“NRW has a strong research community – both in terms of academia and enterprises.”

Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff, talks to BIO.NRW about her career to date and the challenges she faced when founding her enterprise AiCuris. In the interview, she also talks about why she still feels at home in NRW and what it is that makes this place so exciting and interesting, particularly for biotechnology research.

Vita
In 2006, Prof. Dr. Rübsamen-Schaeff founded the enterprise AiCuris – Anti-infective Cures AG in Wuppertal as a spin-off from Bayer HealthCare’s anti-infective research, which she headed from 1994 until 2006. AiCuris specializes in the discovery, research, and development of novel agents for the treatment of infectious diseases, and its first drug has been successfully on the market since 2017 – a great success for a young company.  After founding and heading AiCuris as CEO, she became a member of AiCuris’ Supervisory Board. Before her time at Bayer, she was the scientific and executive director of the Chemotherapy Research Institute Georg-Speyer-Haus in Frankfurt, where she worked on HIV and cancer. A Doctor of Chemistry, Prof Rübsamen-Schaeff was awarded the venia legendi from the Goethe University in Frankfurt and has been professor of biochemistry there since 1988. Prof. Dr. Rübsamen-Schaeff has served on numerous committees, such as the Senate of the Fraunhofer Society, the University Council of the University of Vienna and the Scientific Panel for Health under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Presently, she is a member of the board of partners of E. Merck KG and the chair of its research council as well as a member of the supervisory board of Merck KGaA. She is also a member of Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences and a member of acatech. She has been awarded numerous science and management prizes.

BIO.NRW would like to thank Prof. Dr. Rübsamen-Schaeff for taking the time to talk to us and would like to wish her well in her future endeavours.

You can also find the video on our YouTube channel.