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WHO WE ARE 

The Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) is bridging the gap between science and industry and connects about 200 partners in the field of industrial biotechnology. The international competence centre is located in Austria (Graz, Linz, Innsbruck, Tulln, Vienna) with additional locations in Germany (Heidelberg, Bielefeld, Hamburg), Italy (Pavia), Poland (Rzeszów), Spain (Barcelona), and Taiwan.

WHAT WE DO 

acib is developing more environmentally friendly and economic processes for the biotechnological, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. All these processes are modelled on methods and tools from nature. This know-how is the foundation for new and improved applications and products in the field of industrial biotechnology all over the world. Currently, more than 250 acib scientists are working on more than 150 industrial and strategic projects.

FUNDING 

As a non-profit organisation according to EU-definition acib is based on public and private funding for research. The Austrian federal COMET-programme builds a sound basis for acib’s activities. Additional funds are provided by FFG, EU and other funding organisations. Furthermore acib relies on increasing shares of industrial funding – more than 50 % of all activities are financed by industrial partners. Private donations and investments are welcome.

MORE ABOUT COMET

NETWORK 

Members of the acib partner networks benefit from a comprehensive knowledge and a broad methodological expertise of more than 250 highly motivated and skilled employees, modern infrastructure in 18 partner universities, access to an exclusive network of international industrial partners and research institutions and a variety of additional services.

MORE ABOUT OUR NETWORK

WHO WE ARE 

The Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) is bridging the gap between science and industry and connects about 200 partners in the field of industrial biotechnology. The international competence centre is located in Austria (Graz, Linz, Innsbruck, Tulln, Vienna) with additional locations in Germany (Heidelberg, Bielefeld, Hamburg), Italy (Pavia), Poland (Rzeszów), Spain (Barcelona), and Taiwan.

WHAT WE DO 

acib is developing more environmentally friendly and economic processes for the biotechnological, pharmaceutical and chemical industry. All of these processes are modelled on methods and tools from nature. This know-how is the foundation for new and improved applications and products in the field of industrial biotechnology all over the world. Currently, more than 250 acib scientists are working on more than 150 industrial and strategic projects.

FUNDING 

As a non-profit organisation according to EU-definition acib is based on public and private funding for research. The Austrian federal COMET-programme builds a sound basis for acib’s activities. Additional funds are provided by FFG, EU and other funding organisations. Furthermore acib relies on increasing shares of industrial funding – more than 50 % of all activities are financed by industrial partners. Private donations and investments are welcome.

NETWORK 

Members of the acib partner networks benefit from a comprehensive knowledge and a broad methodological expertise of more than 250 highly motivated and skilled employees, modern infrastructure in 18 partner universities, access to an exclusive network of international industrial partners and research institutions and a variety of additional services.

NETWORK

RESEARCH FIELDS 

The broad range of scientific excellence at acib is divided in 12 research fields, covering all sectors of industrial biotechnology.

Biotransformation for synthesis
BIOTRANSFORMATION FOR SYNTHESIS
Biotechnological material processing
BIOTECHNOLOGICAL MATERIAL PROCESSING
Recombinant protein production
RECOMBINANT PROTEIN PRODUCTION
Metabolic modelling and engineering
METABOLIC MODELLING AND ENGINEERING
Modelling of cellular systems and systems biology
MODELLING OF CELLULAR SYSTEMS & SYSTEMS BIOLOGY

Enzyme and protein engineering
ENZYME AND PROTEIN ENGINEERING
Bioprospecting
BIOPROSPECTING
Continuous integrated manufacturing
CONTINUOUS INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
New materials for bioprocessing
NEW MATERIALS FOR BIOPROCESSING
New processes for biopharmaceuticals
NEW PROCESSES FOR BIOPHARMACEUTICALS
Genome information databases for CHO
GENOME INFORMATION DATABASE FOR CHO
Cell line engineering
CELL LINE ENGINEERING
MANAGEMENT  
MATHIAS DREXLER
MATHIAS DREXLER

CEO
BERND NIDETZKY
BERND NIDETZKY

CSO

COMET 

A central funding programme of acib is FFG COMET (Competence Centres for Excellent Technologies; funded by BMVIT, BMWF, and the provinces of Styria, Vienna, Lower Austria and Tyrol). acib is funded as a K2 research centre and the COMET programme is processed via FFG. In the current funding period (2015 – 2019) acib is processing a volume of 65 million Euro with 18 scientific and 53 industrial partners in 56 projects.

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PUBLICLY OWNED NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION 

acib is a non-profit organisation and is owned by:

INFRASTRUCTURE

acib is working closely with its scientific partner institutions, which allows access to a standardized and high-quality infrastructure. Diverse equipment is listed below. For more detailed information please contact Martin Trinker.

  • Bioindustrial Pilot Plant (BOKU Vienna)

    The BioIndustrial Pilot Plant is a multi-purpose plant for fermentation and downstream processing of biomolecules under GMP-like conditions. The plant is intended for research and development of a wide range of biotechnological processes and equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation for up- and downstream processing at a scale of 30 – 1600 L. Available equipment: bioreactors, separators, homogenizer, filtration equipment, ultra- and diafiltration, chromatographic systems, reactions vessels.

  • Microbial Fermentation and Bioprocess Development (Pilot Plant IFA Tulln)

    At the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology process development for microbial fermentation is conducted with focus on utilization of renewable resources, production of microorganisms for animal nutrition and plant protection, production of bioplastics, enzyme technology and anaerobic bioprocesses. The facility offers fermentation equipment from lab scale (1–60 L) to pilot scale (up to 6000 L) including the required down-stream processing infrastructure. The fermentation pilot plant is configured for the production of living cells and the downstream processing is focused on biomass separation and/or concentration (centrifugation and filtration equipment) and drying processes (lyophilization, fluid bed drying). Protein purification is available at lab scale..

  • LUMISizer (Analytical Centrifuge, BOKU Vienna)

    The LUMISizer measures the extinction of transmitting light through the sample in real-time during centrifugation and facilitates the analysis of particle and droplet speed for the behaviour of sedimentation. That enables us to determine the particle size without the need for material data. The separation of different particle sizes is possible with high resolution for up to 12 samples in parallel, which can have different levels of viscosity. The possible temperature ranges from 4°C to 60°C and samples can be aqueous or non-aqueous systems.

  • Nano DSC (Dynamic differential calorimetry, BOKU Vienna)

    The Nano DSC is used for the characterization of the molecular stability of biomolecules that are diluted in different solvents. The infrastructure offers a detailed characterization of molecular binding activities and structural stability. In more detail, the strength of binding activities and also specific and unspecific driving forces can be determined. The big advantages of the Nano DSC are the small sample volume (300 µl), a precise regulation of temperature in the range from -10°C to 130°C and the possibility to regulate cell pressure in up to 6 atmospheres. This opens new perspectives for the analysis of protein stability, heat capacity and aggregation behaviour under process conditions.

  • Bioindustrial Pilot Plant (BOKU Vienna)
  • Microbial Fermentation and Bioprocess Development (Pilot Plant IFA Tulln)
  • LUMISizer (Analytical Centrifuge)
  • Nano DSC (Dynamic differential calorimetry)
AUSTRIAN RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE