Press releases

The Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) will, in future, cooperate with Nomad Bioscience GmbH in developing anti-bacterial and anti-viral medications. The Fraunhofer IZI Department of Drug Design and Target Validation based in Halle (Saale) and the company with headquarters in Munich concluded a relevant research and development agreement in July 2020.

As a pioneer in applied research, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft brings together the expertise of 23 separate Fraunhofer facilities to develop new development and production technologies for innovative cell and gene therapeutics, as well as vaccines, in the “Production for Intelligent Medicine” innovation cluster. As a first step of the project, a concept for a modular pilot plant for the automatic production of these therapeutics is to be developed combining both Industry 4.0 and Health 4.0.

With over 1.2 million people affected in Germany alone and over 50 million people worldwide, Alzheimer's disease, also referred to simply as Alzheimer's, is one of the greatest medical and social challenges of our time. Due to pathological changes in the brain, patients become increasingly forgetful and disoriented as the disease progresses. In the worst cases, even close relatives are no longer recognized and simple household tasks can no longer be carried out independently. This means care is needed for those affected. Despite intensive research, Alzheimer's disease is still considered incurable today. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology Leipzig-Halle have described a promising approach to treating Alzheimer's disease. The results have been published in the journal Biochemistry.

Led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI in Leipzig, as well as the Department of Urology of the University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine of the Technische Universität Dresden, a team of researchers has succeeded, for the first time, in identifying prognostic biomarkers for prostate cancer which are based on transcriptome-wide gene sequencing. The description of the developed gene signature for the assessment of prostate cancer after surgery has now been published in the renowned “European Urology” journal.

On 20th May 2020, the Astacin Proteases junior working group started its work at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI). This group, which is headed by Dr Daniel Ramsbeck, primarily focuses on the design and development of meprin inhibitors and the development of ovastacin inhibitors. The research group will be funded by the Investitionsbank Sachsen-Anhalt (using funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)) for a period of roughly two years.

A new technology developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) facilitates a specific, sensitive diagnosis of the Dengue virus. The patented procedure has been licensed to two companies and corresponding antibody tests are now available on the market. As a result, both the four different Dengue virus serotypes can be differentiated and also the Dengue virus itself can be distinguished from other closely related flaviviruses, which include the yellow fever virus and tick-borne encephalitis virus, in addition to the Zika virus and the West Nile virus. Moreover, work is already underway to adapt the procedure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the West Nile virus.

On 23 April 2020, Professor Ulrich Demuth was elected to the German Ethics Council by the Bundestag. He was then formally appointed by President of the Bundestag, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble, on 30 April 2020. At present, Professor Demuth works for the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) in an advisory capacity. Until January 2020, he headed the Fraunhofer IZI Branch of Bioanalytics and Bioprocesses at the Potsdam-Golm site and ran the Fraunhofer IZI Drug Design and Target Validation Department in Halle (Saale), which he set up in 2013.

They want to make better use of the body's self-healing powers and make "living drugs" available to many patients: Scientists from the TU Dresden, the University of Leipzig, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI have started the conception phase in their joint cluster SaxoCell in the innovation competition "Clusters4Future" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The SaxoCell project has started on May 1st 2020 and was selected as one of 16 out of 137 proposals for funding of the first concept phase in 2020.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI were able to prove that ticks transmit the Q fever pathogen. Tick feces, which contain high concentrations of the bacteria, play a particularly important role in this process.

A meprin protease inhibitor and assay platform developed at Fraunhofer IZI are the basis for the research collaboration with Vivoryon Therapeutics AG. Headed by PD Dr. Stephan Schilling, the Department of Drug Design and Target Validation will work with the company to develop first-class small molecule meprin inhibitors. The aim is to develop therapeutic applications for fibrosis, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.