| Willem P.C. Stemmer | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Netherlands |
| Institutions | Amunix |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin |
Willem P.C. Stemmer is a scientist and entrepreneur who has repeatedly invented technologies leading to successful companies and products. He founded Avidia after inventing its Avimer technology. In 1997, he founded Maxygen to commercialize the DNA shuffling technology, now called Molecular Breeding, which led to the founding of both Verdia and Codexis. Prior to Maxygen, he was a scientist at Affymax where he invented DNA shuffling technology. Before that, he worked on antibody fragment engineering at Hybritech.
He completed post-doctoral work on phage display of random peptide libraries and antibody fragment expression in E. coli with Prof. Fred Blattner at the University of Wisconsin. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin for his work on bacterial pili/fimbriae involved in host-pathogen interaction. He has over 60 research publications and over 80 issued patents. His portfolio of patents from Maxygen was ranked as the #1 portfolio in pharma/biotech for 2003 by M.I.T.'s Technology Review, and #2 in a review of the 150 largest pharma and biotechnology companies by The Wall Street Journal in 2006. He received the Doisy award, the Perlman award, and the NASDAQ VCynic award, and has given over 250 invited presentations. [1]
In 2011, Stemmer was honored with the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the nation’s top engineering honor, for the pioneering contributions to "directed evolution." It is a process allowing researchers to guide the creation of certain properties in proteins and cells. This enables solutions in such areas as food ingredients, pharmaceuticals, toxicology, agricultural products, and biofuels, among others. [2]
Willem Stemmer is currently the CEO of Amunix.