Our story
The emp story so far
Starting up
Founded by Derek Levison in Mainz in 1993, emp BIOTECH has undergone an inspiring evolution from being the German distributor of Levison’s father’s company, Princeton Separations, Inc., into being a leading primary manufacturer of fine chemicals, labeling kits, oligo reagents, and solid phases for purification – ranging from early-stage research and development to large-scale manufacturing in pharmaceutical and biotech environments.
1993
1995
West meets East
emp Biotech moves from Mainz to Berlin.
Founder Derek Levison contacts the Cech group at the Humboldt University, looking into novel fluorescent dyes and DNA.
Derek Levison meets chemist Uwe Möller.
Investing and connecting
Levison visits the US to introduce his German contacts to his business partners at Princeton Separations, Inc., who support the young company to hire staff and expand.
On the move
Uwe Möller is hired by emp BIOTECH.
Expansion
emp BIOTECH expands into R&D.
1997
1998
Expansion
emp BIOTECH opens new premises in Berlin-Buch.
Labeling division established
emp BIOTECH begins selling its own first products – fluorescent dyes and protein labeling kits.
emp Biotech attends its first trade show at Biotechnica in Hannover.
1999
2002
Synthesis division established
First production of reagents for automated
oligonucleotide synthesis.
Purification division established
First delivery of CentriPure N10 columns.
2009
2014
Expansion for oligo reagent manufacture
New production facility opened in Berlin-Tempelhof.
Expansion for Zetadex resin synthesis
New production facility opened in Berlin-Buch.
2017
2019
Further expansion for oligo reagents
New large scale production facility opened in Berlin-Adlershof.
Recent innovations
CentriPure Magna
One-step desalting and buffer exchange for large samples.
With our CentriPure Magna Columns the ease and convenience of rapid desalting and buffer exchange is now extended up to 100 mL and beyond.
SMART Chromatography™
Revolutionizing protein purification.
SMART Chromatography™ eliminates the bottleneck from your downstream process. It allows linear scalable purification of biomolecules directly from the bioreactor, removing the need to first clarify the feed stream and essentially replacing expanded bed chromatography.
TurboTag™
Fastest protein labeling kit on the market.
The TurboTag kit provides fast and accurate labeling and purification of 100 µg to 1 mg of enzymes, antibodies, and other proteins. Just 10 minutes from start to finish, including purification.
Next chapters
The future looks bright. emp BIOTECH continues to experience intense and growing demand for its unique range of products and technologies.
As a result, emp BIOTECH is rapidly expanding its manufacturing and development capabilities.
New facilities
Plans for a large facility in Berlin-Marzahn at CleanTech Business Park are underway. This includes the world’s first large-scale facility for recycling synthetic therapeutic oligonucleotides – part of emp BIOTECH’s endeavor to make science sustainable. A new production site will also be established in the United States in response to soaring interest from US clients.
New tools
True to emp BIOTECH’s nature, new products and technologies continue to be advanced to best serve the needs of Life Sciences. High throughput antibody purification, new SMART Chromatography™ resins for the purification of VLPs, and safe removal of radiolabels from therapeutics are just a few of the innovative examples currently being developed at emp BIOTECH.
New products
CentriPure MIDI Spin Columns, new amino-reactive fluorescent dyes, EZ Dry Mega moisture traps, CentriPure Column Arrays in 96, 48, and 24 column formats, and extension of the CentriPure Magna line to include up to 200 mL sample processing, are all to be launched in 2023.