Our team

Martin Plambech

Chief Executive Officer

For several years, Martin has worked with global business development within Novozymes, where he was responsible for commercializing new biotech platforms to new markets.

Responsibilities included building global partnerships and strategy development & execution.

Martin has also worked for Boston Consulting Group in both Europe and Australia and on projects involving M&A due diligence, strategy development, operational effectiveness, and PMI management.

Finally, Martin has execution and management experience from roles such as Head of Sales within Hilti Denmark and as a First Lieutenant of the Reserve in the Danish Army.

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Hans Genee

CSO and Co-Founder

Hans did his doctoral and postdoctoral training in biotechnology at the NNF Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark with additional training from Harvard University in the group of Professor George Church and UC Berkeley / the Joint Bio-Energy Institute in the group of professor Jay Keasling.

Hans holds personal awards for Exceptional Achievements (McKinsey & Co.), Top 10 European Biotech Entrepreneurs under 30, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. Hans co-founded Biosyntia and currently heads the R&D.

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Jochen Förster

Chief Technology Officer

Jochen has extensive experience in bringing new technology and products to commercial scale and the market. This fits perfectly with the next development phase of several of our pipeline projects. With Jochen’s experience as Co-founder from Fluxome and Director/Professor of Yeast & Fermentation at global leader Carlsberg, he brings strong commercial experience in building and managing teams across established and emerging biotechnology companies, coupled with strong life-science research experience and leadership through a career in academia.

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Marine Bertin

Principal Scientist

Marine holds a PhD in molecular biology and has an extensive experience in synthetic biology and strain engineering for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals small molecules.

Marine's responsibility includes people and project management, in particular the design and identification of high producing ingredient strains using the latest synthetic biology technologies.

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Linda Ahonen, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist, Head of Analytical Chemistry and Lab Management

Linda is Senior Scientist and Head of Analytical Chemistry and Lab Management at Biosyntia. Linda holds an M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Helsinki.

Linda has gained broad expertise in metabolomics and lipidomics from working as a research analytical chemist at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen (SDCC) for almost four years before joining Biosyntia in 2018. Additionally, Linda brings valuable knowledge to the team concerning starting up analytical laboratories and setting up new analytical methods since these have been her main responsibilities throughout the past years.

At Biosyntia, Linda is responsible for setting up new analytical methods and techniques for the team to gain deeper knowledge in the biological and fermentation processes being performed.

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Markus Jondelius Hederos

Ph.D., Sr. Principal Scientist, Head of Downstream Process Development

Markus holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Linköping University (Sweden) and gained experience from the pharmaceutical industry at AstraZeneca and biopharmaceutical CDMO AGC Biologics. He served the biotech firm Glycom A/S for +10 years, where he was leading the R&D Downstream Process department bringing novel purification processes of Human Milk Oligosaccharides from R&D lab into commercial production.

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Joe Power

Sales Director

Joe has previously worked in the food industry for over 8 years. He holds a BSc in Nutraceuticals for Health and Nutrition from the Technical University of Ireland, and a diploma in Business Management from the Irish Management Institute. He worked with Kerry Taste and Nutrition for 8.5 years, initially as an R&D graduate, before later moving into a Key Account Manager role. He has worked across multiple technologies in his career, e.g. flavours, seasonings, yeasts, and with numerous regional and global customers.   His interests are in understanding market trends and helping our customers to launch innovative new solutions to the market.

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Katie Smart

M.Sc., Senior Scientist, Fermentation

Katie is a Senior Scientist, Fermentation at Biosyntia and holds a B.A. / B.Sc. (Hons) degree from the University of Auckland specializing in Biology and Geography.

Joining the Biosyntia team, Katie brings with her seven years of industrial microbial fermentation experience. Her prior experience has been at a microbial gas fermentation company, where she was based both in New Zealand and Chicago as well as completing industrial site work in China and Japan. There she was involved in leading novel process development, upscaling the process from 1 L to 16,000 L and troubleshooting new strain development. She has several published scientific articles and patents.

Katie is working on developing a fermentation process at Biosyntia, turning small scale results achieved by the molecular biology team into an industrially relevant and scalable fermentation-platform.

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Nils Myling-Petersen

M.Sc. Eng., Senior Scientist

Nils is a metabolic engineering research scientist at Biosyntia and holds a M.Sc. Eng. degree from the Technical University of Denmark and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability.

