Meet the Member: Anne Timm & INOFEA

1. How did INOFEA coem about?

INOFEA has been founded in February 2014, as a spin-off of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. We own a patented enzyme technology which makes enzymes used in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and food ingredients 20 times more stable and recycable. This helps our customers to reduce their energy consumptions by abotu 15%. Since our enzymes can be used for sustainable continuous manufacturing processes 20 - 50% less waste occurs, which is economically and environmentally of high interest.

2. Could you give us a short overview of INOFEA?

We have very experienced, skilled and motivated team members in INOFEA. One of them is our Head R&D and Production, Dr. Rita Correro, who developed our enzyme technology in the recent years. In her team there are Lars Grossniklaus and Anna Ruf, both working intensively on our customer projects. On October 01, our new Business Development Manager Nilesh Shah joined the team having like myself, many years of industry experience.

We are working with top Pharmaceutical and Food companies, have supply and license agreements in place. Our customers value the benefits our technology brings. We add additional benefits to biocatalysts by immobilization and shielding of enzymes. The shielding is like a cocoon, providing a better stability to the enzymes.

3. What makes INOFEA future-oriented?

We support our customers to reach their sustainability goals. Take the food industry as an example; food companies need to ensure that we have for the fast growing population on our planet sufficient healthy food and on the other side to use our resources of farm-land in an efficient way. The reduction of energy and other raw material consumption is essential. More and more people move away from eating meat and alternative protein sources become important. With our technology we are supporting exactly these future-oriented targets.

4. INOFEA ist a company founded and based in Basel. What do you particularly appreciate about this region?

The region of Basel is a very lively region, we have many start-ups here and large international companies, so it is easy to get in contact with our clients and partners. And of course, the proximity to the University of Applied Sciences, two of our founders are working there as Professors and support us from a scientific point of view. Finaly, The 5th Floor  offered us the wonderful opportunity to bring our labs with the offices together, we now have the priveley to work in new labs perfectly equipped with all what we need.