Harald Pichler is associate professor of Molecular Biotechnology and speaker of the Doctoral School Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology at Graz University of Technology, Austria. He has a background in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biotechnology & Food Chemistry and obtained his PhD from Graz University of Technology for research on lipid synthesis and transport in yeast. Subsequently to postdoctoral studies in Basel and Geneva (Switzerland) dealing with the roles of sterols in endocytosis, he returned to Graz University of Technology joining the newly founded Institute of Molecular Biotechnology.

Harald Pichler and his team engineer and employ diverse bacteria and yeasts for industrial applications. Biosynthesis and biotransformation of hydrophobic compounds, ie. sterols, (volatile) terpenoids, fatty acids and derivatives thereof, is the prime R&D interest. Protein secretion and biorefinery approaches are of central interest as well. Recently and serendipitously, aspects of cultivated meat production are being tackled.