About Dr. Aleš Štrancar

Dr. Aleš Štrancar is a Slovenian scientist and entrepreneur, internationally recognized as a pioneer of Convective Interaction Media (CIM) monolithic chromatography and delivery systems analytics. Born in Slovenia, he earned his PhD in biotechnological sciences from the University of Ljubljana in 1997, where his groundbreaking research on monolithic chromatographic supports laid the foundation for a new era in bioseparation technology.

After beginning CIM technology development in 1992, Dr. Strancar founded BIA Separations in 1998 (now Sartorius BIA Separations), a company dedicated to the development and commercialization of CIM monolithic columns. These innovative stationary phases revolutionized the purification of large biological molecules, including viruses, virus-like particles, plasmid DNA, and gene therapy vectors.

Over more than three decades of research and development, Dr. Strancar and his team at BIA Separations played a pivotal role in advancing bioprocess analytics, delivery systems analytics, and large-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Their CIM technology became instrumental in the production of Zolgensma, one of the world's most expensive gene therapies, developed by AveXis (Novartis Gene Therapies) for spinal muscular atrophy.

In 2020, Sartorius acquired BIA Separations for approximately EUR 360 million (approximately $423 million), recognizing the strategic importance of monolithic chromatography in the rapidly growing gene therapy and viral vector manufacturing market.