Professor Eicke Latz, Director of the Institute, and Professor Matthias Geyer, Department Head for Structural Immunology, are scientific Co-founders of IFM Therapeutics.
IFM Therapeutics’ scientific mission is to generate therapeutic products that can enhance innate immune system activity to attack cancer and that can decrease innate immune system activity in autoimmune disorders and diseases caused by excessive inflammation.
Gary D. Glick, CEO of IFM Therapeutics and Managing Director of IFM Therapeutics GmbH, said: “Establishing a research site in Bonn will allow IFM to capitalize on the rich expertise within the Institute of Innate Immunity at the University of Bonn and facilitate interactions with two of our scientific Co-founders, Dr. Latz and Dr. Geyer."
The Institute of Innate Immunity is part of the Excellence Cluster ImmunoSensation at the University of Bonn. The Excellence Cluster ImmunoSensation is a multidisciplinary collaboration of different faculties and institutes which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to foster innovative science in immunology.
IFM’s site at the University of Bonn provides unique access to deep innovative biology as well as cutting edge clinical sciences.
Dr. Eicke Latz said: “As a physician-scientist I am passionate about transforming discoveries from the bench into products for patients with serious illnesses.
“This has always been a driving force in my science and with IFM we have the opportunity to make this vision a reality.”
Professor Michael Hoch, Rector of the University, said: “It is deeply rewarding to see that our scientific excellence does not stop at basic science, but that the University of Bonn contributes to translational undertakings that have the potential to truly improve healthcare."
IFM Therapeutics GmbH has already started laboratory operations in Bonn and hired a core staff of scientists focusing on the discovery and development of drugs that modulate targets in the innate immune system for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Over the next several years, the company plans to scale this site to accelerate R&D efforts in inflammatory sciences and medicine.