Short biography

Studies in biology, PhD in biochemistry (1992), habilitation in high-throughput methods (2003) all at the University of Heidelberg. Parallel to the group of Prof. Greg Winter Dr. Breitling invented the new technology of recombinant antibodies, which he advanced further in the groups of Prof. Dr. M. Little (DKFZ) and Prof. Dr. E.K.F. Bautz (University of Heidelberg). He then moved to the DKFZ department Molecular Genome Analysis, which was headed by Prof. Annemarie Poustka (1997-2004), and later became one of three independent leaders of the DKFZ-group Chip based peptide libraries (2004-2009). There, he worked on his inventions of particle based high-density peptide arrays and on the construction of a library of human hybridomas. Since September 2009 Dr. Breitling works at KIT. Most of his patents were licensed to companies. They are the economical basis of DKFZ spin-off companies Affimend (www.affimed.com) and PEPperPRINT (www.PEPperPRINT.com). In 2009 PEPperPRINT won the renowned business plan competition Science4Life (awarded with 30.000 €).

Selected publications, reviews, awards, and patents:

Publications:
Breitling F, Dübel S, Seehaus T, Klewinghaus I und Little M. (1991) A surface expression vector for antibody screening. Gene 104, 147-153.

Fuchs P, Breitling F, Dübel S, Seehaus T und Little M. (1991) Targeting recombinant antibodies to the surface of Escherichia coli: Fusion to a peptidoglycan associated lipoprotein. (Nature)Biotechnology 9, 1369-1372.

Rondot S, Koch J. Breitling F und Dübel S. (2001) A helper phage to improve single-chain antibody presentation in phage display. Nature Biotechnology 19, 75-78.

Rondot S, Anthony K, Dübel S, Ida N, Wiemann S, Beyreuther K, Frost L, Little M und Breitling F. (1998) Epitopes fused to F-Pilin are Incorporated into Functional Recombinant Pili. Journal of Molecular Biology 279, 589-603.

Beyer M, Felgenhauer T, Bischoff FR, Breitling F und Stadler V. (2006) A novel glass slide-based peptide array support with high functionality resisting non-specific protein adsorption. Biomaterials 27, 3505-3514; Epub 2006 Feb 24

Stadler V, Beyer M, König K, Nesterov A, Torralba G, Lindenstruth V, Hausmann M, Bischoff FR und Breitling F. (2007) Multifunctional CMOS microchip coatings for protein and peptide arrays. J Prot Res 6, 3197-3202.

Beyer M, Nesterov A, Block I, König K, Felgenhauer T, Fernandez S, Leibe K, Torralba G, Hausmann M, Trunk U, Lindenstruth V, Bischoff FR, Stadler V und Breitling F. (2007) Combinatorial synthesis of peptide arrays onto a computer chip’s surface. Science 318, 1888.

Stadler V, Felgenhauer T, Beyer M, Fernandez S, Leibe K, Güttler S, Gröning M, Torralba G, Hausmann M, Lindenstruth V, Nesterov A, Block I, Pipkorn R, Poustka A, Bischoff FR und Breitling F. (2008) Combinatorial synthesis of peptide arrays with a laser printer. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 47, 7132 –7135.

Nesterov A, Löffler F, Cheng YC, Torralba G, König K, Hausmann M, Lindenstruth V, Stadler V, Bischoff FR und Breitling F. (2010) Characterization of triboelectrically charged particles deposited on dielectric surfaces. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 in press

Reviews / textbook:
Breitling F und Dübel S. (1998) Rekombinante Antikörper. 227 Seiten. Erscheint in der Bücherreihe Focus im Labor. Spektrum Verlag, Heidelberg. ISBN 3-8274-0029-5

Breitling F und Dübel S. (1999) Recombinant Antibodies. 161 Seiten. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York N.Y. ISBN 0-471-17847-0

Breitling F, Felgenhauer T, Nesterov A, Stadler V und Bischoff FR. (2009) High-density peptide arrays. Molecular BioSystems 5, 224-234. Epub 2009 Jan 16. Review

Breitling F, Felgenhauer T, Nesterov A, Lindenstruth V, Stadler V und Bischoff FR. (2009) Particle-based combinatorial peptide synthesis. CHEMBIOCHEM 10, 803-808. Concept article.

Breitling F, Löffler F, Schirwitz C, Cheng YC, Märkle F, König K, Felgenhauer T, Dörsam E, Bischoff FR und Nesterov A. Alternative Setups for Automated Peptide Synthesis. Mini Reviews in Organic Chemistry. in press. Review.

Felgenhauer T, Schirwitz C und Breitling F (2010) Peptide synthesis. Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (Last updated: 29 Apr 2010) published online 10.1002/14356007.a19_157.pub2

Awards: 
Breitling F and Bischoff FR. 2^nd winner of the business plan competition Genius Biotech Award (March 2001; 40.000 DM, organised by the state Baden-Württemberg).

Breitling F, Bischoff FR, Wallich R, Poustka A, Stadler V, and Breitling F. Winner of Innovationswettbewerb Medizintechnik with the project Borrelia peptidome arrays (November 2001)

Stadler V, Bischoff FR, Felgenhauer T, Kring M, and Breitling F. 1^st winner of the business plan competition Science4Life with the project Fertigung und Vertrieb von Biochips zur Parallel-Synthese unterschiedlicher Peptide (June 2009, 30.000 €, nation-wide competition).

Breitling F, Bischoff FR, Stadler V, Felgenhauer T, Leibe K, Fernandez S (all from DKFZ or KIT) and Güttler S, Gröning M, Willems P, Biesinger B (Fraunhofer IPA). Winner of Wissenschaftspreis des Stifterverbandes with the project Peptide laser printer (May 2008, 50.000 €).

Patents: 
Breitling F, Fuchs P, Little M, and Dübel S. (1991) Recombinant antibodies at the surface of E.coli. Patents DE4122598, EP547200B1, US5591604. Licensed to Bayer AG.

Breitling F, Little M, Dübel S, Braunagel M, and Klewinghaus I. (1991) Phagemid for antibody screening. Patents DE4122599, EP547201, US6730483, US6387627. Licensed to Behringwerke and to SME Affimed.

Breitling F, Little M, Dübel S, Seehaus T, and Klewinghaus I. (1990) Herstellung und Verwendung von Genbanken synthetischer menschlicher Antikörper ("synthetic human-antibody-libraries"), Patents DE4002897, EP440146, US5840479, JP4211395. Licensed to Behringwerke and to SME Affimed.

Breitling F, Moldenhauer G, and Poustka A. (2000). Selection of monoclonal antibodies. Patents EP1141271B1 (issued 2005), WO2000042176A1. Licensed to SME Abeome.

Breitling F, Poustka A, Groß KH, Dübel S, and Saffrich R. (1999). Method and devices for applying substances to a support, especially monomers for the combinatorial synthesis of molecule libraries. AU773048B (issued 2004), EP1140977B1 (issued 2005), US20020006672A1, JP4471329B1 (issued 2010). Licensed to PEPperPRINT GmbH.

Breitling F, Moldenhauer G, Lüttgau S, Kühlwein T, and Poustka A. (2001) Methods of producing protein libraries and selection of proteins from them. Patents EP1298207B1 (issued 2010), WO2003029458A2. Currently maintained by DKFZ.