Associated Faculty Members


Friedrich ALTMANN is Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry. His research interest is focused on glycoproteins and the various roles of their sugar moities. Particular topics are the biosynthesis, structure and function of protein-bound glycans in expression systems for recombinant proteins; structural analysis of oligosaccharides from mammalian glycoproteins but also from plants and others; the role of non-mammalian protein-linked glycans as immunogens and allergens; proteomic and glyco-proteomic analysis of biotechnological products; development of the methodology for "glycomic" analysis of glycoprotein glycans by mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS).
Email: Friedrich Altmann
Website

Nicole Borth is Associated Professor at the Department of Biotechnology. Her research aims at obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the molecular machinery that enables a cell to be a good production factory for biotherapeutic proteins. This includes factors that contribute to high yield based on productivity and growth, but also to protein quality attributes. The methods used are transcriptomics, miRNA arrays, proteomics and flow cytometry / cell sorting. The goal is to understand the molecular basis and regulation of such process and quality relevant cellular properties. The obtained knowledge can be used in different ways, (i) for the development of new screening approaches using cell sorting and relevant molecular markers, (ii) for targeted cell engineering to improve the cellular machinery, (iii) for process monitoring and control based on the prediction of product quality from the state of the producing cell.
Email: Nicole Borth
Website

Johannes GRILLARI is Associate Professor at the Department of Biotechnology. His research interests include: Functional analyses of various primary human cells like umbilical vein endothelial cells, fibroblasts and epithelial kidney cells, but also of CHO cell lines with emphasis on replicative life span and stress resistance. Identification of differentially expressed genes and proteins in these cell lines. Functional characterization of thereby identified miRNAs and proteins in the context of cell proliferation, senescence and stress resistance.
Email: Johannes Grillari
Website

Dietmar HALTRICH is Professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology. His research interests include: Biochemistry of flavoproteins of the GMC family of oxidoreductases (specifically pyranose oxidase, pyranose dehydrogenase, cellobiose dehydrogenase) and copper-containing oxidoreductases; glycosidases and glycosyl transfer reactions catalysed by these enzymes; biocatalytic production of food-related carbohydrates including prebiotic sugars (galacto-oligosaccharides, tagatose); enzyme engineering and evolution; tailoring of enzymes for biofuel cell applications.
Email: Dietmar Haltrich
Website

Alois JUNGBAUER is Associate Professor at the Department of Biotechnology. His research interests include: Biochemical engineering sciences, in particular in bioseparation and protein technology; activities range from protein expression and downstream processing with emphasis on scale-up, continuous processing and fundamental understanding of fixed bed processes; studies in the field of bioengineering of proteins, plasmids and viruses with special focus on expression, downstream processing and characterization of large biomolecules; development of novel concepts for separation of large biomolecules and characterization of their biophysical properties.
Email: Alois Jungbauer
Website

Renate KUNERT is Professor at the Department of Biotechnology. Her research interests include: Methodological platforms for the sophisticated and efficient development of stable recombinant mammalian cell lines expressing complex and membrane proteins; vector optimization for various host systems and protein families; optimization of protein maturation to reduce cellular stress; screening and characterization of transfectants regarding cellular membrane functionality and cellular physiology in different host cells in serum-free systems; effects of ligand induced internalization on cell physiology during expression of membrane proteins in stable recombinant cell lines; investigation of receptor associated cellular membrane rearrangement.
Email: Renate Kunert
Website

Diethard MATTANOVICH is Professor for Microbial Cell Design at the Department of Biotechnology. His research interests include: Physiology and genetics of microbial cell factories; production of heterologous proteins in yeasts (complex biopharmaceutical proteins and industrial enzymes); systems biotechnology; stress regulation in yeast, related to environmental and metabolic stressors; metabolic and cell engineering for improved productivity and stress resistance.
Email: Diethard Mattanovich
Website


Christian OBINGER is Professor for Biochemistry at the Department of Chemistry. His research interests include: Biochemistry and structure-function analysis of redox-active metalloenzymes with focus on heme oxidoreductases (peroxidases, catalases, cytochromes and terminal respiratory oxidases); mechanisms, thermodynamics and kinetics of one- and two-electron transfer reactions; role of post-translational polypeptide and heme modifications in catalysis of oxidoreductases; protein radical formation and migration in heme proteins; enzyme-mediated halogenation and nitration reactions; thermodynamics and kinetics of protein unfolding and folding.
Email: Christian Obinger
Website

Rupert TSCHELIESSNIG is key research scientist at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology. In his studies he analyzes protein-protein and protein surface intra- and inter-actions. Methodological approaches cover theories such as Density functional and molecular dynamic simulation as well as reverse Monte Carlo methods. He published on the molecular mechanism of the self assembly processes of proteins, atomic force spectroscopy, uses small angle X-ray scattering and applies a fractal theory to investigate conformational changes of proteins in the vicinity of surfaces and as well as remote thereof. His actual focus is on the impact of salt on the protein scattering potential.
Email: Rupert Tscheliessnig
Website

Karola VORAUER-UHL is Associate Professor at the Department of Biotechnology. Her research interests include: Liposomology and related analytics with respect to liposome formulations for the application of recombinantly derived macromolecules; GMP-production of lipid formulations, stabilization and interaction studies of proteins and protein-domains with artificial membranes, membrane restructuring kinetics, modeling of membrane fluctuations, biochemical and biophysical studies of membrane fluidity, dynamics and composition, characterization of membrane domains.
Email: Karola Vorauer-Uhl
Website

Jürgen ZANGHELLINI is group leader at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology. His research focuses on the mathematical modeling of metabolism, its regulation and control. Based on a systems biology approach he investigates structural, i.e. topological properties of complex metabolic networks and how these structures give rise to metabolic functions. In his group high performance computational tools are developed that allow one to predict rational engineering strategies to turn wild type organisms into efficient cell factories. 
Email: Juergen Zanghellini
Website