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

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 work with part­ners world­wide, from aca­demic, biotech and pharma insti­tu­tions. We build bridges between basic sci­ence and new ther­apies and products that we aim to bring to market.

Pro­mot­ing health

To fur­ther develop the poten­tial of regen­er­at­ive medi­cine in gen­eral – and of induced pluri­po­tent stem cells in par­tic­u­lar – for the bene­fit of patients, the non­profit Stem­CellRegMed Found­a­tion was estab­lished in 2017. In 2018, the found­a­tion estab­lished ISAR Bioscience GmbH as its sole share­holder and sup­ports the work of this up-and-com­ing company.

Board of the foundation

The Found­a­tion’s Board of Dir­ect­ors steers the devel­op­ment of the Found­a­tion in line with the Found­a­tion’s object­ives. The mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors are renowned per­son­al­it­ies from the biotech industry. The cur­rent mem­bers of the Exec­ut­ive Board are Pro­fessor Horst Dom­dey and Dr Bar­bara Krebs-Pohl; until the end of 2024, Pro­fessor Her­bert Wald­mann was mem­ber of the Exec­ut­ive Board.

Become a co-founder!

Would you like to help fight a spe­cific dis­ease? Are you con­sid­er­ing sup­port­ing our found­a­tion in the long term through a dona­tion, a gift, or a bequest? We would be delighted! Your com­mit­ment helps ensure that new and exist­ing dis­eases can be treated more effect­ively in the future. With your con­tri­bu­tion, you sup­port our work—exactly as you see fit.

The story of ISAR Bioscience begins in Kyoto with Shinya Yamanaka’s dis­cov­ery that stem cells can be gen­er­ated from somatic cells. In 2006, by adding cer­tain factors, he suc­ceeded in gen­er­at­ing so-called induced pluri­po­tent stem cells (iPS cells) from fibro­blasts. These cells can dif­fer­en­ti­ate into all other cell types in the body. This made it pos­sible to pro­duce stem cells for bio­med­ical research in an eth­ic­ally non-con­tro­ver­sial manner.

At the Max Planck Insti­tute for Molecu­lar Bio­medi­cine in Mün­ster, stem cell pion­eer Hans Schöler took up the tech­no­logy. He developed a concept for a trans­la­tional research insti­tute to trans­late the res­ults of basic research with iPS cells into med­ical applic­a­tions. The idea was ulti­mately imple­men­ted in Bav­aria in 2018—in the form of the research com­pany ISAR Bioscience GmbH. Its sole share­holder is the Found­a­tion for Stem Cell Research and Applied Regen­er­at­ive Medi­cine, foun­ded in 2017. The pro­ject is fun­ded by a pro­ject grant of the Bav­arian Min­istry of Eco­nomic Affairs.

ISAR Bioscience’s offices are loc­ated in Planegg, south­w­est of Munich, near renowned research insti­tu­tions such as the Uni­ver­sity of Munich, the Max Planck Insti­tutes of Bio­chem­istry and for Bio­lo­gical Intel­li­gence, and the Großhadern Uni­ver­sity Hos­pital. Its imme­di­ate neigh­bors include well-known biotech com­pan­ies. From the very begin­ning, the Max Planck Society’s Lead Dis­cov­ery Cen­ter (LDC), loc­ated in the same build­ing, has been a great asset and part­ner. Col­lab­or­a­tion with these and other research insti­tu­tions is a defin­ing fea­ture of ISAR Bioscience.

Begin­ning in 2018, the com­pany launched its first research pro­jects in the fields of stem cell research and neuro­de­gen­er­at­ive dis­eases. Since then, ISAR Bioscience has been expand­ing both its staff and its research scope – primar­ily through research col­lab­or­a­tions. New areas of focus have emerged in (auto)immune and car­di­ovas­cu­lar dis­eases. Tech­no­lo­gic­ally, ISAR Bioscience focuses on novel RNA thera­peut­ics and (hor­mone) recept­ors. With its research pro­gram and its diverse col­lab­or­a­tions, the com­pany is increas­ingly estab­lish­ing itself as a cen­ter for trans­la­tional bio­medi­cine in the Munich area.