Dr. Ole Pless

room 2.28

Tel.: +49 (0) 40 303764 232

Email: ole.pless@itmp.fraunhofer.de

The ScreeningPort of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Hamburg has substantial expertise in assay development and high-throughput screening as well as structure-based drug design. The ScreeningPort is a division within the IME, which is headquartered in Aachen and has around 650 scientists working across eight sites in Germany, Chile and the United States. The IME operates in the applied life sciences from the molecular to the ecosystem level in the areas of pharmacy, medicine, chemistry, and agriculture. Within IME, the ScreeningPort works in four main areas: Drug discovery, life sciences informatics using “Big Data” approaches, clinical trial support / in vitro diagnostic development, and development of novel life science technologies.

Ongoing work in the BMBF-funded biomarker group located at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (Zentrum für Molekulare Neurobiologie Hamburg, ZMNH) involves support for several clinical trials for neurodegenerative diseases using profiling of markers of inflammation. Furthermore, the group aims at identifying and validating biomarkers for neurodegeneration based on proteins, small non-coding RNAs and metabolites in patient specimen.

The IME ScreeningPort (IME-SP) has long-standing contracts and collaborations with major discovery technology companies including Perkin-Elmer Inc. (novel imaging instrumentation), Tecan AG (process automation), Sigma-Aldrich (imaging of molecular interactions using proximity ligation analysis), Promega Inc. (assays for epigenetic targets in cancer) and Axiogenesis AG (imaging of 3D microtissues from hiPSC). Furthermore, the IME has excellent links with the pharmaceutical industry and other potential end-users of the results and is part of three Innovative Medicine Initiative consortia. The IME ScreeningPort is a participant in six running FP7 projects involving different stages in hit and lead finding. This enables IME-SP to successfully identify starting points for future therapies to treat age-related metabolic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. For additional information please refer to https://www.itmp.fraunhofer.de/