Press releases

Latest press concerning Strep-tag

2011

Multidisciplinary Joint Research Project On Breast Cancer
The German biotech company IBA, Göttingen  is the coordinator of themultidisciplinary joint research project "COMBO-FISH" joining forces with the Universities Heidelberg and Jena as well as the companies R-Biopharm AG und MetaSystems Hard & Software GmbH.
"The project serves to identify and quantify a special breast tumor gene more specifically" stated Dr. Joachim Bertram, IBA‘s CSO and project supervisor at IBA. "Being a nucleic acid specialty producer since 20 years now, IBA is providing the required innovative, optically detectable nucleic acid probes for the procedure" further explains Dr. Bertram.
Female breast cancer is one of the most common kind of cancer known world-wide and has fatal consequences for the patient in some cases. Accumulating the expertise of all joint research project members is meant to provide a more targeted and, therefore, more gentle therapy for the patient.
COMBO-FISH, which has a project volume of EUR 1.3 Mio, is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for a period of three years.

 

Streptamer®products: Fab Streptamers - reversible Fab multimers for gentle isolation of eukaryotic cells
IBA GmbH announces the launch of its Fab Streptamers. They are an extension of the worldwide patented Streptamer® technology. This successfull technology for reversible staining and magnetic isolation of cells was so far restricted to MHC I Streptamers and thus to the isolation of antigen-specific CD8 T-cells. The Fab Streptamers now allow the selection of all eukaryotic cells which are characterized by specific surface markers. Like the MHC I Streptamers also the Fab Streptamers are completely detachable from the purified cell.
The Streptamers enable thus the gentle isolation of e.g.  blood cells, which fully preserves their function and their biological and therapeutic potential. The cells can be used both in research as well as in diagnostic and therapeutic fields. Future applications of cell-based therapies, like e.g. graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) und solid organ transplantation, are examined in cooperation with STAGE Cell Therapeutics GmbH and clinical partners at the Charité Berlin and University of Regensburg.
Due to the complete detachability of the Streptamer reagents from the cells the regulatory authorities in both Germany and Great Britain have classified the Streptamer reagents as ancillary products which do not need to be produced under GMP conditions. "This facilitates the application of the Streptamers under clinical conditions enormously and it makes them very attractive for the fast increasing market of cell therapy," emphasizes Dr. Lothar Germeroth, IBA´s CEO.

 

US patent for IBA´s One-STrEP-tag granted
IBA GmbH announces the grant of an US patent for its One-STrEP-tag technology.
The One-STrEP-tag allows the isolation of functional protein complexes and the identification of new protein interaction partners in one-step. Based on its proprietary Strep-tag® technology, IBA developed the One-STrEP-tag which consists of a tandem arrangement of two Strep-tag®II sequences and allows rapid purification of intact protein complexes and is therefore the faster and more flexible alternative to the TAP technology.
Its high efficiency without the need for extensive washing allows the purification of poorly expressed protein complexes and even transient interaction partners.
"The One-STrEP-tag is a fast and flexible tool which contributes novel insights in protein:protein interaction (PPI) research", said Dr. Thomas Schmidt, IBA´s COO.
The field of protein complex isolation and protein:protein interaction (PPI) analysis is of key importance for the better understanding of many biological functions and therefore for the identification of attractive targets for drug discovery.
For more information see www.strep-tag.com.

 

2009
IBA BioTAGnology goes India
IBA GmbH was represented at the Bangalore Bio (June 18.-12, 2009; http://www.bangalorebio.in/) at a joint booth with BMBF. The aim was, according to IBA´s CSO and Managing Director Dr. Joachim Bertram, a product presentation in the field of Life Sciences as well as a strengthening of the research co-operations in India. In this highly important biotech market the innovative IBA TAGnologies shall be promoted for the production of biologicals (each 3rd dose of vaccines which is administered world-wide is produced in India). Beside IBA´s innovative StarGate® cloning platform the established Strep-tag® technology for the purification of recombinantly expressed proteins are major technologies in this area of Life Sciences.
With numerous talks during the partnering and at the booth, the impression was confirmed that the Indian Life Science companies and research institutes are highly interested in a co-operation with German partners. The Indian hosts emphasized especially the big success of partnering and they were proud of the more than 5.000 visitors. Initial dialogues for a technological cooperation in the production of biologicals as well as in basic research of Life Sciences are presently intensified in cooperation with the BioRegioN initiative "Life Science Niedersachsen goes India" (http://www.bioregion.de/index.php?id=686&L=1), explained Bertram.

