Thomas Rupp

Vice President CMC, Strategy at Thomas Rupp Consulting

Speaker

Thomas is VP CMC, Strategy at Axolabs Berlin GmbH. Axolabs has recently established a CDMO facility for Pilot and Process scale manufacturing of oligonucleotide API under GMP in Berlin.

Furthermore, Thomas is Founder and Principal Consultant at Thomas Rupp Consulting UG (haftungsbeschränkt).

Thomas is a globally recognized Subject Matter Expert (SME) with a strong focus on synthetic RNA Therapeutics, specifically CMC, Technology assessment, Process development and optimization, hands-on workshops and facility design.

40 years ago, in 1985, Thomas entered the world of synthetic nucleic acids in the research group of Nobel Laureate Prof. Harald zur Haussen at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, by setting-up the first core-facility for oligonucleotide synthesis and DNA sequencing in Europe. During this time, Thomas complimented his chemistry background with molecular biology and virology. He also developed a PCR-machine then. Between 1990-1993 Thomas enjoyed working for Brian Sproat at EMBL, Heidelberg, developing a DNA synthesiser and a DNA sequencer, followed by a sabbatical year in Papillomavirus-related cancer research at Loyola University, Chicago, IL.

In 1994 Thomas joined Innovir GmbH, Göttingen, Germany, to establish manufacturing processes for complex Ribozyme moieties. Successively he moved 1997 to Berlin, Germany to setup the Spiegelmer (enantiomeric Aptamer) production lab at Noxxon Pharma AG.

In 2002 he accepted a position as Field Application Specialist (FAS) for oligonucleotide related products at GEHC. Thomas worked as GMP Subject Matter Expert at Girindus (later Avecia), Cincinnati, USA between 2010 and 2013, before establishing his consulting business.

Thomas is well established and acknowledged as SME in the field, and runs both, theoretical and practical workshops on oligonucleotide CMC at conferences, or in company labs. He filed several process-related patents on oligonucleotide manufacturing processes and publishes in renown journals and books chapters.