Join us for the Summer School Biotransformations, where leading experts and innovative minds from academia and industry come together to shape the future of biocatalysis and biotechnology.
Biotransformations have become a crucial tool across various industries, where high-yielding chemo-, regio-, and enantioselective reactions are often essential. To enhance the efficiency of new biotechnological processes, collaboration between experts in chemistry, biology, and process engineering is vital for successful research and development.
The aim of the Summer School on Biotransformations is to complement academic training in this field, promote interdisciplinary communication, and connect young scientists with leading experts from academia and industry.
Target audience:
» PhD students, post-docs (scientists) from academia
» young industrial researchers at an early stage of their career
Speakers are expected to stay for at least one night to facilitate in-depth exchanges and discussions with all participants on both scientific topics and career opportunities.
PhD students, post-docs and young industrial researchers have the opportunity to present themselvens during a short introduction round as well as they may contribute a poster presenting their work as part of the official scientific program. This session aims to introduce all participants and provide an overview of their current work, projects, and challenges. The posters will be showcased during the whole Summer School. Please view "Round of introductions and posters" for more information.
Please note: The number of participants is limited to ensure close interaction between young academics and leading experts in the field of biotransformation.
The Summer School 2025 starts on Monday, 18.8. at 13.30h and ends on Thursday, 21.8. at 12.15h.
See programme per day: Monday, 18.8.2025 (Meeting Day 1), Tuesday, 19.8.2025 (Meeting Day 2), Wednesday, 20.8.2025 (Meeting Day 3), Thursday, 21.8.2025 (Meeting Day 4)
| Enzyme Discovery | |
| 13:30 | Welcome and opening |
| 13:45 | Enzyme discovery through targeted database mining Anett Schallmey, TU Braunschweig |
| 14:30 | Leveraging the Unexplored Sequence Space for Industrial Enzyme Solutions Simon Godehard, BRAIN Biotech AG |
| 15:15 | Coffee break |
| Round of introduction - you and your work in 1 minute | |
| 16:00 |
Participant Introductions 1 minute short introduction + afterwards gathering at the posters |
| 18:00 | Dinner |
| Evening Lecture | |
| 20:15 | Enzymes provide amazing industrial solutions! Oliver May, InnoSyn B.V. |
| 21:15 | End of meeting day 1 |
| Enzyme Discovery II | |
| 09:00 | Exploring family-wide substrate promiscuity for enzyme discovery off the beaten path Kristina Haslinger, University of Groningen |
| 09:45 | Biocatalytic oxidations with pure oxygen: from lab to (pilot) plant and sustainability analysis Martin Schürmann, InnoSyn B.V. |
| 10:30 | Coffee break |
| Enzyme Engineering & Design | |
| 11:00 | Making enzymatic data AI-ready Jürgen Pleiss, University of Stuttgart |
| 11:45 | From Nature to Industry: Enzyme Engineering as the Key Enabler for Biocatalytic Innovation Andreas Vogel, c-LEcta GmbH |
| 12:30 | Lunch break |
|
Enzyme Engineering & Cascades |
|
| 13:30 | The best of both worlds: combining chemistry and biology to discover biocatalysts in the natural or artificial genetic diversity Aurelio Hidalgo Huertas, UAM Madrid |
| 14:15 | Maximizing Efficiency: A Data-Driven Optimization Strategy for Multi-Enzyme Cascade Reactions Katrin Rosenthal, Constructor University Bremen |
| 15:00 | Coffee break |
| Metabolic Engineering | |
| 15:30 | From automated strain engineering to large-scale application without loss of performance with Escherichia coli Ralf Takors, University of Stuttgart |
| 16:15 | Metabolic Engineering in an industrial context Hartwig Schröder, BASF SE |
| 18:30 | Dinner |
| Evening Lecture | |
| 20:15 | Design and selection of small-scale shaken bioreactors for large-scale process development Sven Hansen, Evonik |
| 21:15 | End of meeting day 2 |
| From Reaction to Process | |
| 09:00 | Bioreaction Engineering Enabling Biotransformations Daniel Ohde, Hamburg University of Technology |
| 09:45 | Catalytically Active and Self-assembling Biocatalytic Materials: Formulation and Application in Flow Systems Kersten Rabe, KIT |
| 10:30 | Coffee break |
| Sustainability Impact of Biotransfomation | |
| 11:00 |
Introduction to Environmental Assessment for Sustainable Bioprocess Design Georg Hubmann, TU Dortmund |
| 11:45 | AI and ML tools for Life Science Researchers: Theoretical and Practical Aspects Silviu Acaru, SynSilico B.V. and Martin Schürmann, InnoSyn B.V. |
| 12:30 | Lunch break |
| Circular Economy | |
| 13:30 | Open loop recycling using engineered microbes Lars Blank, RWTH Aachen University |
| 14:15 | Enzymatic Recycling for Circular Economy in the Plastics Industry Lukas Reisky, Covestro |
| 15:00 | Coffee break |
|
Data-driven Forecasting |
|
| 15:30 | Towards closed-loop bioprocess development: Robotic workflows for automated Design-Build-Test-Learn cycles Marco Oldiges, Forschungszentrum Jülich |
| 16:15 |
3DM Engineering; The most accurate AI protein property predictor Henk-Jan Joosten, Bio-Prodict |
| 18:30 | BBQ Evening |
| Enzyme Cascades II | |
| 09:15 | Intensification of chemo-enzymatic processes towards industrial volumetric productivities Selin Kara, Aarhus University |
| 10:00 | Coffee break |
| Industrial Highlights | |
| 10:30 | Numaferm: Revolutionizing Peptein Production - Numacut Protease Enables Efficient Traceless Synthesis of Native Pepteins Christian Schwarz, Numaferm GmbH |
| 11:15 | Biosurfactants: an Industrial Biotechnology journey Steffen Schaffer, Evonik |
| 12:00 | Closing Remarks |
| 12:15 | End of Summer School 2025/ Lunch (optional) |
Programme as of 4.8.2025
|
BASF SE |
|---|---|
|
Biocatalysts I BRAIN Biotech Group |
|
BRAIN Biotech AG |
|
European Society of Applied Biocatalysis |
|
Evonik Industries AG |
|
VAAM |
| Michael Breuer |
BASF SE, Ludwigshafen |
|---|---|
| Stephan Lütz | TU Dortmund -chair of the joint work group- |
| Alexander Pelzer | BRAIN Biotech AG, Zwingenberg |
| Kersten Rabe | Karlsruher Institut für Technologie |
| Steffen Schaffer | Evonik Operations GmbH, Halle /Westfalen |
| Martin Schürmann | InnoSyn B.V., Geleen/NL |
The Summer School in Biotransformation is an initiative of the joint Working Group Biotransformationen of DECHEMA and VAAM. The joint Working Group focuses on the growing demand for economical, eco-efficient, and resource-saving processes in the chemical, pharmaceutical, energy, and food industries. For more information please visit the homepage Gemeinsame Fachgruppe Biotransformationen von DECHEMA und VAAM.
We are happy to share our Flyer "Invitation to Summer School 2025" for pdf download: invitation to summer school 2025. Please feel free to distribute it also within your network.
The Summer School 2025 is organised by DECHEMA e.V. and supported by VAAM.
Bildquelle: BRAIN Biotech AG
DECHEMA-Fokus-Themen:
