Ernst Rinderknecht

Who is Ernst Rinderknecht?

Dr. Rinderknecht is a highly experienced scientist and executive in

the biotechnology industry. He was an early employee of Genentech, Inc.,

joining in 1980, and in 1994 left to become the Vice President of Process

Science and Manufacturing at Connetics Corporation.

Ernst's

particular strengths are in protein and peptide purification,

characterization, and structure determination. Ernst has developed manufacturing processes for many recombinant

proteins, including relaxin, gamma-interferon, and TNF-alpha, to just name a

few.

At

Connetics, Ernst was responsible for the production of all of the

company's protein and peptide products, including relaxin and T-cell

receptor peptides. His responsibilities included the selection of,

negotiation with, and management of contract manufacturing

organizations in both the US and Europe.

Ernst and his group optimized the production process for relaxin and

successfully transferred this process to Boehringer-Ingelheim-Austria

for commercial-scale production. This process yields drug product at a

low cost of goods.

Ernst earned

his Master of Science degree at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in

Zurich

and received his Ph.D. from the

University

of

Zurich

in Switzerland. For his work on IGF (Insulin-like Growth Factor), Ernst received the Award

of the Georg Friedrich Goetz Foundation and University of Zurich Medical

School. Prior to joining Genentech, he worked at Stanford

University in the Department of Neurobiology. Ernst is an author of many patents and

publications.