Peter Seeberger

Peter H. Seeberger studied chemistry in Erlangen (Germany) and completed a PhD in biochemistry in Boulder (USA). After performing research at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York he became Firmenich Associate Professor of Chemistry with tenure at MIT. After six years as Professor at ETH Zurich he assumed positions as Director at the Max-Planck Institute for Colloids and Surfaces in Potsdam and Professor at the Free University of Berlin in 2009. His research has been documented in over 450 peer-reviewed journal articles, four books, more than 40 patents, and more than 800 invited lectures. In 2013 he was elected to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. The research in his laboratory has given rise to six successful companies in the USA, Switzerland and Germany. Prof. Seeberger discovered fundamental aspects of carbohydrate chemistry and glycobiology with his ERC Advanced Grant AUTOHEPARIN, and explored whether a carbohydrate synthesizer would be marketable with the Proof of Concept project GAGAUTOSYN. The company GlycoUniverse (Berlin) was created in 2013 at the conclusion of the project and currently has four employees. The technology developed with the ERC grant and the patented results of these investigations gave rise to the creation of Vaxxilon AG, a Basel-area Startup with facilities in Berlin that focuses on the creation of carbohydrate-based vaccines.