Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Team
- Dr. Thomas Henkel
Managing Director
Dr. Thomas Henkel studied chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, and Alberta, Canada, before he started his career at Bayer where he functioned as Vice-President and head of the Institute of Enabling Technology. He is Co-founder of InterMed Discovery and Managing Director, having a profound understanding of R&D scientific and managerial processes in the life science industries.
- Bernard Mathias Becker
Managing Director
Bernard Becker is Co-founder and Managing Director of InterMed Discovery GmbH. Mr Becker has an extensive understanding of business development in diverse emerging and high-growth international pharma markets. He specialized in new product development. He is experienced in intercultural and multinational communication and business practice with special focus on Asia and Latin America.
- Dr. Matthias Gehling
Director Operations
Dr. Matthias Gehling obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 1989 from the University of Münster, Germany. Prior to joining InterMed Discovery in 2006 he was Director - Enabling Technologies Natural Product Research at Bayer HealthCare. Dr. Matthias Gehling has over 16 years of experience in Natural Products research, including 12 years of industrial drug discovery with Bayer AG and Bayer HealthCare AG, Germany.
- Privat-Dozent Dr. Marc Stadler
Director Fermentation / Microbiology
Dr. Marc Stadler obtained his PhD in biology. In 1995 he joined Bayer´s Natural Products research department, which he left in 2006 as Principal Research Scientist to take over his current position at InterMed Discovery. Dr. Stadler is an internationally renowned expert on fungal taxonomy and chemotaxonomy and teaches mycology at Bayreuth University (Germany).
- Dr. Torsten Grothe
Director Functional Food Ingredients
Dr. Grothe holds a diploma degree and a PhD in Biochemistry. He has ten years experience in all fields of Natural Products research, including biosynthesis & metabolic engineering. From 2002 to 2003 he was project leader for fungal natural products at ActinoDrug Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Grothe joined the Pharma Division of Bayer HealthCare in 2003. He led a research project for the discovery of crop protection agents from microbial and plant sources.
Dr. Grothe is currently Director for Functional Food Ingredients at IMD. Dr. Grothe is also an expert in dietary supplements.
- Dr. Jens Bitzer
Director Cosmetic Ingredients
Head Structure Elucidation
Dr. Jens Bitzer studied chemistry at the Georg August University in Göttingen, where he obtained the degree of a ‘Dr. rer nat.’ under the supervision of Prof. Dr. A. Zeeck in 2005. In the research group for biomolecular chemistry he specialised in Natural Products chemistry. His main scientific interests include new secondary metabolites from natural sources and their applications in life sciences, crop protection and biochemical research. Dr. Jens Bitzer has extensive experience in structure elucidation of Natural Products, combined with substantial knowledge of biosynthetic pathways and chemical ecology. Coming from a postdoctoral research position at the university in Göttingen, he joined InterMed Discovery GmbH (IMD) in March 2006.
- Dr. Bärbel Köpcke
Head Natural Product Dereplication
Dr. Bärbel Köpcke studied biology at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, where she obtained her PhD in the group of Prof. Dr. H. Anke in 1999. Prior to joining InterMed Discovery in February 2006 she was a post-doc at the Institute of Biotechnology and Drug Research in Kaiserslautern. There she gained experience in Natural Products research. Her main interests were the fermentation of microorganisms and the isolation of bioactive secondary metabolites including chemical analysis and assaying the metabolites in various biotests.
- Dr. Philipp Wabnitz
Head Pharmacology
Dr. Philipp Wabnitz studied biology in Göttingen and Hannover, obtaining his PhD in 2001. As a Ph.D. student he examined molecular mechanisms of cancer etiology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine, Hannover, establishing in vitro and in vivo models of lung cancer. Dr. Wabnitz has more than eight years of experience in disease biology and drug discovery. He joined InterMed Discovery (IMD) after overseeing toxicology of the early stage (non-clinical) drug development pipeline at Schwarz Pharma.
- Dr. Joachim Hans
Director Flavour Ingredients, Plant Sourcing Manager
Dr. Joachim Hans studied biology at the University of Tübingen and moved on to the Leibniz-Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle (Saale) for his PhD, focusing on plant natural products accumulating in symbiotic plant-fungus interactions. After a short stay as a PostDoc at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI, Dundee, UK) he took on a position as Scientific Employee / Head of Laboratory at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Marburg, investigating biosynthetic pathways for natural products in medicinal plants. He joined InterMed Discovery in April 2008 as Research Scientist and Plant Sourcing Manager.
- Dr. Ernst Roemer
Intellectual Property Manager
Dr. Ernst Roemer studied chemistry in Braunschweig and obtained his PhD in 1992. Prior to InterMed Discovery he joined the Hans-Knöll-Institute (Jena) and the Institute of Plant Biochemistry (Halle). He is an expert in Natural Products research with more than 15 years experience. He joint InterMed Discovery in 2006 as Intellectual Property Manager being responsible for all IP related activities.
- Erik Metz
Head of Marketing & Sales
Mr Metz has an extensive understanding of business development in international markets for most relevant market areas where Natural Products are used. He specialized in product development for new applications and is experienced in intercultural and multinational communication and business practice with special focus on Asia and North America. Prior to joining InterMed Discovery Mr Metz worked several years as Section Head North America at AnalytiCon Discovery where he had key accounts in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical (incl. Food & Beverage) and cosmetic industry.
- Dr. Peter Reinemer
Director, Strategic Development ASEAN
Dr. Reinemer acquired 15 years experience in pharmaceutical R&D and research service business at different managerial positions. He joined InterMed Discovery following 10 years of Pharma R&D experience with Bayer HealthCare in Germany and Japan and 4 years of Pharma research service business experience with Proteros