ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.292
Michael Altorfer, Jan M Lucht, Hans-Peter Meyer
{"title":"Biomanufacturing in Switzerland - Past, Present, and Future.","authors":"Michael Altorfer, Jan M Lucht, Hans-Peter Meyer","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.292","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chemistry and biotechnology played a central role in transforming a poverty-stricken region in the middle of Europe into a flourishing industrial country. Rural areas remained destitute well into the 18th century. However, during the second half of the 18th century the foundation of the chemical powerhouses was laid. The biotechnological sector was built on these strong fundaments. This paper describes the development of the Swiss biotechnology sector from the early beginnings in the 1930s with a biocatalytic step in Vitamin C production to today's multifaceted application of biotechnology in Switzerland. As a matter of fact, biotechnology has become a key asset of the contemporary Swiss economy, and this paper outlines what is needed to stay on a successful path.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"292-298"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.352
Roland Wohlgemuth
{"title":"Biomanufacturing as Key Technology for a Sustainable Bioeconomy.","authors":"Roland Wohlgemuth","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.352","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.352","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Scientific and technological advances have created new biomanufacturing opportunities by overcoming manufacturing challenges and problems in various industrial sectors step by step and thereby lead to sustainable value creation. Bottom-up biomanufacturing approaches can provide value to customers in a competitive environment and when located in a geographically well-connected ecosystem bring additional benefits, such as derisking of supply chains, reduction of complexity, or strategic autonomy. The strategic importance of biomanufacturing can also be seen by different top-down initiatives and platforms addressing common critical needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"352-358"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.344
Ulla Létinois, Steven Crump, Bastian Zerrer, Michael Hans, Pierre-Bertrand Meunier, Markus Wyss
{"title":"Way Forward for Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology in Europe.","authors":"Ulla Létinois, Steven Crump, Bastian Zerrer, Michael Hans, Pierre-Bertrand Meunier, Markus Wyss","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.344","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To restrict global warming to a maximum of 1.5 °C, greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced to 'net zero' by 2050. The transition from the current, largely fossil-based global economy towards a circular, nowaste (bio-) economy based on renewable raw materials is seen as a critical pillar. In this paper, we explore the sustainability benefits as well as the implementation opportunities and challenges in Europe for three biomanufactured products used in animal and human nutrition, i.e. vitamins A and B2 and canthaxanthin. To allow the biomanufacturing industry to leverage its full potential and to achieve 'net zero' in time, it will be crucial for European policy makers to create the appropriate framework conditions for incentivizing the required transformation of the chemical sector as well as for securing the competitiveness of European industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"344-351"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.312
Diego R Schmidhalter, Dieter Eibl, Regine Eibl
{"title":"Single-Use Technology Today - A Cornucopia of Applications.","authors":"Diego R Schmidhalter, Dieter Eibl, Regine Eibl","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.312","DOIUrl":"10.2533/chimia.2025.312","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Whether for classic biologics or advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), laboratory applications, small-scale or large-scale productions, single-use technology (SUT), and its associated consumables are used everywhere. The advantages of deploying SUTs are well known. Wherever a single-use solution is available, it is tested and ultimately used. Based on milestones in the development of single-use systems and single-use platform technologies, this article provides an up-to-date overview of products available on the market and their manufacturers/suppliers. It also discusses process examples with SUTs, design options and configurations of single-use facilities and Switzerland's pioneering role in the development and implementation of SUTs. In addition, the authors show that SUT has already been established beyond the biopharmaceutical sector.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"312-323"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.299
Serena Bisagni, Fabian Eggimann, Eric Eichhorn, Steven Hanlon, Hans Iding, Alberto Kravina, Camille Le Chapelain, Katharina Neufeld, Lukas Rigger, Kirsten Schroer, Radka Snajdrova, Elina Siirola
{"title":"The Swiss Industrial Biocatalysis Consortium (SIBC) turns 20!","authors":"Serena Bisagni, Fabian Eggimann, Eric Eichhorn, Steven Hanlon, Hans Iding, Alberto Kravina, Camille Le Chapelain, Katharina Neufeld, Lukas Rigger, Kirsten Schroer, Radka Snajdrova, Elina Siirola","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.299","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.299","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 2024, the Swiss Industrial Biocatalysis Consortium (SIBC), celebrated its 20 years of bringing together experts from the pharma, flavor and fragrance, fine chemicals, and agrochemicals industries to discuss enzyme technology developments. In this perspective, we share recent examples of how our member organizations utilize biocatalysis in their respective industries. While the motivations for employing enzymatic synthesis and the end goals of various production processes may vary, we aim to emphasize the shared aspects that we are coming across. Over the past 20 years, those synergies have provided us with a fruitful basis for pre-competitive knowledge sharing around biocatalysis as a technology. We look forward to many more years of the SIBC and the surprises that await us through the potential of our enzymes.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"299-311"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.330
