Our Team

Managing Director, CEO

Dr. Jens Altrichter is a board certified physician in Biochemistry and founder of the ARTCLINE GmbH.

During the first years of his medical education, he worked intensively on immunology, biochemistry and cell biology. In addition he completed numerous internships domestically and abroad, at the Brown University and the University of Iowa, USA for instance.

In 1994, he received the Joachim-Jungius-Award of the University of Rostock, Germany.

In 1995, Dr. Altrichter received a DAAD grant for a one-year research stay in the USA and worked as a visiting researcher at the "National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease" at the "National Institutes of Health" in Rockville, Maryland. In his research project he dealt with the basics of the importance of tyrosine phosphatases in the immune response.

After his return to Rostock, Dr. Altrichter worked on various research projects in the fields of immunology, biochemistry and molecular biology as well as with cell cultures up to 40 l fermenters. As head of a BSL2 laboratory for genetic engineering at the University of Rostock he gave lectures and seminars and accompanied students during their internships.

As an inventor and co-inventor, his name is listed on numerous national and international patents from the fields of pharmaceuticals, medical technology and vaccines. In addition, various original and review articles were published with him as author or co-author.

Since 1998, Dr. Altrichter was managing director and board member of several biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies, most recently COO of LEUKOCARE AG. Main areas of his responsibility were research & development, general management, regulatory affairs and quality management as well as the planning, organization and evaluation of clinical studies.

Since 2007, Dr. Altrichter heads the ARTCLINE as CEO.

Contact: jens.altrichter@artcline.de

Managing Director, CSO

Prof. Dr. Steffen Mitzner is a specialist in internal medicine and heads the Nephrology section at the department of internal medicine at the University Hospital of Rostock, Germany.

He was intensively involved with the subject of extracorporeal organ support at an early stage. Together with the physician Dr. Jan Stange and other team members, he developed the liver support system MARS^® in the early 1990s. Actually the therapy is marketed by the company Baxter and is used worldwide.

Since 1998, Prof. Mitzner has founded and leads various research groups and projects. The extracorporeal organ replacement group at the Clinic for Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of Rostock, the Center for Extracorporeal Organ Support (CEOS) since 2008 and the Fraunhofer project group "Extracorporeal Immunomodulation" (EXIM) since 2011 are worth mentioning here.

Prof. Mitzner has been a principal investigator in clinical studies and was involved in the planning and protocol preparation of clinical studies.

Actually 78 original and review articles have been published with him as author or co-author. As an inventor and co-inventor, his name is listed on a great variety in national and international patents.

Due to his many years of activity, Prof. Mitzner has extensive experience in the area of the development of therapeutic blood treatment procedures.

At ARTCLINE he is responsible for research, development and scientific marketing.

Contact: steffen.mitzner@artcline.de

Head of Clinical Development

Dr. med. Dirk Zielske is a medical doctor and studied at the medical faculties of the Universities of Bonn, Essen and Cambridge. He received his general surgical education in Essen and Kiel.

Dr. Zielske has an outstanding track record of more than 20 years' experience in clinical research and development in the pharmaceutical industry (Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, Baxter etc.) as well as in medical technology (Biom'Up, Adhesys Medical) on a global level.

During this time, he developed into a recognized expert in the field of planning and coordinating clinical approval-studies of phases 1 - 3 in the areas of intensive care, sepsis and traumatology.

Dr. Zielske will initially be mainly responsible for ARTCLINE’s multi-center study. It is a randomized, controlled clinical trial with more than 100 patients with septic shock. The study is being carried out in intensive care units in several German hospitals and is intended to show not only safety but also the effectiveness of ARTCLINE's immune cell therapy.

Contact: dirk.zielske@artcline.de

Project Manager Medical Device Development

Thomas Wild studied at the University of Rostock and has a degree as an engineer for device system technology.

He has more than 20 years of experience in the product development and project management in biotechnology and medical technology. He was involved in several medical technology innovations, such as the extracorporeal liver support MARS^® or the world's first Bluetooth ECG device.

As a project manager in the Extracorporeal Immunomodulation department of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Thomas led various projects on kidney replacement therapies and products. In addition he was a winner of an ideas competition and still leads a project to set up a test laboratory in addition to his daily job.

At ARTCLINE, he is involved in the development of the ARTICE-System, which he supervised from the beginning.

Beside his professional career, he co-wrote and still works on several scientific publications.

Thomas Wild is responsible for the project management of the technical development projects of ARTCLINE GmbH. In particular, he is responsible for the development of the therapy device and the single-use components of the ARTICE treatment system. In addition he is responsible for other areas, such as IT and occupational safety.

Contact: thomas.wild@artcline.de

Project Manager Cell Biological Development

Fanny Doß studied at the University of Rostock and has a degree in biology with a focus on microbiology and immunology.

She is author and co-author of several scientific publications. Fanny and the team often present their findings at international congresses. As a co-inventor, her name is listed on national and international patents.

Beside her more than 15 years of professional experience Fanny is certified as a DGQ quality manager and IHK trainer. The combination of her competence and extensive experience provides the ideal conditions for their work and projects.

Since 2011, Fanny Doß is responsible for our cell biological development and the planning and implementation of complex functional tests on cells in the laboratory. Furthermore, she is responsible for the quality management and the monitoring of our quality standards.

As a certified trainer, she is the first point of contact for our trainees and students who want to write their final thesis.

Contact: fanny.doss@artcline.de