Living Therapeutic Materials – Leibniz ScienceCampus Saarbrücken

In the treatment of chronic diseases, biologically produced drugs are often used where it is important that they can be administered to the patient in long term and in individually tailored form.

The Leibniz ScienceCampus Living Therapeutic Materials in Saarbruecken has set itself the goal of preparing materials in which bacteria produce drugs that can be released into the human body in a controlled manner over a long period of time. For this purpose, the bacteria are genetically “programmed” for their task and enclosed in implantable carrier material. This material is permeable to the active ingredient, but prevents the bacteria from entering the human body. Nevertheless, they are permanently available as active ingredient producers. The bacteria-based implants are also provided with sensory functions that release active substances in response to specific physiological changes.

The tasks of the ScienceCampus also include the investigation of medical scenarios in which living therapeutic materials enable cost-effective applications of advanced biopharmaceuticals, preclinical studies, and the investigation of possible risks with the development of strategies for their prediction and minimization.

Such a demanding and complex project naturally requires know-how and competence from many different specialist areas. That is why the ScienceCampus combines material competence with pharmaceutical expertise and specialist knowledge in the fields of medicine, life sciences and bioinformatics through its partners. A total of 16 research groups are involved in the three partner institutions.