Philochem is a Zurich-based biotechnology company that was founded in 2006. Philochem is a fully owned daughter company of Philogen [www.philogen.com], and represents the Discovery Unit of the Philogen group. The Philochem AG has currently 14 employees, with a plan to expand to 20 employees by the end of 2012. In Otelfingen (10 Km from Zurich, Switzerland), Philochem owns a 6.800 m2 building. Since 2011, 1.100 m2 have been restructured and are dedicated to laboratories, fully equipped for chemical and biological research. Philochem's mission is to develop innovative technologies
for ligand discovery (antibodies and small organic molecules), target identification and drug development.

Philochem scientists have pioneered innovative methodologies for the isolation of human monoclonal antibodies, for the discovery and validation of vascular markers of pathology and for the construction and screening of DNA-encoded chemical libraries of unprecedented quality and size. These technologies are integrated into drug discovery programs, with the aim to develop superior products for the imaging and treatment of serious angiogenesis-related diseases. Furthermore, Philochem has performed mass spectrometry-based chemical proteomics research for many years, both for in house discovery projects and in collaboration with industrial partners, such as Pfizer [http://philochem.ch/collaborations.html].

Dr. Sarah Wulhfard has performed her Ph.D. thesis at EPFL Lausanne in the field of recombinant protein expression and since 2011 is leading the antibody research and discovery group at Philochem.

Dr. Mattia Matasci has performed his Ph.D. at University Hospital Zurich and in 2011 he joined the antibody isolation and phage display unit at Philochem.

Dr. Tim Fugmann has performed his Ph.D. at the ETH Zürich in the field of mass spectrometry based proteomic discovery of disease biomarkers. Since 2010, he is leading the target discovery group at Philochem.