Center Conducts Groundbreaking Biotech Research
Published Apr 16, 2008
Vidadi Yusibov leads Fraunhofer USA Center’s study of plant biotechnology.
Improving health on a global scale is the raison d’être of the Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology.
A not-for-profit, contract research organization, the 54-employee operation joins forces with government, academia and industry for innovative research in plant biotechnology to produce valuable proteins.
Since its inception in 2001, the Fraunhofer center has been located in the Delaware Technology Park adjacent to the University of Delaware campus in Newark.
The latest in its list of significant research grants came in May 2007 from the U.S. Department of Defense. The grant – to further develop and validate a system for speedier manufacture of vaccines – initially was for $2.6 million and could eventually reach $8.5 million. The goal is to generate 3 million doses of vaccine or immune-therapeutic treatment within 12 weeks of a pandemic biological outbreak.
To date, Fraunhofer has landed three grants totaling $7.4 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for development of vaccines to combat malaria, influenza and African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness. Trypanosomiasis, spread by the bite of the tsetse fly, afflicts 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and is fatal if left untreated.
Fraunhofer partners with Integrated BioPharma Inc., a private New Jersey company that creates, develops, manufactures and markets health products worldwide, thus helping Fraunhofer “move our work from academic, so-called ‘bench research’ to large-scale production,” says Executive Director Vidadi Yusibov. “It all ties in together quite well.”
Another successful tie-in is Fraunhofer’s creation and sponsorship of the Governor Minner Biotechnology Scholarship Fund, named in honor of Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who is known for her support of the industry. Each year, three Delaware college students majoring in biology or biotechnology are honored.
“Being in cutting-edge technology, we know that we need trained and talented people – and we need them locally so that we don’t have to recruit them from, for example, California or the Boston area,” Yusibov says.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Stephen Cherry
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