On April 13th, the planned stem cell research center CARE was presented to politicians, scientists and managers of pharma and biotech industry. The „Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering“ (CARE) will be launched in January 2017.
The research institute will house 60 employees. To date, a suitable location in Bavaria is still to be found. Odds-on favourite is the biotech Campus Martinsried. Originally, the stem cell institute was planned for the location Munster in Nordrhine-Westphalia by Prof. Hans Schöler, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Munster. But the project was stopped there. Then Bavaria offered a new home for the prestigious project. The Bavarian government agreed to fund the center with Euro 15 million for the next five years. “CARE is a raw diamond, now in the right setting in the excellent environment of the biotech cluster Munich”, said Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Ilse Aigner.
Prof. Hans Schöler explained the scientific concept, which focuses on translation. The aim is to develop high-throughput assays for drug development with the help of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and patient-specific disease models. “Our focus lies on neurodegenerative diseases”, said Schöler. “But our way to look for new therapeutic approaches is generally open to investigate all kind of cells and indications.” Markus Enzelberger, Senior Vice President of Morphosys AG, added: „Translation is especially difficult for biologics. Not every antibody discovered in research will make it into the industry. Therefore, we see a great added value by CARE to make translation more efficient.”
A further element included in the CARE consortium is the Lead Discovery Center (LDC) in Dortmund. An LDCbiologics is planned in Munich as well. This will bundle academic drug discovery from chemistry, pharmacy and biology in one translational unit.
The kick-off meeting in Munich Residence with more than 100 participants was organised by BioM, the cluster management organisation of Munich and Bavaria. CEO Prof. Horst Domdey commented: “As a nationally leading location for drug development, we do everything we can to further develop the competencies and offers for industry co-operations. Our successes – not only of our highlight projects – prove us right.”
Pictures of the kick-off meeting: www.bio-m.org/biom-veranstaltungen/bilder-care.html