In November 2024, Franziska Ullm took over as managing director of the b-ACT matter Research and Transfer Centre for Bioactive Matter, succeeding Dr. Susanne Ebitsch, who left Leipzig University in October to join the Centre for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC).
The University of Leipzig is not new territory for the biochemist, who hails from Saxony. She previously studied biology here and later completed a master’s degree in biochemistry with a specialisation in biomedicine.
After completing her studies, Franziska Ullm remained at Leipzig University for the time being: until 2022, she worked at the Institute of Biochemistry as a research assistant and doctoral candidate, where she gained experience in coordinating research projects and supervising young scientists.
For the past two years, she has been working at FILK Freiberg Institute gGmbH, a non-university research institution in Freiberg with an accredited testing laboratory that specialises in materials science and technology development.
Research and Transfer Centre for Bioactive Matter b-ACT matter
The interfaculty centre was established at Leipzig University in 2021 with the aim of translating the latest scientific findings even more quickly into innovations for companies in the structurally changing region of central Germany. To this end, greater use is to be made of biological resources and processes such as self-renewal and evolution. In combination with the possibilities offered by sensor technology, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, applications in medicine, biotechnology and environmental analysis are to be developed.
The transfer centre is funded by the federal programme ‘STARK – Strengthening the dynamics of transformation and new beginnings in the mining areas and at coal-fired power plant sites’.
