Dr. Esther Hegel

The Marie-Curie-Alumni association is a global network of researchers that enables international transdisciplinary collaborations for current and past beneficiaries of the European Commission's Marie Curie programme. As the chair of the MCAA Benelux chapter I am the contact point for ~200 MCAA members residing in the Benelux area. Together with my four Board Members, the Chapter organizes various events for career development, entrepreneurship, expat life, networking and many more.

I am a PhD candidate within the European research training-network MetaRNA where I am developing novel metabolite biosensors for industrial applications. While I am associated to the University of Groningen, I am conducting my research at the brand-new DSM Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center in Delft (Netherlands). I obtained my degree in Bioengineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany) in 2015 with a major in downstream process development and industrial biotechnology.

Organizer of the final MetaRNA symposium on ''Metabolism on The Single Cell Level'' at the Francis Crick Institute (London) on July 2nd, 2018. It was the closing event of the MetaRNA consortium, a PhD research-training network funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 program. Main topics: (1) Metabolism at the single cell level (2) Methods to observe metabolites within single cells (3) Applications of metabolite sensors

During my diploma thesis I developed and characterized 3D magnetic hydrogels to enable perfusion of human hematopoietic stem cell cultures via contactless motion control. The findings of our work were published in January 2018 in Advanced Healthcare Materials (Impact Factor 5.6) and patented at the German national patent office (“Verfahren zur dreidimensionalen Kultivierung von Zellen in einem flüssigen Nährmedium“ / 102017001438.3).

During my industrial internship at Roche Diagnostics (Penzberg, Germany) I was working on two exciting projects in the field of Technical Development and Downstream Processing of monoclonal antibody isoforms. Project description: (1) Vergleich einer kontinuierlichen und einer konventionellen Chromatographiemethode zur optimalen Trennung von mAb-Isoformen. (2) Design of Experiments für eine Hydrophobe Interaktionschromatographie zur optimalen Aufreinigung eines mAbs.

Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, KIT Field of research: Predictive Tools in Protein Chromatography and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Main focus: Expansion and optimization of a in silico tool for the prediction of protein retention on an ion exchange system

Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) Department of Diagnostics / Nanotechnology Project: CAD-based modeling, characterization and subsequent chemical and enzymatic modification of a novel three-dimensional DNA nanostructure for further alignment of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Research project at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) in the Group of Prof. Dr. Sven Panke. Project: Expression of the L-rhamnose isomerase from T. neapolitana in E. coli, purification and subsequent characterization of the enzyme

Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences Field of Research: BiCycle - New integrated concepts for the economical production of Single Cell Oil Main Focus: Optimization of lab scale yeast fermentation processes for the production of Single Cell Oils

Study abroad within the ERASMUS scholarship program in Trondheim (Norway). University subjects: Nanomedicine, Medical Toxicology, Energy & Environmental Consequences

Diplomstudiengang Bioingenieruwesen Hauptfächer: Molekulare Aufarbeitung von Bioprodukten, Chemische Energieträger - Brennstofftechnologie, Industrielle Biotechnologie