Media information from the Thuringian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Science and Digital Society
date June 15, 2023
State Secretary for Research Böhler: Thuringia is a leader in drug research, even internationally.
A new robotics platform was officially commissioned today at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI). It was developed in collaboration with the bioanalysis specialist Analytik Jena GmbH. Funded by the federal and state governments with a total of four million euros, the facility will be used to accelerate the development of new antibiotics.
“Increasing antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest medical challenges of our time,” said State Secretary for Research Dr. Katja Böhler at the inauguration. “This makes it all the more important to accelerate the screening and development of new drugs. The new robotic facility is an important building block in achieving this goal.”
Thüringen, centered around the HKI (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research) and the "Balance of the Microverse" Cluster of Excellence, possesses considerable expertise in drug discovery and development, even by international standards. This expertise is to be further expanded in the coming years with the support of the state, the State Secretary continued. She specifically referred to the overarching innovation program " Thuringia MOTIVation ," which consolidates all relevant funding instruments. This program supports not only application-oriented infection research but also technology transfer to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
The new robotics platform, built at the HKI Biotech Center, will be able to test more substances faster in the future and operate according to industry standards even in the early stages of drug development. Automation will also make drug development more economical overall.
The construction of the facility was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Research Foundation (within the framework of the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse"), and the Free State of Thuringia with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In addition, the Free State of Thuringia is funding the RoboThür research group with one million euros, thereby also securing the platform's staffing. The new robotics platform will not only be available to the research groups of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Informatics (Leibniz-HKI), but is also open to collaborations with the University of Jena, other research institutions, and industry partners.