Dipl. Biol. André Pick
CASCAT GmbH
Europaring 4, 94315 Straubing, Germany
André Pick, industrial supervisor of Ph.D candidate 007, has been the CEO of CASCAT since 2014. André studied biology at the Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg and completed his diploma thesis at the Institute for Molecular Enzyme Technology at the Research Center Jülich. He then moved to the Chair of Chemistry of Biogenic Resources at the Technical University of Munich, headed by Prof. Dr. Volker Sieber, and conducted research in the field of biocatalysis at the Straubing site. The focus of his work was on the optimization of enzymes and the establishment of multi-enzyme systems for the utilization of renewable raw materials. After a research stay of several months at Keio University in Japan in 2013, CASCAT GmbH was founded the following year, which he has represented as managing director since then.
Key Research Facilities, Infrastructure and Equipment
CASCAT GmbH offers know-how and equipment for molecular biology with S1-safety (PCR, cloning), enzyme expression, protein purification (Äkta purifier), enzyme engineering, instrumental analysis (HPLC) and process development (tailored enzyme reactors). Furthermore CASCAT GmbH has access to middle scale (2, 15, 30L bioreactors) and next generation sequencing units (Illumina).
Hosting Center: CASCAT GmbH
CASCAT GmbH is an innovative company in the field of synthetic biotechnology and green chemistry. The expertise of CASCAT is to combine the best of two worlds – synthetic biotechnology and classical chemical catalysis – to realize novel process routes. CASCAT develops multi-stage processes that will bring industrial production to the next level. In order to obtain stable and robust processes which can be applied in industrial scale CASCAT engineers enzymes towards optimal process conditions and the presence of their chemical counterparts. The use of promiscuous biocatalysts enables short cascades and reduced needs of cost intensive co-factors thus lowering production costs. Using this approach we realize synthetic cascades towards chemical building blocks, fine chemicals as well as pharmaceutical molecules.
Relevant Publications and/or Research / Innovation Product
- Sutiono, A. Pick, V. Sieber, Converging conversion – using promiscuous biocatalysts for the cell-free synthesis of chemicals from heterogeneous biomass. Green Chemistry. 2021, 23, 3656-3663, DOI: 10.1039/D0GC04288A
- Güner, V. Wegat, A. Pick, V. Sieber, Design of a synthetic enzyme cascade for the in vitro fixation of a C 1 carbon source to a functional C 4 sugar. Green Chemistry 2021 DOI: 10.1039/D1GC02226A
- Pick, J. Schmid, V. Sieber, Characterization of uronate dehydrogenases catalyzing the initial step in an oxidative pathway. Microbial Biotechnology 2015, 189, 157-165. DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.12265
- Schmid, V. Sieber, Enzymatic Transformations Involved in the Biosynthesis of Microbial Exo‐polysaccharides Based on the Assembly of Repeat Units. ChemBioChem, 2015, 16(8), 1141-1147 DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201500035
- Pick, W. Ott, T. Howe, J. Schmid, V. Sieber, Improving the NADH-cofactor specificity of the highly active AdhZ3 from Escherichia coli K-12, Journal of Biotechnology 2014 189(0): 157-165 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2014.06.015