2008
December 2008: StarGate® - prize winner 2008!
IBA's StarGate® TAGnology for combinatorial cloning was awarded the Special Innovation Prize 2008. On December 2, the prize was donated to IBA GmbH by the District of Göttingen for innovative solutions at the interphase between research and economy. The success was built on a positive rating in the following 4 categories: novelty, innovative potential, economical utility and benefit.
For more information see www.stargate-cloning.com

May 2008: Strep-Tactin® Superflow® high capacity: Get more protein with optimal purity!
IBA is pleased to announce the launch of Strep-Tactin® Superflow® high capacity, the new IBA affinity chromatography resin for purification of recombinant Strep-tag® proteins. The resin has improved binding capacity but identical high protein purity compared to standard Strep-Tactin® Superflow®:
It provides 2 to 3 times higher binding capacity than standard Strep-Tactin® Superflow® yields much higher protein purity (>95%) than 6xHistidine-tag purification on Ni-NTA Superflow®, combines outstanding flow characteristics with superior mechanical stability, is suitable for increased flow rates and useful for purification of large protein complexes. The resin is available as bulk, in pre-packed Strep-Tactin® Superflow® high capacity columns for gravity flow applications or in the new Strep-Tactin® Superflow® high capacity cartridges H-PR* ("highly pressure-resistant") for work with automated workstations.
"With a binding capacity of 150 – 500 nmol or 3 – 15 mg recombinant Strep-tag® fusion protein per ml sedimented resin we have been able to significantly increase the purified protein amount. In combination with the excellent purity our Strep-tag® technology is yielding this resin is the optimal tool for Strep-tag protein purification" said Dr. Lothar Germeroth, IBA’s CEO.
IBA is distributing the Strep-tag® system world-wide and is presently looking for further international distributors. More information here.
May 2008: StarGate® - now also for fusion cloning!
On May 15, 2008 IBA launched the new StarGate® Fusion Cloning System, allowing the construction of artificial operons for multiple gene expression in bacterial or mammalian cells or the generation of fusion proteins. StarGate® is a technology that enables the systematic combination of promoters (i.e. hosts), purification tags or other genetic elements with any gene of interest (GOI) in a convenient cloning system. The new Fusion Cloning System provides an optional intermediate step in the established standard procedure, which then results in fusion proteins instead of single proteins. Three different versions of StarGate® Fusion Cloning Sets are available to date. With the StarGate® Fusion Cloning Set "IRES1" you can clone an Internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) for polycistronic gene expression in mammalian cells from one expression vector. The "SD1" provides a Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence for the construction of artificial operons in E. coli, and using the "LINK1" an amino acid linker allows the generation of fusion proteins.
"Of special interest is that also a combination of these three versions is possible allowing the construction of a large variety of genetic fusions. Your gene of interest could e.g. be fused with GFP using "LINK1" followed by "SD1" to construct an artificial operon of your GFP fusion reporter protein with further genes" said Dr. Thomas Schmidt, IBA’s COO. In addition to the fusion cloning products, several new Acceptor Vectors with FLAG®-tag, tandem tags for protein:protein interaction studies and vectors for in vitro translation in E. coli as well as episomal mammalian expression vectors have been launched now.
IBA is distributing the StarGate® system world-wide and is presently looking for further international distributors. For more information see www.stargate-cloning.com.
January 2008: IBA Biologics GmbH is moving to IBA GmbH Headquarters in Goettingen, Germany
IBA Biologics GmbH, founded as joint venture in 1999 by GBF, the German Research Centre for Biotechnology GmbH in Braunschweig (now Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research), and IBA GmbH, is a 100% daughter of IBA GmbH since April 2007. In January 2008, also the principle office moved from Braunschweig to Goettingen.
IBA Biologics settled in the headquarters of IBA GmbH to not only continue and increase contract manufacturing for its customers but also to establish the biological production of raw materials for a variety of IBA products at the Goettingen site.
With its broad range of services IBA Biologics is the gateway to clinical trials for its customers, because process development can be adapted to production under GMP conform conditions from the very beginning. The services comprise the entire range from cloning to the production of recombinant proteins under cGMP or non-cGMP conditions, based on the innovative and proprietary technologies and products of IBA. IBA Biologics´ customer service ensures a fast and cost-effective transformation of R&D projects into pharmaceutical production. "We assist our customers from early discovery to the market", explains Dr. Joachim Bertram, Chief Executive Officer of IBA Biologics. More information under www.iba-go.com, direct requests per email are welcome under service@iba-go.com

