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Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V.

Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V. is the IBB Net­zwerk GmbH’s only share­hold­er. The association’s pur­pose is the pro­mo­tion of an indus­tri­al bio­tech­no­logy and sus­tain­able eco­nomy in Bav­aria and bey­ond. A mem­ber­ship is open to every­one and only requires an offi­cial applic­a­tion via the fol­low­ing form.

Association’s Board of Directors

The Board of Dir­ect­ors are elec­ted by the association’s mem­bers every two years. 

Dr. Axel Trefzer

Chair­man
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After his doc­tor­ate at the Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Dr. Tre­fzer star­ted his career in indus­tri­al R&D at Diversa Cor­por­a­tion, San Diego, USA. Diverse pos­i­tions of increas­ing rsepons­ib­il­ity at Invit­ro­gen and DSM in the USA and the Neth­er­lands, respect­ively, fol­lowed. In 2011, he star­ted as Asso­ci­ate Dir­ect­or in the busi­ness unit Syn­thet­ic Bio­logy at Ther­moFish­er Sci­entif­ic. From 2012 to 2021, he was Dir­ect­or R&D for Syn­thet­ic Bio­logy at the company’s loc­a­tion Ther­moFish­er Sci­entif­ic GEN­EART GmbH in Regens­burg. Most recently, he assumed a pos­i­tion as dir­ect­or for product man­age­ment in Syn­thet­ic Bio­logy. Through­out his pro­fes­sion­al career, Dr. Tre­fzer has built an extens­ive sci­entif­ic expert­ise in many fields of indus­tri­al bio­tech­no­logy, syn­thet­ic bio­logy and research tools. In par­tic­u­lar, he is spe­cial­ized in driv­ing busi­ness innov­a­tion based on new tech­no­lo­gies with­in the field of bio­tech­no­logy and beyond. 

Since 2017, he is board mem­ber of the asso­ci­ation Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V. and since 2019, he is chair­man of the board.

Dipl.-Ing. Birgit Lewandowski

Mem­ber of the Asso­ci­ation’s Board
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Ms. Lewandowksi’s pro­fes­sion­al career is char­ac­ter­ized by the inter­dis­cip­lin­ar­ity of engin­eer­ing, applied Life Sci­ences and sus­tain­ab­il­ity. She stud­ied at the Uni­ver­sity of Nat­ur­al Resources and Life Sci­ences in Vienna with a focus on hydro­elec­tric and power plant con­struc­tion linked with stream eco­logy. Fol­low­ing her gradu­ation, she led inter­na­tion­al large-scale envir­on­ment­al assess­ment pro­jects for the elec­tri­city industry as well as for the pulp and paper industry. In addi­tion, she joined inter­na­tion­al aca­dem­ic exchange pro­grams between Europe and Africa by stud­ies and teaching.

After advanced train­ing in the field of pro­tein bio­chem­istry, molecu­lar bio­logy and cell cul­ture, she joined Fritzmei­er Umwelt­tech­nik GmbH & Co. KG. She was respons­ible for the scale-up of micro­bi­al cul­ture pro­duc­tion from lab-scale to indus­tri­al pro­cesses and gained extens­ive man­age­ment exper­i­ence in her pos­i­tion as Head of the Divi­sion of Bio­tech­no­logy. Since the begin­ning of 2020, Dipl.-Ing. Birgit Lewan­dowk­si is Devel­op­ment Dir­ect­or at Elec­tro­chaea GmbH. With her strong inter­dis­cip­lin­ary back­ground, she leads a diverse team of bio­lo­gists, bio­tech­no­lo­gists, and pro­cess engin­eers at Elec­tro­chaea. As Devel­op­ment Dir­ect­or, she serves as stra­tegic and sci­entif­ic rep­res­ent­at­ive of the devel­op­ment team for build­ing part­ner­ships and devel­op­ing com­mer­cial pro­jects. She sup­ports the plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of fun­ded and com­mer­cial pro­jects with aca­dem­ics, tech­no­logy part­ners and cli­ents and sup­ports the exten­sion of Electrochaea´s IP portfolio.

Since 2019, she is board mem­ber of the asso­ci­ation Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V. and espe­cially rep­res­ents the interests of SMEs.

Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra

Mem­ber of the Asso­ci­ation’s Board
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Prof. Skerra (b. 1961) does research on pro­tein engin­eer­ing and design. The focus of his work is on the con­struc­tion of arti­fi­cial bind­ing pro­teins and enzymes with nov­el, tailored func­tions, in par­tic­u­lar for applic­a­tions in med­ic­al and indus­tri­al bio­tech­no­logy. Ration­al and com­bin­at­or­i­al research approaches are pur­sued in tan­dem with pro­tein bio­chem­ic­al and spec­tro­scop­ic meth­ods as well as pro­tein crys­tal­lo­graph­ic ana­lys­is. Sev­er­al tech­no­lo­gies from his labor­at­ory have entered com­mer­cial­iz­a­tion: Strep-tag®, Antic­al­in® pro­teins and PASylation®.

Fol­low­ing chem­ic­al stud­ies at TU Darm­stadt, Prof. Skerra obtained a doc­tor­ate at the Gene Centre of Munich’s Lud­wig Max­imili­ans Uni­ver­sity in 1989 and com­pleted his lec­turer qual­i­fic­a­tion in bio­chem­istry at the Uni­ver­sity of Frank­furt am Main in 1995. Before his appoint­ment as full pro­fess­or at TUM, he was pro­fess­or of pro­tein chem­istry at TU Darm­stadt from 1994 to 1998. Prof. Skerra is founder of Pier­is Phar­ma­ceut­ic­als, Inc. (Nas­daq: PIRS) and XL-pro­tein GmbH. In 2008, he was elec­ted to the Nation­al Academy of Sci­ence and Engin­eer­ing (acat­ech). He is act­ive in the Ger­man Aca­dem­ic Schol­ar­ship Found­a­tion, the Ger­man Chem­ic­al Soci­ety, the Soci­ety for Bio­chem­istry and Molecu­lar Bio­logy, and he was ini­ti­at­or and Vice-Chair­man of the Cluster of Excel­lence Cen­ter for Integ­rated Pro­tein Sci­ence Munich” from 2006 – 2012

Since 2020, Prof. Skerra has been Chair­man of the Depart­ment of Molecu­lar Life Sci­ences at the TUM School of Life Sci­ences and Aca­dem­ic Dir­ect­or of the TUM Food and Agro Cen­ter for Innov­a­tion and Tech­no­logy (FACIT) at the Wei­hen­stephan Campus. 

He holds TUM’s Heinz-Maier-Leib­n­itz-medal and is liais­on lec­turer of the Ger­man Nation­al Aca­dem­ic Found­a­tion at TU Munich – of which he was a former fel­low him­self. Prof. Skerra was nom­in­ated for the Ger­man Future Prize in 2004 and awar­ded the Karl Heinz Beck­ur­ts-Prize in 2005 for devel­op­ing antic­al­ins, a nov­el class of recept­or pro­teins with anti­body-like properties.

Since 2021, he is mem­ber of the association’s board and rep­res­ents the interests of aca­dem­ic research.


Hon­or­ary Members

Dr. Günter von Au

Cluster Spokes­man and Hon­or­ary Mem­ber of Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V.
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Dr. von Au stud­ied tex­tiles and syn­thet­ic chem­istry at the Tech­nic­al Col­lege Reut­lingen and chem­istry at the Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, where he fin­ished his doc­tor­ate in 1980. In the fol­low­ing, he assumed diverse glob­al pos­i­tions with­in the Wack­er-Chemie AG (Burghausen, Munich, USA, Brazil). Before leav­ing the com­pany in 2001, Dr. von Au was Head of the divi­sion Poly­mers, Spe­cialty Chem­istry and Bio­chem­istry as well as CEO of Wack­er Poly­mer GmbH. In 2001, he became pres­id­ent and CEO of Süd-Chemie Inc., Louis­ville, USA. Three years later, he took over the pos­i­tion of Süd-Chemie AG’s CEO in Munich until March 31, 2012. In 2012, Dr. von Au became Vice Pres­id­ent of the Board of Dir­ect­ors at Clari­ant AG. Since April 1, 2021, he holds the pres­id­ency of Clariant’s Board of Dir­ect­ors. In addi­tion, he assumes pos­i­tions as chair­man of Advis­ory and Super­vis­ory Boards in diverse fam­ily and private equity owned corporations. 

Prof. Dr. Han­nelore Daniel

Hon­or­ary Mem­ber of Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V.
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Prof. Daniel stud­ied nutri­tion­al sci­ences at Jus­tus Liebig Uni­ver­sity in Giessen. She received her doc­tor­ate in 1982 and qual­i­fied as a lec­turer in Bio­chem­istry of Human Nutri­tion in 1989. She has worked at the Uni­ver­sity of Glas­gow and spent three years at the School of Medi­cine in Pitt­s­burgh. She was appoin­ted a full pro­fess­or at the Uni­ver­sity of Giessen in 1992. Since 1998, she has held the Chair of Nutri­tion Physiology at TUM. Prof. Daniel is a mem­ber of the Ger­man Academy of Sci­ences (Leo­pold­ina), vari­ous advis­ory bod­ies, super­vis­ory boards and associations.

