Sven Panke PhD

Dr. Sven Panke studied Biotechnology at the Technical University in Braunschweig. For his PhD thesis, he moved in 1995 to the Institute of Biotechnology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He joined the group of Prof. Witholt and worked on the production of fine chemicals with recombinant bacteria. The investigation of the molecular biology of styrene degradation led him via the construction of recombinant production strains to the pilot scale production of enantiopure styrene oxide in two-liquid phase fermentations and the ETH medal for exceptional PhD theses. From there, he went in 1999 to The Netherlands in order to utilize his experience in the research department of the Dutch-based and globally operating chemical company DSM. One of its major areas of activity is the custom manufacturing of intermediates for the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industry, where biocatalysis turns out to be one of the major success factors of a modern fine chemicals business. Sven spent 2 years on the development of novel biocatalytic processes for the production of enantiopure compounds before he turned his attention back to academia. Starting on October 1st 2001, he became an Assistant Professor for Bioprocess Engineering at the Institute of Process Engineering of the prestigious Swiss "ETH", where he works on new and generic solutions for the integrated manufacturing of fine chemicals and biopharmaceuticals. Since November 2007, Sven is an Associate Professor at the Bioprocess Laboratory at the ETH Zurich.