Scientific Committee
Brigitte Gasser
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Austria
Anton Glieder
Graz University of Technology, Austria
Sanne Jensen
Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark
Knut Madden
BioGrammatics, Inc., United States
Kjeld Olesen
Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark
Xavier Garcia Ortega
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Markus Spiertz
SeSam-Biotech GmbH, Germany
Topics of interest
Food & Feed Products
Pharmaceutical Products
(Bio-) Materials
(Bio-) Chemicals
Host strain engineering
Vector engineering
High Throughput Technologies
Latest GRAS & FDA Approvals
(Continuous) Bioprocesses (Up- and Down-stream)
Databases and digital technologies
Hands-On-Pichia Lab course
November 10th to 12th 2022
This conference will be organized by the “Christian Doppler Laboratory for Innovative Pichia pastoris Host and Vector systems” (TU Graz) and the Christian Doppler-Laboratory for Growth Decoupled Protein Production in Yeast” (BOKU Vienna) in collaboration with the Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (acib GmbH). Experts will explain and demonstrate the efficient use of the Pichia pastoris (Komagataella phaffii) expression and production system. This course will take place in Graz, Austria.
PICHIA Conference Day 1
Tuesday, 15th November 2022
TOPIC 1: | (Bio-) materials and chemicals, biopolymers made by Pichia The desire to uncouple the need of animal farming and production of highly demanded animal derived materials and products, as well as to implement environmentally friendly bioprocesses with reduced CO2 footprint and independence from fossil resources drive new developments in industrial biotechnology and enable new products and industrial design. How can Pichia pastoris contribute to these needs? How can we benefit towards a change to a CO2 neutral bioeconomy? |
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 | Welcome to the PICHIA 2022Speakers:Anton Glieder (University of Technology, Graz, Styria, bisy GmbH) Tom Chappell (BioGrammatics, Carlsbad) |
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| Production of protein-based polymers in Pichia pastorisMarc Werten (Wageningen Food & Biobased Research) |
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| Production and characterization of a recombinant protein in Pichia pastorisLixin Dai (Modern Meadow) |
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| Conversion of CO2 into organic acids by synthetic autotrophic yeastÖzge Ata (BOKU) |
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TOPIC 2: | Food and feed productsLeghemoglobin from Impossible Food demonstrated the demand for novel food ingredients and the technical, legal and economic feasibility of new commercial processes and products for fermentation enabled food production employing Pichia pastoris. What’s coming next? |
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| Shaping the future of milk with PichiaLaura Navone (Eden Brew) |
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| Large-scale manufacturing of egg proteins by precision fermentationRanjan Patnaik (EVERYTM) |
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| | Making biology easier to engineer: unlocking the potential of accelerated DBTL cycleAndrea Camattari (Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc.) |
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| | Lactoferrin- A New Category of Recombinant Food ProteinsAmanda Fischer (TurtleTree) |
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| Scaling Up Synthetic Biology Industrial Products in a Disrupted Global Supply Chain EnvironmentAlex Berlin (Solar Biotech, Inc.) |
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18:15 – 19:45 | Poster SessionESIB, PICHIA, IFPB |
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PICHIA Conference Day 2
Wednesday, 16th November 2022
TOPIC 3: | PICHIA Methods and TechnologiesTo unlock the full potential of Pichia pastoris as host for biotechnological applications a continuous evolution of the tools and methods for genetical manipulation and cultivations process is required. The four presentations of this session promise an update on the latest developments and will provide a glimpse on what we can expect in future. |
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| Utilising Pichia pastoris cell-free protein synthesis for the production of vaccine targetsRochelle Aw, (Northwestern University, Imperial College London) |
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| CRISPR/MAD7 technologies for P. pastoris genome and transcriptome engineeringFlorian Weiss & Andrea Hönikl (Graz University of Technology) |
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| Tangential-flow filtration as an alternative to centrifugation for biomass clarification in Pichia pastoris cultures”Juan Moreno-Cid (Bionet Engineering) |
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| The effect of oxidative stress tolerance on the production of heterologous protein in Pichia pastorisMohammad Barshan-Tashnizi (University of Tehran) |
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TOPIC 4: | New (Pharmaceutical) products made by PICHIAMost pharmaceutical antibodies are produced by CHO cell lines. Are we going to change this with new antibody formats and -products. Can we make use of the specific technological advantages of Pichia? How can we provide better and more economic and dynamic solutions in an ongoing SARS-CoV-2 crisis? Can we still improve the secretion efficiency for pharmaceutical proteins? How about new opportunities by providing pure and medically active food components to support human health and well-being? |
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| Neo-glyco-engineered VHH antibodies from Pichia for chemo-orthogonal couplingNico Callewaert (Ghent University) |
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| Process development and cGMP manufacturing of an effective recombinant COVID-19 vaccineMehmet Inan (Akdeniz University) |
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| Industrial bioprocesses where switching to the use of Pichia pastoris led to improved performanceAlison Arnold (Ingenza Ltd.) |
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| QTL analysis of protein secretion in K. phaffiKenneth Wolfe (Conway Institute) |
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| Pichia expression platform design for biopharmaceutical protein productionDaniel Degreif (Aventis Deutschland GmbH) |
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| High-productivity methanol-free protein production processes with P. pastorisAid Atlic (VALIDOGEN GmbH) |
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19:00 | PICHIA Dinner (powered by VALIDOGEN) |
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PICHIA plus one day
Thursday, 17th November 2022
TOPIC 5: | SecretionA reason why Pichia pastoris is often preferred over other microbial host in biotechnological applications is the yeasts’ ability to secret high titers of recombinant protein with high purity to the extra cellular environment. Although mostly very similar technologies are evaluated for protein secretion by P. pastoris, the speakers in this session will offer alternatives and demonstrate that optimizing the secretion process is critical for maximizing the productivity of P. pastoris. |
