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Mag. Ortwin Ertl (CEO)
Ortwin Ertl and Nicole Staunig are Industry Supervisors within the project. They will share their experience and knowledge at training events and conferences.
Ortwin Ertl founded Annikki GmbH in 2007 and has since been CEO of the company. Previously, in 1999, he founded IEP GmbH, Wiesbaden and was its CEO until the end of 2006. During this time IEP evolved from its foundation into a profitable technology company with a technological focus in the field of bioreduction processes for the production of chiral hydroxy compounds and licensed its technologies to companies such as Pfizer for the manufacture of LipitorR. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Ertl was a consultant for several biotech companies, leading the Phyton GmbH, which was involved in the scale-up activities for the production of paclitaxel (the leading cytostatic drug) and prepared the founding of the IEP. From 1993 to 1995 he worked in the field of marketing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biotechnological processes at Helm AG, Hamburg. After obtaining a Master´s degree in business administration from the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien in 1991, he studied business Japanese in Tokyo from 1991-1992.
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DI Nicole Staunig (CSO)
Nicole Staunig is member of the Gender Committee and as such passes on her experiences as female in industry.
Nicole Staunig studied at the Graz University of Technology Technical Chemistry, specializing in Biochemistry, and Biotechnology. Prior to joining Annikki, she developed a cloning concept for altering the cofactor specificity of oxidoreductases at the ACIB Center in Graz. After joining Annikki at 2008, she built and lead the R&D team of 16 people with 5 postdocs and 2 MSc at Annikki as the Company´s CSO and was responsible for the development of all the Annikki´s cascade redox biocatalysis processes. Several of these processes are now operated at industrial scale, while more than a dozen has been developed, Annikki has compiled a portfolio of more than 800 redox enzymes.
Annikki GmbH is a successful biotech SME founded by Mag. Ortwin Ertl and DI Nicole Staunig. Ortwin Ertl has long lasting international expertise and outstanding experience in chemical industry. Nicole Staunig is an expert in the biocatalysis area and has more than 10 years of experience in the coordination and management of R&D projects. Within ConCO2rde, the main role of Annikki GmbH is to provide an insight in an innovative, successful biotech enterprise and share first-hand experiences
Annikki has 3 lines of business covered by over 25 patent families:
- Annikki develops cascade biocatalysis processes combining multiple reaction steps in a single reactor thereby saving huge amounts of energy in isolation and logistics of intermediates. Cost of products will be 50 -80% below petrochemical alternatives.
- Annikki developed a 3rd generation pulping technology that converts lignocellulosic biomass (e.g. wheat straw) in to the three primary components that are cellulose, lignin and xylan. The xylan is further converted to products of high value in an integrated biocatalytic process at very low cost. Renewable resources as basis for basic bio-based chemicals and valuable products replace limited fossil, petro-based raw materials.
- Annikki holds shares in a Joint Venture that developed a technology to produce Furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA). FDCA will be used to produce PEF and other products. PEF will replace PET as the primary component in plastic bottles.
Key expertise, mainly used research methodologies & equipment
Annikkis key expertise lies in the identification and optimization of biocatalysts and the development of multi-step (redox) biocatalysis processes. Furthermore, Annikki has developed a fractionation technology for the separation of the 3 primary components of lignocellulosic biomass.
Annikki has microbiological laboratories (cloning, expression of enzymes, fermentation of production strains, enzyme formulation), biochemical laboratories (protein engineering, enzyme test reactions, process development), chemical laboratories (downstream processing) and analytical facilities.
An excerpt of the most important devices localized at Annikki’s premises (chemical, biochemical and microbiological laboratories and offices) is listed below:
- Infors Labfors 5 and 2 fermenters
- GEA Panda PLUS 2000 Homogenizer
- HPLC including binary pump, High Performance Autosampler, Micro Degasser, Thermostated Column Compartment, Diode Array Detector and Refractive Index Detector (Agilent Serie 1200)
- HPLC including Quaternary Pump, Standard Autosampler, Micro Degasser, Thermostatted Column Compartment SL, Multiple Wavelength Detector and Refractive Index Detector (Agilent Serie 1200)
- Agilent HPLC 1260 Infinity II series equipped with a RID
- GC-MS including Autosampler and sample compartment (Shimadzu GC-2010/MS-QP2010)
- HPAEC Dionex ICS6000 dual System including AS-AP Autosampler, Dual Pump, Quaternary Degasser, Thermostated Colum Compartment, Pulsed Amperometry Detector and Electrochemically Suppressed Conductivity Detector
- HS-GC-TCD Thermo Fisher Scientific TRACE1300 including TriPlus500 Autosampler