Production cell lines

Developing a medicine involves a great deal of time and expense. Fraunhofer IGB supports pharmaceutical and biotechnology enterprises through the development and biotechnological production of generic proteins, as well as the development of new therapeutic proteins.

Our interest in therapeutic proteins is focused on the recombinant production and protein design of cytokines such as interferons where we already have made great success. As the first therapeutic protein developed at a Fraunhofer laboratory, a biogeneric β-interferon has been approved to the market in 2006. A more soluble variant of interferon-beta genetically engineered at the IGB is being clinically investigated by the Vakzine Projekt Management (VPM) GmbH in Braunschweig, Germany.

In addition, functional genome and proteome analysis technologies established at IGB have led to a large number of potential target molecules for the therapy of infections by the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans and have thus opened possibilities for new medical drugs.