He has published research experience with synthetic biology in yeast and genetic stability in metabolically engineered bacteria. He was awarded the Novo Scholarship for his master thesis on the latter. Nils is fascinated by the possibilities that metabolic engineering, biodiversity and evolution provide for establishment of a sustainable, bio-based economy.

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David Lennox-Hvenekilde

Ph.D., Research Scientist

David holds a M.Sc. Eng. Biotechnology from DTU and an Industrial Ph.D. in Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering from DTU Biosustain, which he carried out in collaboration with Biosyntia. David is currently focused on building up the state-of-the-art strain construction capabilities at Biosyntia.

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Ben Caddell

Senior Scientist, Fermentation

Ben holds a B.Sc. degree from the University of California, San Diego in General Biology.

Ben brings to Biosyntia ten years of experience in the sustainable chemicals industry. Most recently, he worked in the fermentation department of a renewable chemical research company working on producing intermediate chemicals from alternative feedstocks, where he was part of the team that brought two compounds to commercial scale. Responsibilities included process development and troubleshooting as well as process scale-up from lab-scale to 200,000 L, with site work in Italy and Germany.

Ben is working on developing a fermentation process at Biosyntia, turning small scale results achieved by the molecular biology team into an industrially relevant and scalable fermentation-platform.

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Carlos G. Acevedo-Rocha

Ph.D., Principal Scientist

Carlos is a protein and metabolic engineering scientist at Biosyntia.

Carlos holds a “cum laude” Ph.D. in molecular biotechnology from the Max Planck Institute and the Technical University Munich.

During his Ph.D. at the lab of Nediljko Budisa, Carlos developed new approaches to improve proteins based on genetic code engineering (xenobiology). He then did postdoctoral training in biocatalysis and protein directed evolution at the lab of Manfred T. Reetz.

Carlos is interested in the potential of synthetic biology for developing real-world applications using protein, metabolic and genome engineering guided by systems biology approaches.

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Axel Hincheli Bjørum

Business Analyst

Axel works with business intelligence and business development in Biosyntia. He holds a M.Sc. from CBS in international business and comes with previous experience from The Investment Fund for Developing Countries.

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Cecilie Oest-Jacobsen

Senior Business Development Manager

Cecilie is a business developer with broad experience in assessing commercial opportunities. She has spent the past 5 years year working with strategy and business development. Latest as part of the strategy team in GN, a Danish hearing aid manufacturer with global scale, working closely with the management team to develop the corporate strategy.

Before that, as a management consultant in QVARTZ (now part of Bain & Company) and the Boston Consulting Group. As a management consultant she has worked with strategy development, go-to-market assessments, commercial excellence and M&A for a range of Nordic companies.

She further holds a Master degree from the University of Copenhagen within Nanoscience.

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Jonathan Thompson Wood

Research Assistant

Jonathan is a chemistry graduate from University of Manchester, specialising in chromatography and mass spectrometry.

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Periklis Sotiris

Research Assistant, Fermentation

After Periklis completed a Diploma in Chemical Engineering with specialization in Food Technology, he decided to do a MSc in Biotechnology. In that way he can combine his Process Engineering skills with Molecular Biology as he strongly believe that the connection between the two fields is critical for the industry.

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Carmen Stearn

Downstream Process Research Scientist

Carmen is a research scientist working on downstream processing at Biosyntia. She holds a B. Sc. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Chemical Engineering and an M. Sc. degree from the Technical University of Denmark in Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering.

Carmen has previously worked on developing and optimizing downstream processes for bio-based compounds at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability. She is interested in finding effective, innovative, and sustainable methods for isolating and purifying products from fermentations.

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Susanne Germann

Senior Scientist

Coming up

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Silvia Peri

Research Assistant

Silvia is a research assistant in strain engineering and screening at Biosyntia. She holds a B. Sc. degree in Biotechnology at the University of Padua and a M. Sc. in Sustainable Biotechnology at Aalborg University. Silvia is enthusiastic about finding microbial solutions to relevant environmental issues. She has experience in the implementation of microbial cell factories for the sustainable production of high value products.

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Juliet Kinyua

Research Scientist

Juliet obtained her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Antwerp. She has work experience in method development and characterizing small molecules using high-resolution mass-spectrometry (HRMS) techniques inforensic, and environmental research. Juliet is focused on developing analytical methods to support the research teams at Biosyntia.