2007
October 2007: StarGate® - the new dimension of combinatorial cloning
At Biotechnica 2007 IBA is presenting for the first time StarGate®, a cloning system to transfer any gene of interest systematically into E. coli, yeast, mammalia and other expression systems. StarGate allows the parallel combination of a gene of interest (GOI) with different promoters (i.e. hosts), purification tag sequences or other genetic elements in a one-tube reaction. The core element of this new technology is the site-specific combinatorial enzyme formulation StarCombinase™, that makes cloning versatile, fast, easy and safe.Unique features are the short combinatorial sites (≤ 2 amino acids) not disturbing the gene of interest, the high level cloning efficiency, the availability of a multitude of combinatorial sites allowing e.g. efficient fusion cloning, and the competitive pricing structure.
"The new StarGate® Cloning System is a key technology, which excellently complements the IBA product portfolio covering the entire workflow of Recombinant Protein TAGnology from cloning to protein expression and purification" said Dr. Lothar Germeroth, IBA’s CEO.
IBA is distributing the StarGate® system world-wide and is presently looking for further international distributors. For more information see www.stargate-cloning.com.

IBA GmbH participates in a EU funded Research Project
IBA GmbH, Goettingen, Germany is one of the Companies participating in the TargetHerpes consorrtium which is funded through a Specific Targeted Research Project contract of the European Commission within the Life Sciences and Health section of the 6th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6).TargetHerpes includes five academic partners from Universities and research institutes in Bologna, Regensburg, Erlangen, Dusseldorf and Glasgow, who will work with four commercial company partners (IBA, PRIMM, BioDec and ARTTIC) to develop novel anti-herpesvirus approaches. The project started on 1st January 2007 and will Last for three years.

"This pan European project for disease oriented research is a knighting for IBA and its technologies and products" says Dr. Joachim Bertram, CSO and one of the managing directors of IBA. IBA will develop its MATra based transfection technologies together with its Strep-tag® based protein:protein interaction technologies and products into tools involved in deciphering the biology of herpesviruses.

Herpesviruses cause many human diseases that can be serious and even life-threatening, especially in immunocompromised patients such as transplant recipients and HIV-infected individuals. Even in healthy people herpesviruses can cause serious problems. Herpes simplex virus remains one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. Human cytomegalovirus is a leading cause of birth defects, and human herpesvirus 8 causes a number of human cancers. At present the options for antiviral therapy are limited and, because of toxicity, the current anti-herpes drugs cannot be administered to pregnant women. There is a continuing need to develop alternative treatments because drug-resistant viruses are evolving. The TargetHerpes consorrtium has been established to search for and develop novel, effective anti-herpesvirus treatments. The project will target different herpesviruses at different stages of their infections in order to inhibit virus entry, evasion of host defences, persistence in infected individuals, and reactivation from latency.

2006
November 2006: IBA Announces Expansion of Collaboration with MorphoSys's AbD Serotec
IBA GmbH (Goettingen) announced today the signing of a second license agreement with MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX) regarding recombinant antibody purification using IBA's proprietary Strep-tag® technology. The original research license agreement dating back to the year 2000 has now been complemented with a second license agreement rendering the commercial use of IBA's Strep-tag patent rights for custom service purification of antibodies by AbD Serotec - a business unit of MorphoSys AG. The license granted by IBA is worldwide and non-exclusive. Recent IBA developments in the Strep-tag field had proven to be advantageous compared to other tag-systems for automated batch purification of recombinant antibodies. Financial details of the license agreement were not disclosed.

"We are very pleased to announce an expansion of one of our earliest and most productive Strep-tag out-licensing opportunities to date," commented Alois Schneiderbauer, Chief Business Officer of IBA. "Expanding our existing collaborations is a cornerstone of our strategy and we have been very successful in this regard. The extended agreement provides a higher number of antibodies carrying a Strep-tag to the market, allowing e.g. for their convenient detection and immobilisation."

For further information please contact: Bettina Renker, IBA, Manager Corporate Communications, Tel: +49 (0) 551 50672-114, renker@iba-go.com

IBA GmbH - the TAG Company is Celebrating its 10th Anniversary

IBA GmbH has celebrated its 10th anniversary on September 15, 2006 - 10 years of premium quality products for their customers in life science research worldwide. Being the "TAG" company IBA is one of the foremost providers of tag-derived products for protein expression, cloning and purification as well as nucleic acid delivery.

For the celebration the company had invited close collaborators and local politicians to the Headquarters in Goettingen, Germany. The management was pleased by the number of guests who found time to join the festivity; and especially enjoyed the company of Mr. Quednau from the State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Employment and Transport in Hanover and Mr. Oppermann from the Lower House of German Parliament.

In his speech Lothar Germeroth, IBA's CEO (Chief Excecutive Officer) since 2002 and a well known German Biotech manager, introduced IBA's three business units "Protein TAGnologies", "Gene TAGnologies" and "Cell TAGnologies". Each unit offers a product portfolio based on proprietary tags for protein purification, transfection and cell purification. "The products are valued for their high quality standards with the potential to solve problems in the researchers' daily work" said Germeroth.

10 years ago, the company started with the Strep-tag technology, which is now internationally well known and had been developed by Thomas Schmidt (COO, Chief Operating Officer) in close cooperation with Prof. Dr. A. Skerra from the Technical University in Munich. 1998 IBA aquired NAPS Göttingen GmbH (Nucleic Acid Products Supply), one of the leading German nucleic acid synthesis companies. One year later the daughter company IBA Biologics GmbH was founded in Brunswick, Germany, with Dr. Joachim Bertram as CEO, who is also CSO (Chief Scientific Officer) of IBA GmbH. IBA Biologics offers process scale custom manufacturing, also under cGMP.
Worldwide product marketing started in 2000 with the first catalog. In 2002 the new IBA US Distribution Center opened in St. Louis, MO. Starting 2004, the new CBO (Chief Business Officer) Alois Schneiderbauer began to set up a network of international distributors. "2005 was the most successful year in the company history" explained Herbert Stadler, founder of IBA. The pioneer in German Biotechnology, who has also founded several other biotech companies in the past years and is now Head of IBA's Advisory Board, concluded: "We are proud to say, that - in contrast to the general trend in the Biotech market - IBA shows rapidly growing sales figures as well as steadily increasing numbers of highly qualified employees".



IBA GmbH -the TAG Company is Celebrating its 10th Anniversary

IBA Company Brochure (pdf, 1.143 KB)


2005
Strep-MAB for capturing Strep-tag fusion proteins on Biacore sensor chips

IBA has just released Strep-MAB, a new antibody especially suited for protein interaction analysis on Biacore® systems.
Strep-MAB is a murine, high-affinity Strep-tag® II specific monoclonal antibody designed for stable, mild and oriented capture of Strep-tag fusion proteins onto solid phases. The antibody can be immobilized onto surfaces such as microplates, Biacore Sensor Chip CM5* or other biochips.
"We compared the Biacore sensorgram of the interaction between a Strep-tag fusion protein and Strep-MAB with the interaction of a competitive antibody. It was significant that the recombinant protein of interest remained tightly bound to Strep-MAB while a large amount of Strep-tag protein was washed off using the competitive antibody" states Dr. Thomas Koblizek, who is in charge of R&D at IBA GmbH.
Soon, the company will also release Strep-MAB coated microplates. Note, that for Western blot applications an alternative Strep-tag specific monoclonal antibody is available.

