It is one of the biggest hurdles in modern biotechnology: the transition of bioprocesses from the laboratory to industrial large-scale production. In his inaugural lecture at Audimax II, Prof. Dr. Stephan Freyer highlighted the crucial decisions made during the early project phase. Under the title “Pathway, Product, Process: Why Biotech Processes Often Fail – and Sometimes Don’t,” he also addressed a rather unexpected topic: communication.
With this inaugural lecture, TU Hamburg celebrated the awarding of the title of Professor to the scientist in accordance with § 17 of the Hamburg Higher Education Act, which had already taken place in February 2025. With Prof. Dr. Freyer, TUHH fosters the integration of exceptionally high practical expertise into teaching. He looks back on a 32-year career at the German chemical company BASF, where he most recently served as Director of Enzyme E2E Process Transfer. In this leadership, he developed industrial manufacturing processes for enzymes and microorganisms. Today, as an honorary professor at the Institute of Technical Biocatalysis at TUHH, he passes on this knowledge through practice-oriented courses.
From the Laboratory to Large-Scale Production
Following TU President Prof. Andreas Timm-Giel and the Dean of the School of Process Engineering, Prof. Johannes Gescher, the institute head Prof. Andreas Liese also spoke: “The greatest challenge in industrial biotechnology is not to get a process running in the laboratory, but to reliably, economically, and sustainably scale it up to production level. Prof. Stephan Freyer has been instrumental in shaping this path over decades at BASF. Our students as well as the research at the Institute of Technical Biocatalysis benefit from this unique experience.”
Fermentation processes in biotechnology are highly complex and have far more variables than classical chemical syntheses, explained Prof. Dr. Stephan Freyer at the beginning of his lecture. For this reason, many promising developments fail at the transition to industrial practice – a hurdle also known as the “valley of death.” To successfully close this critical gap between the laboratory and industrial scale-up, a project must be planned starting from the goal: instead of beginning with the laboratory method, development must always start from the customer and their problem.
From a process engineering perspective, fermentation harbors classic development pitfalls. Besides the “screening trap,” where laboratory results fail at large scale, these include faulty nutrient feeds as well as varying sterilization times at different vessel sizes. Each vessel must therefore be understood as an individual reactor and modeled proactively.
The Key is Communication
According to Freyer, however, the biggest obstacles on the way to large-scale production often do not lie in biology or technology, but in the “terrain of systems” within a company. To describe these dynamics between different departments, he drew a bridge to the system theory of sociologist Niklas Luhmann. While the biological system in the reactor is based on reproduction, social systems – such as company departments – function purely through communication. Since each system constructs its own environment, a blocking “us-and-them” mindset quickly arises in people’s minds.
“Every system has its own language,” Freyer emphasized. “You have to find the right words for the right systems to create resonance.” In practice, this means accepting that you cannot transmit messages one-to-one. The counterpart always constructs what is said from the logic of their own system. Unclear communication is therefore one of the main reasons for the failure of innovation projects. Freyer’s conclusion was unmistakable: “Communication is the key to success.”
