Observatory

Observatory of Green Businesses

Sulfotools GmbH

Innovative Peptide Synthesis:

Water Instead of Organic Solvents



The Clean Peptide Technology (CPT) developed by Sulfotools offers a state-of-the-art alternative peptide manufacturing process: thanks to this new technology, organic solvents can be completely replaced with water – finally combining sustainability with cost optimization. This makes the CPT very attractive for the pharmaceutical, chemical, and cosmetics industries while at the same time being beneficial for humans and the environment.

The interdisciplinary team of Sulfotools consists of chemists and marketing specialists. In addition senior consultants and specialists with long-time experiences in the field of peptide synthesis alsosupport Sulfotools. Currently lots of pilot projects run to optimize, scale and develop further platform technology in coordination with potential partners of the chemical industry.

Founder: Dipl.-Ing. Sascha Knauer, Dr.-Ing. Christina Uth, Prof. Dr. Harald Kolmar

Size of business

  • 4 employees (incl. 3 founders) + approved network
  • Experts support in field like research and development, IP-Transfer, questions in law and financing

Supports

  • External experts
  • Networks
  • From August 2015 to May 2015, Sulfotools was founded through the EXIST Research Transfer I of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy and the European Social Fund for Germany

Opportunities and plans for the future

For the future we want to push the implementation of our vision of peptide synthesis. Moreover we want to show
that even in the chemical industry more sustainable and resource-conserving processes are possible. Another aim is the expansion of our team.

Pitfalls and challenges

1. How did the project come to life?
A random experiment by Sascha Knauer is the basis of Clean Peptide Technology. With his long-time colleague Dr. Christina Uth and Ph.D. Harald Kolmar, he developed the technology for a sustainable business idea. After the patent application, many successful competitions and numerous awards, Sulfototools GmbH was founded in March 2016. The team is supported by Co-founder Prof. Dr. Harald Kolmar. Since summer 2015 also by Dr. Niklas Koch (research and development) and by an extensive network of experts.
2. What were the biggest challenges in regard of the foundation?
We have suffered setbacks like every start-up. We also have problems in regard of the research and within the team. But we learn from our mistakes and because of this we can continually improve our product and the company. Of course, there are a lot of positive moments, for example awards for our business concept at Science4Life or the StartGreen Award, as well as the continuing interest of customers in our technology.

 

Pictures by courtesy of Sulfotools.

Contact information

Dr. Christina Uth, Sascha Knauer
Sulfotools GmbH c/o Technische Universität Darmst
AK Kolmar Alarich-Weiss-Straße 4, 64287 Darmstadt

+49(0)6151/1621297

info(at)Sulfotools(dot)com

http://www.sulfotools.com/