IBA is distributing the Strep-tag system worldwide and is presently looking for further international distributors. For product information see www.strep-tag.com.




* for more information visit www.biacore.com/lifesciences

2004
October 2004: MATra Magnet Assisted Transfection - a revolution in cell transfection

IBA is announcing the release of the new MATra product line allowing the highly efficient transfection of cells in culture using magnetic nanoparticles (MagTag®).
With this new, easy-to-handle technique nucleic acids, such as plasmid DNA, oligonucleotides or siRNA are in a first step associated with magnetic particles. Exploiting magnetic force the full nucleic acid dose is then rapidly drawn towards and delivered into the target cells leading to efficient transfection.
"With MATra you will obtain greatly improved transfection rates in just a few minutes" states Alois Schneiderbauer, CBO of IBA GmbH, and all MATra users can only agree to this.
MATra has already been tested for many cell lines (see www.magnet-assisted-transfection.com). The reagents are available for adherent cells (MATra-A Reagent) or for suspension cells (MATra-A Reagent and MATra-S Immobilizer). To simply enhance standard lipofection by magnet assistance IBA is also offering the MA Lipofection Enhancer.
To apply the magnetic field a 24 Magnet Plate or 96 Magnet Plate are used. The latter is suitable for 96well-, 12well- and 6well-plates as well as T-75 culture flasks.
IBA is distributing MATra world-wide and is presently looking for further international distributors. For further product information see www.magnet-assisted-transfection.com.
October 2004: One-STrEPTM Protein:Protein Interaction Analysis

IBA has just released the new One-STrEPTM system as an extremely fast and efficient method to identify protein complexes. While other systems require tedious optimization because of high background or two successive purification steps, the One-STrEP system requires one STEP only to isolate intact protein complexes. In this system Strep-Tactin columns are used for fast protein purification under physiological conditions with low background enabling even the isolation of weakly associated binding partners.
"The new One-STrEP system is suitable to identify several binding partners or co-factors at once with minimal background. To verify the procedure, we have included a complete positive control system in our Starter Kit" states Alois Schneiderbauer, CBO of IBA GmbH.
The One-STrEP-tag used for affinity purification is a modification of IBA's successful
Strep-tag II. The tag has been adapted to higher detergent compatibility, which is important for optimizing binding and washing conditions for protein-protein interactions. This technology allows one-step purification of almost any recombinant protein under physiological conditions, thus preserving its bioactivity.
IBA is distributing the One-STrEP system world-wide and is presently looking for further international distributors. For further product information see www.strep-tag.com.
Juni 2004: IBA GmbH erhält Fördermittel für Entwicklung von DNA-Microchips

Die IBA GmbH, Göttingen, erhält für die Entwicklung von hochsensitiven, markierungsfreien DNA-Mikrochips zur Hochdurchsatz-SNP-Analyse Fördermittel in Höhe von 1 Mio Euro.
Das von der Evotec Technologies als Verbundführer koordinierte Projekt hat zum Ziel, spezifische DNA-Chips auf der Basis modifizierter Nukleinsäuren zu entwickeln, die eine für die hochsensitive SIMS (Sekundärionen-Massenspektrometrie)-Technik geeignete Strukturierung und Oberfläche aufweisen. An dem Verbundprojekt sind neben der Evotec Technologies und der IBA GmbH die ION-TOF sowie die AG J. Hoheisel (DKFZ) und H. Arlinghaus (WWU) beteiligt.

"In dem Projekt ergänzen sich die in der IBA vorhandene Expertise im Nukleinsäure- und Protein-Bereich für die Entwicklung zukunftsweisender Produkte." so einer der IBA-Geschäftsführer und CSO Dr. Joachim Bertram.