Prof. Daniel researches the basic prin­ciples of nutri­ent trans­port in mam­mals at genet­ic, struc­tur­al and func­tion­al levels. She also stud­ies the molecu­lar basis of the adapt­a­tion of meta­bol­ic pro­cesses to changes in the intake of nutri­ents and non-nutrit­ive ingredi­ents of food as well as age­ing processes.

Dr. Her­mann Heumann

Hon­or­ary Chair­man of Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V.
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Fol­low­ing his stud­ies in phys­ics and bio­phys­ics at TU Munich, Dr. Heum­ann became asso­ci­ate pro­fess­or (i. R.) at LMU Munich’s Fac­ulty of Chem­istry and Phar­macy. For many years, he was fel­low at Max-Planck-Insti­tute for Bio­chem­istry and stud­ied bio­lo­gic­al struc­tures through neut­ron dif­frac­tion in the depart­ment of Prof. Zil­lig. In 1998, Dr. Heum­ann developed a spe­cial meth­od to mark bio­mass in stable iso­topes and foun­ded Sil­antes GmbH, a spin-off by Max-Planck-Institute. 

Dr. Heum­ann was the association’s chair­man from 2017 to 2019 and guided the asso­ci­ation through an extraordin­ary time. 

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Liebl

Hon­or­ary Mem­ber of Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V.
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Prof. Liebl stud­ied bio­logy with a major in micro­bi­o­logy at TU Munich and did his doc­tor­ate on the secre­tion of lipase in sta­phyl­o­cocci in 1986. Thanks to a DFG research schol­ar­ship, he joined the pres­ti­gi­ous Mas­sachu­setts Insti­tute of Tech­no­logy. Fol­low­ing his return to TU Munich, he qual­i­fied as a pro­fess­or in 1997 and accep­ted a chair at Georg-August-Uni­ver­sity in Göt­tin­gen. From 1997 to 2008, he held the chair of Gen­om­ic and Applied Micro­bi­o­logy. In addi­tion, he was act­ive in the university’s self-admin­is­tra­tion and was Dean of the Bio­lo­gic­al Fac­ulty (20022003) and mem­ber of the sen­ate (20072008). Prof. Liebl declined a call to TU Graz in 2003, but joined TU Munich again as full pro­fess­or of micro­bi­o­logy in 2008. He remained act­ive as mem­ber of the faculty’s coun­cil and Dean of Stud­ies for Biosciences. 

From 2017 to 2021, he belonged to the association’s Board of Dir­ect­ors of Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V. After­wards, he became an Hon­or­ary Mem­ber of the association. 

Dr. Dr. h.c. Chris­ti­an Patermann

Hon­or­ary Mem­ber of Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V.
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Chris­ti­an Pater­mann is a law­yer. He stud­ied in Ger­many, Switzer­land and Spain and hold vari­ous pos­i­tions in the fed­er­al civil ser­vice (Fed­er­al Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion and Research, For­eign Office, Ambassy Wash­ing­ton, among oth­ers). He was a state secretary’s per­son­al advisor in the Fed­er­al Min­istry of Research and later Head of the Exec­ut­ive Man­age­ment, Press Officer of the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­is­ter Prof. Riesen­huber as well as Head of the Sec­tion. Since 1996, he was Dir­ect­or of the European Com­mis­sion in Brus­sels, ini­tially respons­ible for Envir­on­ment and Sus­tain­ab­il­ity in the Gen­er­al Dir­ect­or­ate Research fol­lowed by Agri­cul­ture, Forestry, Food and Bio­tech­no­logy. In addi­tion, Chris­ti­an Pater­mann led the devel­op­ment of a European Bioeconomy. 

He retired in 2007 but still assumes many hon­or­ary posts and advis­ory pos­i­tions. Among oth­ers, he was mem­ber of the inaug­ur­al Ger­man Bioeconomy Coun­cil, mem­ber of the Swiss Agri­cul­tur­al Research Coun­cil, Hon­or­ary Doc­tor of the Uni­ver­sity of Bonn, mem­ber of the world’s old­est Research Academy of the Life Sci­ences, Geor­go­fili Academy Florence. As of late, Chris­ti­an Pater­mann is Hon­or­ary Mem­ber of the Förderver­ein Indus­tri­elle Bio­tech­no­lo­gie Bay­ern e.V.