PARTNERS

The overall project coordinator Associate Professor Pernille Harris as well as Associate Professor Günther Peters from DTU Chemistry contribute to PIPPI. The core research in the group is in the area of Structural and Computational Biology. Our contribution to PIPPI will be studies of the overall atomic structure of the proteins and their intermolecular interactions. Pernille Harris is working with protein crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Günther Peters, leader of the Chemistry at the Interface to Biology research group at DTU Chemistry, has extensive expertise in in-silico modelling techniques.

Faculty of Science

University of Copenhagen

Associate professor Åsmund Rinnan, from the spectroscopy and chemometrics section contributes to PIPPI as a work package leader of WP 6: “Multivariate data analysis; database of proteins”. Åsmund Rinnan has more than 15 years of experience in the fields of multivariate data analysis and spectroscopy, and he is both developing new mathematical tools as well as applying existing methods to novel problems.

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Fakultät für Chemie und Pharmazie
www.cup.uni-muenchen.de

Professor Gerhard Winter
mailto:gerhard.winter@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Both Prof. Gerhard Winter and Prof. Wolfgang Friess from the LMU Department of Pharmacy contribute to PIPPI. One of the main research focusses of the groups is protein formulation. The research groups develop new stabilization concepts, formulation related analytics as well as delivery systems. Our contributions are directed towards i) new protein stabilizing concepts by interaction breaking excipients, ii) the behavior and interactions of protein molecules at the interfaces and the impact on protein aggregation and iii) protein conformational stability and its correlation with long term protein storage stability.

Lund University - Theoretical Chemistry
POB 124, SE-22100, Lund, Sweden
Department of Theoretical Chemistry@LU
www.teokem.lu.se

Associate Professor Mikael Lund
mailto:mikael.lund@teokem.lu.se

At Department of Theoretical Chemistry we work with computer simulations of biological systems, in particular how bio-molecular interactions are influenced by solution pH, salt concentration and type.
During the PIPPI project we will develop software for analysing proteins at arbitrary concentrations for predicting osmotic second virial coefficients and scattering patterns in concentrated solutions.
We work in close collaboration with the experimental groups within the project to interpret experimental data at a molecular level.

The MAX IV Laboratory is a partner organisation in the PIPPI consortium. The main contact is Dr. Marjolein Thunnissen who is the Science Coordinator for Structural Biology at the facility. Labrador The MAX IV Laboratory is a Swedish national laboratory offering synchrotron light to the research community for more than 26 years. A new facility called MAX IV will open in a limited fashion for users in the end of 2016. In particular interest for PIPPI are the beamlines suitable for are range of protein experiments, such as the new protein crystallography beamline BioMAX, the X-Ray absorption beamline Balder, and especially the small angle scattering beamline coSAXS, development led by Dr. T. Plivelic. All beamlines will be equipped with state of the art instrumentation, coSAXS will be equipped with a state of the art sample environment, including sample robotics and software pipelines assisting in data reduction and interpretation. The excellent properties of the MAX IV beam will make these beamlines excellent sources for data collection for the typical proteins that will be studied in PIPPI for either for SAXS, XAS or crystallography measurements.

MedImmune Ltd., Cambridge, UK

MedImmune is the biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, a global, innovation-driven pharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of medicines. With one of the largest, most robust pipelines in the industry - including more than 120 research projects and product candidates - we are well positioned to contribute to the PIPPI project. Shahid Uddin leads the formulation sciences team in Cambridge and Chris van der Walle is a scientific fellow in that team working on method development and novel excipients for the early stage formulation of monoclonal antibodies and related protein scaffolds.

NanoTemper Technologies GmbH

Research & Development

mailto:nuska.tschammer@nanotemper.de

NanoTemper Technologies develops highly innovative instrument and software solutions for biomolecular analysis. Our headquarter is in Munich, Germany, with subsidiaries and application centers across the globe. NanoTemper Technologies originally was formed as a spin-off of the LMU Munich after the founders invented microscale thermophoresis (MST). Over the last 8 years, MST has received strong recognition as a compelling alternative to surface plasmon resonance for detecting molecular interactions without the need to bind a substrate to surfaces. In 2015 NanoTemper Technologies extended the product portfolio with Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology for analyzing conformational changes of biomolecules, and nanoDSF (miniaturized Differential Scanning Fluorimetry) for label-free, ultra-high resolution measurements of protein folding and stability. For PIPPI, NanoTemper Technologies ensures access to the latest nanoDSF systems and provides technical and scientific expertise and education when hosting secondment for early-stage researchers.

Werner Streicher 
mailto:wws@novozymes.com

Manchester Institute of Biotechnology -The University of Manchester
131 Princess Street, Manchester M1 7DN, UK
www.manchester.ac.uk/

Dr Robin Curtis
mailto:r.curtis@manchester.ac.uk

www.manchester.ac.uk/research/r.curtis

A team of researchers from Manchester contribute to PIPPI including Prof Jeremy Derrick, Dr Jim Warwicker, Dr Alexander Golovanov, Dr Alain Pluen, and Dr Robin Curtis.  All are members of the Centre of Excellence in Biopharmaceuticals (CoEBP) at Manchester led by Prof. Alan Dickson.  The multi-disciplinary team study formulation issues concerned with protein aggregation, excipient interactions, concentrated solution properties, and protein immunogenicity. Problems are tackled using a large toolkit of computational and experimental methodologies, including innovative NMR and fluorescence based approaches.

Wyatt Technology Europe GmbH – Beneficiary
Hochstrasse 12a - 56307 Dernbach – Germany

www.wyatt.com

Dr. Dierk Roessner

mailto:dierk.roessner@wyatt.eu

website

Wyatt Technology is one of the best recognized companies in the field of macromolecular and nanoparticle characterization. Our products and applications, used by the top research labs, are instrumental in protein characterization. In the PIPPI project we will provide the light scattering and field flow frcationation workshop for the early-stage researchers. We will host early-stage researchers from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, who will perform perform stability indicating analytics and study weak protein interactions in combination with interfaces using light Scattering at Wyatt Technology. Our research aim in this project is the development of a toolkit for predicting aggregation with the focus on small numbers of partially folded intermediates and the full spectrum of aggregate sizes.