Durch die Nutzung von modifizierten DNA-Oligonukleotiden kann ohne vorherige Amplifikation und ohne weitere Markierung durch die SIMS-Technik eine extrem hohe Nachweisempfindlichkeit in der SNP-Analyse erreicht werden. Der sogenannten SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) Analytik kommt im Medizinbereich zunehmende Bedeutung zu, da Wissenschaftler davon ausgehen, dass mit Hilfe von SNP-Diagrammen Gene kartiert werden können, die bei komplexen Krankheiten wie Krebs, Diabetes, Gefäßerkrankungen und einigen Formen von Geisteskrankheiten betroffen sind. Diese Verbindungen zwischen Genveränderungen und Krankheiten sind schwierig mit herkömmlichen Gen-Identifizierungs- oder Kartierungsmethoden herzustellen, weil ein einzelnes geändertes Gen in der Regel nur einen kleinen Beitrag zur Krankheit liefert.
May 2004: Exiqon and IBA GmbH announce license agreement on sale of Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA™)

The license agreement will allow IBA GmbH to market custom LNA(tm)-based oligonucleotides enhanced by locked nucleic acids.

Copenhagen, Denmark and Goettingen, Germany (April 21, 2004) - The Danish biotech company Exiqon and the Germany-based IBA GmbH (IBA) announced today that they have signed a license agreement for Exiqon's Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA™) technology. Under the terms of the agreement, IBA has acquired non-exclusive rights to manufacture and sell LNA™-oligonucleotides for the genomics research market and will receive from Exiqon know-how regarding LNA™. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

LNA™ is a novel proprietary nucleic acid analogue, which is easily incorporated in synthetic DNA oligonucleotides thereby providing unprecedented sensitivity, specificity and discriminatory power to a wide range of genomics products. LNA™ probes have successfully been applied in both quantitative RT-PCR*-based expression profiling and SNP genotyping assays as well as in expression microarrays and in siRNA oligonucleotides for target validation. "The access to the LNA™-technology adds an important new product group to our growing nucleic acid product pipeline thus strengthening IBA´s position as prime manufacturer of nucleic acid specialties" indicated Alois Schneiderbauer, CBO of IBA.

"The agreement with IBA will ensure that a wider range of life science customers obtain access to the LNA™ technology" says CEO of Exiqon, Lars Kongsbak. "We believe that LNA™ is a very strong tool for refining a wide variety of genomics products and research tools, and this agreement represents an important step in our strategy towards commercialisation of Exiqon's LNA™ technology worldwide".

2003
September 2003: IBA obtained license for oligonucleotides labeled with Alexa Fluor®

IBA GmbH, Germany, announces, that they have just obtained a world-wide license to label oligonucleotides (DNA and RNA) with Alexa Fluor® dyes from Molecular Probes, Inc. (owned by Invitrogen Corp.) The company will present this new custom service for the first time at Biotechnica 2003 in Hannover.

Alexa Fluor conjugates exhibit brighter fluorescence and greater photostability than the conjugates of other spectrally similar fluorophores. "These characteristics provide researchers with the potential to obtain better results of measurements in e.g. Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) than with conventional fluorophores said Dr. Kai Franke, head of nucleic acid department at IBA. An additional advantage is, that the fluorescence of Alexa Fluor dyes is stable from pH 4 to pH 10.

At IBA all dye labeled oligonucleotides are double HPLC purified (exception: directly coupled dyes where no excessive dye must be eliminated). Failure sequences are removed during the first HPLC purification. The second HPLC purification is performed to remove unlabeled oligonucleotides and excessive dye. As a result only labeled oligonucleotides of IBA's well known high quality and purity are obtained.

Request more information
August 2003 / IBA Biologics GmbH:
Cellular therapeutic cancer immune therapy

Federal Ministry of Economics supports new project with 1.4 Mio Euro: The new InnoNet project will develop a system for cellular cancer immune therapy. Click here for more information (pdf 68 KB, in German language).



