Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME

Welcome to the Fraunhofer IME. We conduct research in the field of applied life sciences from a molecular level to entire ecosystems and are your partner for contract research in the areas of pharmacy, medicine, chemistry, agriculture, as well as environmental and consumer protection. Our research and development portfolio is focused on industry, small and medium enterprises and on the public sector.

The overarching goal of our research activities at Fraunhofer IME is the development and use of novel technologies for diagnosis and therapy of human and animal diseases as well as the protection of crop plants and food sources.

Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME together with the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen analysed the venom of wasp spiders and discovered a subset of novel biomolecules. Their results have recently been published in "Biomolecules".

The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME want to pave the way for new therapies against multiple sclerosis. The aim of a joint project is to characterize a target protein and further develop suitable drug candidates that specifically prevent the injury of nerve cells, which is responsible for the progressive disability in multiple sclerosis. The project is funded with 1.2 million Euro by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of a program for the validation of disease-related target structures.

The work conducted by an interdisciplinary research team from the Center of Hybrid Nanostructures (University ofHamburg) and ScreeningPort of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Hamburg made it to the cover oft he journal Biomaterials Science. The researchers cultivated electrophysiologically mature neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells on free-standing nanowire arrays. This nanowire set-up enables bidirectional communication with neural circuits with enhanced spatiotemporal precision.

To date, there is neither a vaccine nor drugs for treating COVID-19 patients available. Researchers of the international consortium iCAIR® are working on the development of novel anti-infective agents to treat or prevent clinically significant diseases of the respiratory tract caused by viruses, fungi and bacteria – and they recently started a project aimed at developing medications to combat the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The Hamburg site of Fraunhofer IME contributes its expertise in drug discovery and drug repurposing based on automated high-throughput technology to this project.

Fraunhofer IME recently published a preprint article on a repurposing screen of 5.600 known drugs, clinical candidates and bioactives (Fraunhofer IME repurposing collection), which identified multiple inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro cellular toxicity in a phenotypic format using human (Caco-2) cells. The study was run by Fraunhofer IME in collaboration with the Goethe-University Frankfurt.

With the "COVID-19 Knowledge Space", Fraunhofer SCAI – together with Fraunhofer IME, Fraunhofer IAIS, the Information Center for Life Sciences ZBMED and other research partners – is opening a new kind of knowledge space with analysis tools and information on COVID-19. This website provides central services that allow access to publicly available data on current COVID-19 research. Fraunhofer IME at its site in Hamburg will contribute its expertise in linking chemical information of drug molecules with antiviral properties against COVID-19 and other data, such as toxicity and possible side effects.

In the fight against pandemics, the rapid availability of appropriate diagnostic kits and the emergency production of vaccines and antiviral drugs are essential. In the latest issue of the renowned journal "Trends in Plant Science", plant biotechnologists discuss what makes plants attractive as a fast, scalable production system for vaccines and antiviral drugs or for the production of protein antigens and antibodies for diagnostic kits. Co-author is Prof. Stefan Schillberg from Fraunhofer IME in Aachen.