Our Bioprocess Technology group at the TU Vienna is quite diverse. We are a team of young people originating from different places in the world, having different positions from PostDocs to interns, and focusing on diverse research topics either in upstream- or downstream processing addressing applications in circular economy up to biopharmaceuticals.
What unites us is our passion for science and our interest in revolutionizing the bioprocessing world
To achieve this goal, scientific exchange among the group and critical input of the other team members is not only helpful but also crucial to improve the quality of research and the scientific output of everyone. Part of our research is aimed at the development of generic methods and platform technologies. The input we give each other is originating from our various fields of application like cell cultures, protein refolding or fed-batch and continuous bacterial fermentations. This variety can help to look at a challenge from a different point of view and can consequently lead to the successful implementation of generic tools. The perspective of having an established method that can be used for all kinds of projects (e.g., analytical tools, codes for data evaluation, decision trees for the choice of method or even entire processing plans) keeps everyone motivated to support each other in the lab and in front of the computer.
One of the key enablers for this is our team-spirit
Everyone knows that hard work can be best achieved when having the prospect of fun. Therefore, we as a team tend to brighten up the workday by eating ice-cream during long periods of centrifugation, identifying the best place for Indian curry by ordering from different restaurants for lunch or by collectively developing catchy names for the codes and packages we write (e.g.: PFerd – Particle Filter for enzymatic refolding dynamics). Currently, we are excited about our annual summer event taking place at the end of September. This year we will explore the Roman City of Carnuntum before heading back to Vienna to gather for a relaxing dinner.
As only a few of us are originally from Vienna, we frequently also come together apart from work. We then tend to check out the surrounding bars and parks at after-work-events, try the food and beverages from the home-countries of some of our members or gather for activities like swimming, hiking, and exploring the city.
From spring to autumn, the Bioprocess Technology running group meets once a week after work, training for short and long distances, sometimes with the goal of reaching the Danube for a refreshing bath. We include people of all different training levels. As a main achievement during this summer, we registered two groups for a Relay at the Vienna City Marathon which took place on the 12th September, 2021. The participation was enabled by the Graduate Students Association (www.savt.at) which organizes a lot of events throughout the year. Well prepared, heavily excited and with amazing weather, we were not only able to run our individual personal bests, but also as a team accomplishment, both relays were able to finish the entire race with an overall time below four hours.
We run for each other
Taking this motivation back to the lab we are looking forward to the upcoming months: to working on our projects, to scientific breakthroughs, to training for the next marathon in 2022, and to enjoying the last days of Viennese summer!
