Affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, DK
Keywords: Antibody discovery, Toxinology, Tropical pharmacology, Snakebite envenoming, Phage display technology, Infectious diseases
Full profile:
Andreas (born 1987) heads the Tropical Pharmacology Lab at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, and he is a Fellow of the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters (The Young Academy).
The Tropical Pharmacology Lab is an academic research group focusing on developing biotherapeutics and diagnostics against neglected tropical diseases and infectious diseases – with a particular focus on toxin neutralization. Andreas himself is specialized in antibody discovery, toxinology, antivenom, and neglected tropical diseases, and holds a PhD from the University of Copenhagen (2016) and an M.Sc.Eng. from the Technical University of Denmark (2012). He was an Advisor to the World Health Organization’s Working Group on Snakebite Envenoming, and he is a co-founder of the biotech companies Biosyntia (2012), focusing on metabolic engineering and fermentation processes for fine chemicals, VenomAb (2013-2017) that focused on recombinant snakebite antivenoms, Antag Therapeutics (2017), focusing on therapeutics against metabolic diseases, Chromologics (2017), focusing on fungal fermentation processes for natural colorants, Bactolife (2017), focusing on gastrointestinal infections and antimicrobial resistance, and VenomAid Diagnostics (2018), focusing on snakebite diagnostic tools.
Andreas is recognized as Denmark’s Coolest Engineer, a Top 6 Academic Entrepreneur under 35 in Europe 2017, and he was on Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2017 and MIT Technology Review’s list of the 35 Top Innovators under 35 in Europe 2017. Andreas’ chief scientific contribution is the development (in collaboration with IONTAS Ltd., UK, and Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Costa Rica) of the world’s first recombinant antivenom based on oligoclonal human IgGs targeting black mamba neurotoxins (Laustsen et al. Nature Communications 2018), as well as robust and simple methods for in vitro discovery of toxin-targeting broadly-neutralizing antibodies. Andreas spends most of his time with academic engagements, but also still plays an active role in several of the companies he co-founded.