Prof. Dr. Stefan Dübel (ret.)
Phone: +49.531.391.5731
Fax: +49.531.391.5763
e-mail: biotech(at)tu-braunschweig.de
After completing his PhD at the University of Heidelberg, Stefan Dübel joined the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in 1989, where he pioneered in vitro antibody selection, leading to several important inventions, including antibody phage display (e.g. US Patent 6387627), human antibody libraries (e.g. US Patent 6319690) and antibody libraries with randomised CDRs (e.g. EP0440146B1). From 2002 - 2026, he was Full Professor of Biotechnology and Director of the corresponding department at the Braunschweig University, Germany.
His lab continued to contribute to numerous innovations in human antibody development, phage display and in vitro evolution, e.g. hyperphage technology (2001), ORFeome display (2006) and targeted RNases for cancer therapy (1995/2008). Other achievements include the development of the first protein knockdown mouse using intrabodies (2014), a universal allosteric switch module for antibody affinity (2017) and multiclonal antibodies (2019). He developed and adapted Phage Display for research antibody generation in international consortia (Affinity Proteome, Affinomics, SGC) and continues to advocate for animal-free antibody generation using Phage Display. His work has led to >300 publications and numerous patent applications. He is editor of the four-volume reference "Handbook of Therapeutic Antibodies" and other antibody engineering books.
Two human antibodies developed in his academic lab by phage display achieved clinical use (against SARS-CoV-2 and metastatic cancer). He is co-founder of several biotech companies, including the animal-free antibody company Abcalis (abcalis.com) and Yumab (yumab.com), which specializes in the discovery and development of human therapeutic antibodies, and generated more than 10 clinical phase therapeutic antibodies so far. He was also instrumental in founding the Corona Antibody Team and CORAT Therapeutics GmbH (corat-therapeutics.com), which developed a passive vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 for the direct treatment of COVID-19, co-founded Norden Vaccines (nordenvaccines.com), which developes an anti-tick vaccine, and Mabswitch Inc (mabswitch.com), a company that provides affinity-regulated antibodies to address the efficacy and toxicity issues of immunotherapies.
Research topics
Antibody Engineering, Phage Display, Animal-Free Antibody Generation, Anti-Cancer-Antibodies, Intrabodies, in vitro Evolution, Synthetic Biology, Biosensors, Hyperphage, SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies
Curriculum vitae
1978-1982 Studies of Biology at the Universities of Mainz and Heidelberg, Germany
1982-1983 Diploma thesis in Botany at the Max-Planck Institute for Cell Biology in Ladenburg, Germany on Developmental Biology of the Green Algae Acetabularia
1984-1985 Zivildienst: Use and research on diagnostic tools for autoimmune diseases at the Institute of Immunology, University of Heidelberg.
1986-1989 PhD thesis at the Centre for Molecular Biologiy Heidelberg (ZMBH) on "Cell Cycle Regulation and Cell Differentiation in the Coelenterate Hydra", Promotion (Dr. rer. nat.) summa cum laude.
8/1989-7/1991 Scholar at the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg (DKFZ) with his own project on "Generation and Screening of E. coli Libraries of Recombinant Antibodies"
1/1992-7/1992 Work on "Recombinant Antibodies Against TNF Receptor" at the Institute of Cell Biology and Immunology, University of Stuttgart, Germany
8/1992-9/1996 Work on "Recombinant Antibodies, Immunotoxins and Phage Display Screening Technologies" at the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg (DKFZ)
1996-2001 Group leader of the "Recombinant Antibody Unit" at the Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Heidelberg
6/1997 Habilitation (Faculty of Biology), University of Heidelberg
2/2001 Appointed "Hochschuldozent" at the University of Heidelberg
2001-2002 CSO and Member of the Directory Board of LifeBits AG
2002-2026 Full Professor and Director of the Department of Biotechnology, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
Scholarships
1989-1991 "Scholarship for the promotion of outstanding young scientists" of German Cancer Research Centre, (DKFZ, Heidelberg)
Awards
2026 Replication Prize of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (with international team)
2022 ECEAE Prize for animal-free antibodies
2022 Founder award of Bruswick (with Abcalis)
2020 Double Winner, Durchstarterpreis, State of Lower Saxony
2020 Two Innovation Awards of the State of Lower Saxony for Abcalis and Corat
2019 Innovation Award of the German BioRegions (with Norden Vaccines)
2018 Winner (with Norden Vaccines) of GO-Bio competition
2017 1st Prize of the Innovation Network Lower Saxony
2016 Technology Transfer Prize of the IHK Braunschweig
2015 Innovation in Biotechnology Award of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists
2014 LehrLEO award for good teaching
2013 Entrepreneurship-Award of TU Braunschweig and Ostfalia
More Information
Publications