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| Going beyond the limit: impact of increasing global translation activity on the productivity of recombinant secreted proteins in Pichia pastorisJennifer Staudacher (BOKU) |
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| Driving proteins through the co-translational translocation pathway for improved protein secretion in P. pastorisPau Ferrer, Associate Professor (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
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10:00 – 10:30 |  | Coffee Break powerd by Modern Meadow |
TOPIC 6: | New aspects of the Pichia GenomeNew products made by Pichia pastoris received FDA approval and GRAS status in the past years. Legal approval, as well as modern research relies on detailed information about the genome of P. pastoris and possible side products, originating from the host. Genome sequence data with high coverage and new genome annotations became available in the past years and enable -omics based research and reliable characterizations of host- and expression strains and also of products and their final formulations. Expression bottle necks can be identified, and the benefits of diverse host strain lines might contribute to a next generation of host – and production strains. But do we already know everything and how similar or diverse are the different common strains and how big is the impact of applied engineering technologies on the host genome? |
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| Pichia production host engineering by systemic host changesChristoph Kiziak (Lonza AG) |
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| Komagataella phaffii: QTL mapping for strain developmentMarina Jecmenica (BOKU) |
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| Whole genome sequencing analysis of effects of CRISPR/Cas9 in Komagataella phaffii: A buddi(ng yeast) in distressVeronika Schusterbauer (bisy GmbH) |
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| Metabolomics and metabolic engineering reveals a hidden methanol, formate and CO2 assimilation pathway in Komagataella phaffii – the oxygen-tolerant reductive glycine pathwayBernd Mitic (BOKU) |
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12:30 – 13:30 |  | Lunch powerd by RCT |
TOPIC 7: | Synthetic Biology & Metablic EngineeringGoing beyond protein secretion and manufacturing of intracellular proteins by Pichia pastoris we just start to discover the benefits of this expression platform for small molecule manufacturing and new opportunities for protein production by engineered metabolic pathways. Do we have the right tools for metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for small molecule manufacturing. What do we know about existing metabolic pathways and the hidden potential of P. pastoris? Will we be able to provide economic new biomanufacturing routes for natural small molecules to generate more safe and reliable alternatives to limited supply by extraction from plants or animal sources or can we even provide a more diverse and more useful diversity of potential APIs by engineered Pichia strains? |
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| Pichia pastoris for sustainable manufacturing of alkaloid drugsGita Naseri (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) |
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| Engineering Adh2 for improved methanol utilization in Komagataella phaffiiCharles Moritz (BOKU) |
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| Auxin-induced degradation of target proteins in K. phaffiAnita Emmerstorfer-Augustin (University of Technology, Graz) |
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15:00 – 15:30 | | Coffee Break powered by Modern Meadow |
TOPIC 8: | Bioprocess EngineeringNew strains, proteins and chemicals, made by Pichia pastoris open new opportunities for medical treatments, industrial manufacturing, nutrition and even (biomedical-) material sciences. But what else is needed to realize early-stage ideas and dreams and to translate product inventions into innovations in our daily life? Bioprocess technologies and Downstream Processing are often areas of industrial and secret know how. How can we benefit from the scientific knowledge in the Pichia community to change our dreams to reality in near future? |
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| Is medium heterogeneity really a problem in large scale bioreactor?Patrick Fickers (University of Liège) |
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| Applying Dynamic Time Warping to Machine Learning based Automation of Pichia pastoris FermentationsStefan Hauer (ZHAW, Wädenswil, TU Wien) |
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| Dynanamic feeding for Pichia pastorisJulian Kopp (TU Wien) |
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| AI Models applied in RQ control to optimize recombinant protein production in Pichia pastorisArnau Gasset (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
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| Closing wordsAnton Glieder (University of Technology, Graz, Styria, bisy GmbH) |
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Sponsored by
VALIDOGEN, a leading Austrian contract research and development company, offers UNLOCK PICHIA – the broadest toolbox and most versatile technology platform available for Pichia pastoris recombinant protein expression/production. VALIDOGEN has established a broad range of exclusive tools and know-how for the generation of high-performance Pichia protein production strains and processes.
Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) in Tucson, Ariz., is a technology investment and management company that provides early-stage funding and development for promising biomedical companies and technologies. Through its technology licensing program, RCT offers the Pichia Classic and Pichia GlycoSwitch® Systems. The Pichia Classic System is the most cost-effective eukaryotic protein expression system for both secretion and intracellular expression. The Picha GlycoSwitch® System is based on yeast strains that have been engineered to perform specific glycosylation steps at high fidelity. For more information visit www.pichia.com
Modern Meadow is a purpose-driven protein application powerhouse on a mission to be a catalyst for real-world impact on people and the planet. Modern Meadow uses their innovative Bio-Alloy™ and Bio-F@rm™ technology platforms to harness the unique properties of proteins to move the world away from petrochemical and animal-derived inputs without sacrificing material or ingredient performance. Modern Meadow outputs are 100% traceable from Lab-to-Brand™. To learn more about Modern Meadow, please visit www.modernmeadow.com.
Lonza is recognized as a CDMO leader for reliable, high-quality services, global capacity, innovative technology platforms and extensive experience. We serve pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies globally striving to help reduce risk and increase chances of success. Our broad capabilities span from pre-clinical to commercialization, for both drug-substance and -product.
Other Sponsors
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