Vivian Ott, Jan Ott, Andry D Mannone, Regine Eibl
{"title":"Perfusion-Based Antibody Production in the Ambr<sup>®</sup> 250 Modular.","authors":"Vivian Ott, Jan Ott, Andry D Mannone, Regine Eibl","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.330","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The perfusion mode has become increasingly important in biopharmaceutical production in recent years. A bioreactor system used in many laboratories for the development of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) production processes is the Sartorius' Ambr. 250 system. Vessels designed for perfusion mode are only available for its high throughput version, while the modular version of the Ambr 250 is not designed for perfusion mode. In this study, perfusion processes for the production of a mAb with Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells were realized in the Ambr 250 Modular in combination with Repligen's ATF 1 single-use device for the first time, to the authors' knowledge. After testing a semi-perfusion setup in well plates and the Ambr 250, an N-1 perfusion process was developed to produce ultra-high cell densities of more than 150 Å~ 106 cells mL-1 for the inoculation of subsequent mAb production processes. In a second step, continuous mAb production was successfully realized over 23 days in a proof-of-concept experiment, achieving a volumetric productivity of 0.65 g L-1 d-1. The results of the N-1 and continuous perfusion processes were comparable to a 3 L HyPerformaTM Glass bioreactor (Thermo Scientific) with an ATF 2 (Repligen).</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"330-338"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.339
Andrew Gomma, David J Burns, Nicholas P Mulholland, Olivier Loiseleur, Camille Le Chapelain
{"title":"Biotransformations at Syngenta: A Focused Perspective on Metabolites and Natural Products.","authors":"Andrew Gomma, David J Burns, Nicholas P Mulholland, Olivier Loiseleur, Camille Le Chapelain","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.339","DOIUrl":"10.2533/chimia.2025.339","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article we present our perspective on how biotransformations can contribute to key sustainability challenges faced by the agrochemical industry. We focus on two key areas where biotransformations have enabled research breakthroughs, the preparative synthesis of metabolite standards and natural products. Increasingly stringent regulatory requirements have rendered early metabolite identification and production an expanding activity to progress an active ingredient to the market. We present a collaborative project on unspecific peroxygenases for selective oxidation of pyrethroid-related compounds, illustrating future directions in research for the production of metabolites. Natural products provide an opportunity to explore a vast chemical space and to have an improved sustainability profile. Nevertheless, their fermentation at large scale and low cost is still challenging, and we present strategies aiming at increasing the fermentation titre and batch purity.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"339-343"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.324
Fabian Wahl, Alexandra Baumeyer Brahier, Mariluz Bagnoud-Velásquez, Daniel Kurpan
{"title":"Microalgae as Key to a Land-free Circular On-farm Feed Production System.","authors":"Fabian Wahl, Alexandra Baumeyer Brahier, Mariluz Bagnoud-Velásquez, Daniel Kurpan","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.324","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Currently, all feed and food come from plant- or animal-based production systems. The potential of the natural biodiversity of microorganisms for the highly efficient production of nutrients has yet to be leveraged. We present an overarching concept that ranges from the development of a national collection of regional microalgae to the decentralised production of nutrient-rich biomass for animal feed production. The focus is on the substitution of classic plant-based feed to reduce competition for arable land, to increase the nutritive value of animal-based food, and to reduce methane emissions from ruminants. The photoautotrophic and mixotrophic cultivation of microalgae are well aligned with the goals of CO2 fixation and the later contribution to the valorisation of side streams from the food industry. We also present the initial results on strain adaptation to diverse cultivation conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 5","pages":"324-329"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144172800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChimiaPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2025.200
Paul Dutheil, Martin Heule, Patrick Steinegger
{"title":"Development of Flow Electrolytic Strategies for Separation and Radiometric Analysis of Radionuclides.","authors":"Paul Dutheil, Martin Heule, Patrick Steinegger","doi":"10.2533/chimia.2025.200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2025.200","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Radionuclides are used and produced for a variety of applications, such as in the framework of energy production and nuclear medicine. This requires appropriate monitoring which in turn translates into the analysis of a variety of radionuclides in demanding sample matrices. Radionuclide analysis is a challenging task and often requires complex chemical processing of the samples prior to radiometric measurements. This requirement arises due to interfering radionuclides as well as matrix elements, which typically prevent a direct measurement by α- and γ-spectrometry, liquid scintillation counting or mass spectrometry. Despite offering promising possibilities, electrochemical approaches have been rarely used so far for the separation and analysis of radionuclides. Here, we present the development of fast flow-through electrolytic separation approaches for the analysis of carrier-added/-free radionuclides in fundamental and applied research.</p>","PeriodicalId":9957,"journal":{"name":"Chimia","volume":"79 4","pages":"200-203"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143982212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}