Silvia Hüttner Email & Phone Number

Lund, Skåne County, Sweden

Landskrona, Sweden

Oatly is the leading producer of oat-based dairy alternatives. In my role, I drive innovation in the field of enzyme science and technology, explore new enzyme applications in the production process and improve existing solutions.

Global

Consultant for biotechnology, food technology and fermentation-related topics in the alternative protein sector.

Gothenburg, Sweden

Mycorena is a fast-growing Swedish start-up that develops and produces vegan protein products made from filamentous fungi. As CTO during the most crucial years, I was responsible for the strategic and operational vision of the company, as well as all scientific and technical aspects. I developed the fermentation process for production of the fungi, as well as downstream processing steps, established routines and procedures for smooth production, and made sure that all work and food safety regulations were up to standard. As CTO, I also established and maintained a wide network of big and small food industry players in the Nordics and Europe as customers and partners, as well as close scientific connections to academic researchers in the biotechnology field.Upscaling and process optimisation was a major part of my work, as well as product development, (successfully) applying for funding, planning with construction and process engineers and communicating the business concept and scientific details to customers, journalists and the general public. During my time at Mycorena, we attracted investments of over 1.2 Mio EUR and national as well as EU-wide grants.

Gothenburg, Sweden

In the early phases of the company, I co-developed and built up the fungal fermentation technology behind the idea, which required not only solid scientific knowledge, an entrepreneurial mindset, imagination and practical lab skills, but also great adaptability. It started with a concept and an empty room, and resulted in a fully equipped microbiology and fermentation lab, product prototypes being sent to paying customers, funding, and considerable media interest.

Gothenburg, Sweden

I received a personal grant to study the production of the bioplastics PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates) in soil bacteria. This involved bioprospecting, cultivation, screening, fermentation and analysis of the best PHA-producers. Another part of this project was the analysis of different waste biomass (agricultural and forest) for their suitability to act as substrates for the bioplastic producers, as well as extraction and analysis of the produced PHA by analytical methods (FTIR, GC-MS).

Gothenburg, Sweden

As a researcher in the Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC), my projects were about finding new fungal biomass degrading enzymes. This involved growth studies, enzyme production in different host organisms, thorough enzyme characterization and the application of analytical methods like MALDI-TOF, ion chromatography, HPLC and spectroscopic methods. My main focus was on the enzymes glucuronoyl esterases (GEs), feruloyl esterases (FAEs) and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs), but I also use transcriptomics, proteomics and genomics to investigate the overall biomass-degrading abilities of fungi in more depth.

Gothenburg, Sweden

I was involved in the EU project OPTIBIOCAT, where we discovered and optimised new feruloyl and glucuronoyl esterases to use as synthetic biocatalysts in the production of value-added products. My role was bioinformatic analysis of sequenced fungal genomes and transcriptomes, the selection, cloning and expression of target enzymes, as well as their characterization and immobilisation on mesoporous silica particles. Reporting and collaboration was a big part of this project with 16 partners (universities and companies) in 12 different EU countries.

Vienna

Optimisation of protein expression in plants, protein purification and development of analytical assays.

Vienna, Austria

My PhD project was about the investigation of the ER-associated degradation pathway of misfolded glycoproteins in the model organisms Arabidopsis thaliana and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. I discovered and characterized several enzymes and lectins that are involved in the recognition and processing of misfolded proteins inside the cell. I expressed heterologous proteins in plants, insect cells and yeast, analysed reaction products and glycans by HPLC and MALDI-TOF, and used confocal microscopy to investigate the location of proteins of interest inside the cells.

Vienna, Austria

Genetic engineering of yeast and plant cells for the production of enzymes and antibodies.

Vienna, Austria

DNA-protein binding studies of human osteblast cells, radioactive labelling, Southern Blots, Western Blots, microscopy.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Biotechnology, With Distinction

Biotechnology, Virology, Plant Science

Master Of Science - Ms, Biotechnology, With Distinction

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Biotechnology, With Distinction