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 agriculture, chemistry, environmental and consumer protection, as well as pharmacy and medicine. 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 the protection crop plants and food sources as well as diagnosis and therapy of human and animal diseases.

The Fraunhofer Institutes ITEM and IME and Ramboll were commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency to develop a survey to test the OECD Test Guidelines. OECD Test Guidelines display an important tool to evaluate the impacts of chemicals on the environment.

Within the framework of a virtual meeting, Dr. Kwang-Zin Lee accepted the grant for the joint project "HOPE" of around 250,000 euros for the Bioresources Branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME.

In a project funded by the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) and carried out by Fraunhofer IME, an advanced concept is applied to investigate the accumulation of substances in an exemplary freshwater food web.
The general aim is to support the regulatory risk assessment of bioaccumulating chemicals. For this purpose, organisms were sampled from different trophic levels of Lake Templin, a part of the Havel River near Berlin.

Proteins are vital for life. At the same time, there is a protein shortage in the global food supply. Due to extreme weather conditions as a result of climate change as well as soil and water pollution caused by the use of pesticides and fertilizers, this shortage can increase in the future. One approach to tackle this challenge is to open up novel protein sources as a sustainable alternative for animal source foods suitable for the masses. In the lighthouse project “FutureProteins”, six Fraunhofer institutes develop new cultivation systems, which can produce nutritious proteins from selected plants, insects, fungi and algae.

On behalf of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME is coordinating the EU project PhotoBoost. The aim of the project is to boost the photosynthetic performance of crop plants like rice and potatoes by combining both novel and already established  molecular biology strategies.

Within the Fraunhofer High Performance Center “International Center for Networked, Adapted Production” (ICNAP), the three Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Production Technology IPT, Laster Technology ILT, and Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME along with RWTH Aachen University and industry partners jointly develop and validate production systems for Industrie 4.0. The Fraunhofer IME sets its focus on the manufacturing of recombinant proteins by means of big data analytics. 

Since 1st January 2021, the Branch for Bioresources of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME has a new deputy director: Prof. Dr. Holger Zorn. The professor of food chemistry and food biotechnology will support the head of the branch institute Prof. Dr. Andreas Vilcinskas at the Gießen site.