Willem P.C. Stemmer

Willem PC " Pim " Stemmer (* around 1957 in the Netherlands, † April 2, 2013 ) was a Dutch molecular biologist and co-founder.

Life and work

Stemmer went to a boarding school in Zug mountain in Switzerland ( completion 1975) and studied biology at the University of Amsterdam, where he received his doctorate in 1980. Then he went to the University of Wisconsin- Madison, where he turned to molecular biology, and again at Fred Blattner 1985 received his doctorate ( Ph.D. ). Topic of the dissertation were pili of bacteria and their pathogenic role. He was a scientist at Hybritech (antibody -fragmentation technology for treatment of colon cancer ) and then a senior scientist at Affymax. He is known for various inventions, which he utilized in each case commercially with company formation. In 1993 he invented at Affymax DNA shuffling ( also called molecular breeding ) to get a new method of DNA combinations with directed evolution. In order to exploit the invention, he was one of the co - founders of Maxygen (1997).

As a spin -off of Maxygen emerged Verdia (acquired in 2004 by DuPont) and Codexis ( the 2010 went public ).

In 2001 he invented Avimere, artificial proteins such as antibodies specifically bind to particular antigens. He founded the evaluation of the invention Avidia whose chief scientist, he was until 2005 and which was acquired by Amgen in 2006.

Most recently, he was CEO of Amunix in Mountain View, which he founded with Volker Schellenberger. The company evaluated an invention by Stemmer out to increase the serum half -life of consisting of proteins drugs in the blood by the active substance to a hydrophilic protein chain ( XTEN ) is coupled ( called XTENylation ), which increases the hydrodynamic radius in the blood and so avoids premature filtering in the kidneys. In 2008 she formed with Index Ventures, a subsidiary Versartis to (lack growth hormones) to conduct clinical trials for developed with the XTEN technology drugs, and a subsidiary Diartis medicine in type 2 diabetes.

He has published 68 scientific papers and holds over 100 U.S. patents.

In 2011 he was awarded with Frances Arnold the Charles Stark Draper Prize for pioneering the application of controlled evolution for various pharmaceutical and chemical products ( in particular DNA shuffling ). 2000 he received the Award and Doisy 2001 David Perlman Award.

Writings

• Rapid evolution of a protein in vitro by DNA shuffling. Nature 370, 1994, 389-391.
• DNA shuffling by random fragmentation and reassembly: In vitro recombination for molecular evolution. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1994, 91, 10747-10751
• With A. Crameri, S.-A. Raillard: DNA shuffling of a Family of Genes from Diverse Species Accelerates Directed Evolution. Nature, 391, 1998, pp. 288-290.