His­tory

The his­tory of ISAR Bioscience begins with plans of Hans Schöler at the Max Planck Insti­tute for Molecu­lar Bio­medi­cine in Mün­ster to estab­lish a trans­la­tional research insti­tute. The aim was to make the res­ults of basic research quickly avail­able for med­ical use. Spe­cific­ally, Hans Schöler’s team was inter­ested in new tech­no­lo­gies in stem cell research, in par­tic­u­lar the so-called iPS cells (= induced pluri­po­tent stem cells). These are stem cells that can be pro­duced from the body’s nor­mal cells such as fibro­blasts, and offer research­ers an eth­ic­ally unprob­lem­atic altern­at­ive to embryonic stem cells. With the help of iPS cells it is pos­sible to gen­er­ate intact as well as dis­eased human stem cells. These can then be spe­cific­ally dif­fer­en­ti­ated into other cells, such as nerve cells or heart cells. They can be used as mod­els for research into the devel­op­ment of dis­eases, but also for pos­sible new therapies.

The core of the concept is the close cooper­a­tion between pub­lic research insti­tu­tions and smal­ler as well as estab­lished com­pan­ies from bio­tech­no­logy and phar­ma­ceut­ical research. ISAR Bioscience sees itself as a bridge-builder between these insti­tu­tions and cre­ates a dir­ect link between basic research and new ther­apies and products – in other words, “trans­la­tion”.

The Free State of Bav­aria took up the concept. To start real­iz­ing it, private donors estab­lished the non-profit Found­a­tion for Stem Cell Research and Applied Regen­er­at­ive Medi­cine. The found­a­tion is the sole share­holder of ISAR Bioscience GmbH, which has been in exist­ence since 2018 and is ini­tially fun­ded by the Bav­arian Min­istry of Eco­nom­ics with 20 mil­lion euros.

In the same year, labor­at­ory facil­it­ies were set up in Planegg, in the south­w­est of Munich - in the dir­ect vicin­ity of numer­ous research insti­tu­tions and biotech com­pan­ies. The Lead Dis­cov­ery Cen­ter of the Max Planck Soci­ety, which has its Munich branch in the same build­ing, was of great help in this pro­cess. The first research pro­jects in the field of stem cell research and neuro­de­gen­er­at­ive dis­eases star­ted as early as 2018. Since then, ISAR Bioscience has been grow­ing both in its research spec­trum and in terms of per­son­nel. The declared goal is to become a cen­ter of trans­la­tional bio­medi­cine in the Munich area.

ISAR Bioscience GmbH is a Bav­arian research com­pany with a world­wide net­work. We develop regen­er­at­ive ther­apies against demen­tia, heart fail­ure and immune dis­eases using iPS cells and dif­fer­en­ti­ated human cells derived from them. We use them to test new thera­peutic prin­ciples and drug candidates.

Our sci­ent­ists come from the fields of medi­cine, bio­logy and chem­istry, from uni­ver­sit­ies and non-uni­ver­sity research insti­tu­tions, from biotech and phar­ma­ceut­ical companies.

We work in mod­ern labor­at­or­ies in Planegg near Munich – at the heart of the bio­tech­no­logy scene. We do research on our own pro­jects and on issues that we invest­ig­ate together with part­ners from our world­wide net­work. Together, we seek to identify innov­at­ive pro­jects, develop them fur­ther in col­lab­or­a­tion with teams of invent­ors from pub­lic research insti­tu­tions and industry, and help them become reality.

Pro­mot­ing health

Excel­lent research and sci­ence are the basis for new approaches in medi­cine and new ther­apies and at the same time for social pro­gress and prosper­ity. They cost money and, there­fore, require spe­cial funding.

In order to fur­ther develop the poten­tial of regen­er­at­ive medi­cine in gen­eral and induced pluri­po­tent stem cells in par­tic­u­lar for the bene­fit of patients, the non-profit Found­a­tion for Stem Cell Research and Applied Regen­er­at­ive Medi­cine (Stem­CellRegMed Found­a­tion) was estab­lished in 2017.

Mis­sion of the foundation

The found­a­tion aims to pro­mote applied research and devel­op­ment activ­it­ies in medi­cine, espe­cially in regen­er­at­ive medi­cine. In this con­text, the found­a­tion estab­lished ISAR Bioscience GmbH. In order to sup­port the applic­a­tion-ori­ented research of the young com­pany, the found­a­tion also relies on dona­tions, gifts, bequests and other con­tri­bu­tions. The money is inten­ded to go towards the foundation’s basic assets or to sup­port the foundation’s fund­ing programs.

Become a co-founder!

You want to make a dif­fer­ence, for example help to fight a spe­cific dis­ease? Do you feel a strong sense of respons­ib­il­ity towards your fel­low human beings? Are you con­sid­er­ing sup­port­ing a selec­ted research insti­tu­tion with your dona­tion or an endowment?

We are happy if you want to sup­port applied med­ical research as a bene­factor or donor. With your dona­tion to our found­a­tion, you sup­port import­ant med­ical innov­a­tions. Your com­mit­ment can help to ensure that new and known dis­eases may be treated bet­ter in the future. With your dona­tion you sup­port our work - in a spe­cific man­ner accord­ing to your wishes.