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Beata Lehka

Research Scientist

Beata holds a PhD in molecular biology and has an experience with production of small molecules in yeast using strain engineering and fermentation process optimization strategies. She developed her skillset at industry as well as in academia. In Biosyntia Beata is responsible for development of yeast strains, that will allow bio-sustainable production of phytochemicals.

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Valdemar Kjerulff

Student Assistant

Valdemar is a first-year MSc. of Biotechnology student from the University of Copenhagen with a desire to use his future career to contribute towards a more sustainable global food system. He is at the moment assisting with cleaning and other assignments in our laboratory.

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Jon Jensen

Laboratory Technician Trainee

Coming up

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Wibke Maria Vellguth

Intern, M.Sc student

Wibke will work as an intern at Biosyntia until August 31st 2023

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Board

Henrik Dalbøge

Working Chairman

Henrik has through more than 30 years been involved in the establishment and growth of the international biotech and life science industry in Denmark. Henrik has worked in Chr. Hansen, Novozymes, Novo Nordisk, and Nordisk Gentofte, from where he has substantial business, strategy and scientific experience in industries ranging from biopharmaceuticals, food ingredients, animal feed, dietary supplement, and infant nutrition. He has been responsible for development of several commercialized products both within the biopharmaceutical- and the industrial biotechnology area, and he has led the creation of successful business operations with high and very profitable growth rates.

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Joško Bobanović

Board Member

Joško Bobanović joined Sofinnova Partners in 2010 as a partner focused on the industrial biotech strategy. He works on early stage deals in Europe and North America with applications in chemicals, agriculture, food, and materials. Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, he was part of the investment team at iNovia Capital in Montreal, Canada. Joško sits on the boards of Metgen, Comet Bio, DNA Script, Biosyntia, DMC Biotechnologies, Pyrowave and Protera Biosciences. Before going into venture capital, he created an internet startup and a software company. He is a mentor at BIRD Incubator, which helps entrepreneurs in software, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

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Søren Carlsen

Board member

Søren was CSO of Novozymes/Novo Nordisk Enzyme Business 1994-2000 and Managing Partner of Novo Ventures and Novo Seeds 2000-2015. Søren co-founded “Dansk Biotek” (Danish association of Biotech Companies) in 1987 and was chairman from 1994-2012. He has extensive leadership and operational experience and has for the last 15 years been involved in Board work in various Danish and international companies in the life science sector.

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Thomas Grotkjær

Board Member

Thomas joined Novo Holdings in September 2017 as Principal in Novo Seeds. He focuses on investments in the area of industrial biotechnology, also known as white biotechnology. Prior to joining Novo Seeds, Thomas worked as independent consultant and as Senior Business Development Manager in Novozymes. He has advised startup companies and research institutions on biotechnology and business development. In addition, he introduced advanced yeast technology to the biofuel industry and built a portfolio of biochemical projects in Novozymes. Earlier in his career, Thomas played a leading role in raising venture capital and developing the nutraceutical product portfolio in the metabolic engineering company Fluxome Sciences. He also held positions in biotechnology research and process engineering at Toftejorg (Alfa Laval), Carlsberg and BASF.Thomas obtained his MSc in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 2001 and a PhD in metabolic engineering and bioinformatics in 2005 from the same university. He also has two graduate diplomas in business administration from Copenhagen Business School, marketing management in 2007 and finance in 2010.

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Michael Nettersheim

Board Member

Michael Nettersheim is a co-founder and General Partner of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, where he focuses on industrial biotechnology, bio-based chemicals and materials. Before co-founding ECBF, Michael served as investment professional at BASF Venture Capital, where he led Bioeconomy and chemistry related investments in companies such as Lanzatech, P2 Science and NanoH2O (all USA). Michael started his investor life at Europe’s largest seed fund, HGTF (Germany). Previously, he held the position as a Director Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at a publicly listed MediGene AG (Germany). Michael holds an MBA from Kellogg-WHU and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bonn.

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Sara Sande

Board Member

Sara is the Investment Director, VF Direct Investment and Head of AgriFood & Energy team at Vækstfonden where she focuses on finding and developing green start-ups and growth companies. In close collaboration with international investors, she discovers and develops scalable, innovative companies with global ambitions. Before Vækstfonden, Sara served as VP of Global Commercial Development at Cooper Surgical and various positions as Head of Sales at Novozymes. She is also on the Board of Directors of 4 companies. Sara holds a Master in Economics from The University of Copenhagen.

