Dr Bärbel Icheln studied chemistry at the University of Hamburg, where she obtained her doctorate in analytical organic chemistry in 1995. As part of her doctorate, she completed a research stay in Brazil. With her postdoctoral research position in 1996 at the McGill Cancer Centre, Montreal, in the group of Irving W. Wainer, she switched to the fields of healthcare and life sciences.

In 1997, she became part of the “Biotechnology Taskforce” at Strathmann AG and gained her first experience with start-ups when CellTec GmbH was founded within the Strathmann Group. In 1999, she moved to the medical department as a scientific consultant for pharmaceuticals. In December 2002, she took over the sales and marketing of research reagents at Strathmann Biotech GmbH.

In 2006, she decided to found her own company for research reagents in the life sciences, Active Bioscience GmbH. From 2006 to 2019, she also worked as Managing Director at PetroTech GmbH, the German subsidiary of PeproTech Inc. one of the world’s leading companies for the production of recombinant proteins for research.

Since 2019, as Managing Director of Active Bioscience GmbH, she has focused on further expanding her company’s business activities and began offering management consulting as a complementary line of business for companies in the life sciences sector. Her focus is on providing strategy consulting in the areas of sourcing and project management as well as innovation management for start-ups, biotech and diagnostics companies.