of the Environmental Biology Department at the CIB. He is member of ACS, ASM and TAPPI, with around 300 publications mainly related to oxidoreductases and microbial biotechnology. He has coordinated several projects of Industrial Biotechnology from FP3 to FP7, such as INDOX (KBBE-2013-7-613549), PEROXICATS (KBBE-2010-4-265397), BIORENEW (NMP2-CT-2006-026456), PELAS (QLK3-1999-00590), PITCH (QLK5-1999-01357) and AIR2 CT93-1219.
Project Coordination will be performed at CIB by Prof Angel T. Martínez. The Coordinator and Project Secretariat will be assisted by the CSIC European Programme Unit in those aspects related to Consortium Agreement management and project administrative coordination.
Description of the group Chiracon is an experienced and independent, privately owned company with in-house technology comprising of pharmaceutical and analytical laboratories. The CEO of the company is Dr. Ralf Zuhse. The company was founded 1998 in Luckenwalde, close to Berlin. The activities of Chiracon are focused on RD, up-scaling and manufacturing of advanced chiral intermediates and active pharmaceutical (APIs) under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) conditions for the pharmaceutical industry. The team has four senior scientists, Dr. Thomas von Schrader (chemistry, scale-up), Dr. Stephan Quint (chemistry, development), Dr. Simon Michaelis (chemistry, development) and Dr. Ahmad Tahrani (Pharmacy, analytics and quality control). Chiracon is certified according ISO 9001 since 2000. Serving as a bridge between medicinal chemistry and full-scale manufacturing, Chiracon provides process research services with a core competency in the rapid supply of APIs according to GMP standards. Due to almost 20 years of solid experience in the synthesis of chiral and non chiral APIs for early phase drug development, Chiracon can support their customers through pre-clinical and clinical trials.