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Graham Ellis

Board Observer

Graham is the Managing Partner of Praesidium’s AgriFoodTech Fund based in St James, London. He is an internationally experienced manager who spent the majority of his career driving the commercialisation of new technologies and products specifically in the areas of human nutrition, animal feed ingredients, aquaculture, renewable fuels and chemicals.

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Anouck Champsaur

Board Observer

Anouck is an investment associate within the industrial biotech strategy at Sofinnova Partners. She identifies and analyzes early-stage startups in Europe and North America, covering the chemicals, materials, agriculture, and food sectors. Before this, she cofounded and was the CTO of XL Batteries, a climate tech startup in the U.S. She holds a PhD from Columbia University and BS from UC Berkeley, both in Chemistry.

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Jowita Sewerska

Board Observer

Jowita is an Investment Director at European Circular Bioeconomy Fund. Within ECBF, she is involved in particular in the spaces of industrial biotechnology and foodtech. She started the investor adventure in 2014, and since then she engaged with companies across sectors such as food ingredients, consumer goods, chemicals, materials, animal health products. Jowita holds a degree in Computer Science and Econometrics and in Quantitative Finance. She is also a CFA charterholder.

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Advisors

Dr. Hans-Peter Hohmann Industry Expert

Advisor

Has over 30 years of experience with biobased vitamin production from Roche Vitamins and DSM Nutritional products. As a world leading authority on biobased vitamins Dr. Hohmann has developed biobased processes for various compounds, including. vitamin B2 and vitamin C.

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Dr. Bernhard Hauer, Industry Expert

Advisor

Is head of the Institute of Technical Biochemistry and professor at the University of Stuttgart. Prior to his university career he was Vice President of Research and head of the biocatalysis research group at BASF SE, Ludwigshafen. He is active on several advisory boards, editorial boards as well as scientific societies.

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Investors

Novo Holding is a global investor in the Life Science industry and invests at all stages of development. Today, Novo Holdings invests and manages assets valued at more than €47 billion and holds 76 portfolio companies. Working out of Copenhagen, San Francisco, and Boston, Novo Holdings is a world-leading life science investor with a focus on creating long-term value.

Established in 1999, Novo Holdings is the holding company of the Novo Group and manages the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s investment assets. Novo Holdings is the major shareholder in the Novo Group companies Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S.

Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm in life sciences, specializing in healthcare and sustainability. Based in Paris, London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of professionals from all over the world with strong scientific, medical, and business expertise. Sofinnova Partners actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or cornerstone investor to develop transformative innovations that have the potential to positively impact our collective future.

Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is a deeply-established venture capital firm in Europe, with 50 years of experience backing over 500 companies and creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2.5 billion under management. For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com/

The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) invests growth capital in ambitious and visionary entrepreneurs and encourages private and public investors to assist in the development of late-stage bioeconomy companies. The fund aims to make sustainable investments in our future and speed up the shift from a fossil-based to a circular, bio-based economy.

Headquartered in Bonn and with a total fund volume of € 300m, to which the European Investment Bank (EIB) has committed
€100 million, ECBF will be an important financial instrument in achieving the European Green Deal goals of making Europe climate-neutral by 2050.
For more information, please visit: www.ecbf.vc

Vækstfonden is the Danish state's financing fund, and they work to strengthen Danish companies' access to venture capital so that they can create new innovation, growth and jobs. In close partnerships with banks and private investors from home and abroad,

Vækstfonden finance companies in all industries across the country. And they can be with them all the way - from the company's start, through high growth to the journey out onto the global markets and IPOs.The companies
Vækstfonden has co-financed since 1992 have today a total turnover of more than DKK 117 billion. DKK and employs approx. 75,000 employees spread across the country. Read about Vækstfonden here: https://www.vf.dk/en/

Praesidium is a private investment company which invests in the best opportunities in Private Equity, Venture Capital, Private Debt and Infrastructure globally, across the most attractive verticals.
Praesidium draws on one of the most experienced senior teams in Private Markets. Each Senior Investment Committee member has over 30 years experience.

Praesidium was founded in 2016 by a group of highly experienced European and American professionals from international Private Eqity, consulting and banking, with a shared vision to create a truly innovative model for successfully investing "thematically" in Private Markets.
Read more about Praesidium here: https://www.praesidium.eu