June 2003: Market introduction Streptamer® technology

At the 15th European Immunology Congress (EFIS 2003) from June 8th to 12th on Rhodes, Greece, IBA GmbH (Germany) introduced for the first time its new, ground-braking Steptamer® technology to a large audience. The EFIS meeting is one of the most important conferences in European Immunology with participants coming from all over the world. In a lunch symposium sponsored by IBA the inventor of Streptamer®, Dirk Busch (Technical University Munich), presented the new technology, which is now further developed in cooperation with IBA GmbH. He also discussed possible therapeutic applications with the very interested audience.

The new Streptamer® reagents, which are based on IBA's Strep-tag®/Strep-Tactin® technology, provide the following advantages in comparison to conventional multimers: Reversible, antigen-specific staining of T-cells, isolation and characterization of functional T-cells, high staining intensities, mild and rapid dissociation of staining reagents using biotin as well as improved viability of T-cells after isolation. "Expanding our basic Strep-tag technology from protein purification to cell isolation IBA expects important and interesting new markets in the field of immunological and biomedical research" commented Joachim Bertram, Chief Scientific Officer at IBA.


June 2003: Streptamer® - promising new multimer reagents

IBA has now released the Streptamer® technology, a novel multimer technology for isolation and characterization of functional, antigen-specific T-cells. The technology enables for the first time a reversible, antigen-specific staining of T-cells leaving the isolated T-cells phenotypically and functionally indistinguishable from untreated cells. The new Streptamer® reagents, which are based on IBA's Strep-tag/Strep-Tactin technology, provide the following advantages in comparison to conventional multimers:
Reversible, antigen-specific staining of T-cells, isolation and characterization of functional T-cells, high staining intensities, mild and rapid dissociation of staining reagents using biotin as well as improved viability of T-cells after isolation. Several human (HLA) and mouse (H2) MHC I-Strep alleles with e.g. viral or cancer antigens are available. To meet the needs of its customers, IBA also offers a custom service to prepare custom made MHC I-Strep reagents.

"The Streptamer® technology will most likely advance immunological research since it provides new insights into T-cell biology. Moreover Streptamer®-isolated T-cells may provide new therapeutic options for treating incurable diseases including viral infections and cancers." stated CEO Dr. Lothar Germeroth. A recent publication by Dirk H. Busch (et al.), the inventor of the Streptamer® technology, was featured in the June 2002 issue of Nature Medicine. Experiments in mice demonstrated that the Streptamer® technology is capable of providing antigen-specific T-cells which can be efficiently applied in adoptive transfer protocols.


June 2003: Double tag proteins with Strep-tag AND 6xHistidine-tag

IBA is announcing the release of a new product line allowing the expression and purification of double tag proteins with Strep-tag and 6xHistidine-tag. The combination of these two tags enables the rapid control of full length protein expression and increases protein purity due to two independent purification methods. In addition, the double tag strategy combines the 6xHistidine-tag technology as optimal purification method under denaturing conditions with the Strep-tag technology, the first choice for purification of native proteins, in order to get premium purification performance. The first purification is performed on a Ni-NTA column while the second purification uses a Strep-Tactin column, selecting for 6xHistidine-tag and Strep-tag, respectively.

To try this technique, IBA offers a new Strep/His Starter Kit containing two different purification cartridges with Strep-Tactin and Ni-NTA resin for such a successive protein purification via Strep-tag and 6xHistidine-tag, respectively, as well as all essential reagents for the first eight applications.

In addition, Strep-Tactin and Ni-NTA purification resins are available as bulk material as well as in pre-packed gravity flow columns or cartridges for purification under low pressure.


IBA GmbH erhält Fördermittel für Entwicklung von Proteinchips

Die IBA GmbH, Göttingen, erhält im Rahmen des Förderungsprogramms "Mikrosystemtechnik 2000+" des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, Projektträger VDI/VDE-IT, Teltow) eine Förderung in Höhe von 460 000 EUR zur Entwicklung von Proteinchips. Das Unternehmen hat vor, dafür seine proprietäre Strep-tag Technologie zur biologischen Funktionalisierung von Chipoberflächen zu implementieren.

"Mit dieser Technologie", so einer der IBA-Geschäftsführer und CSO Dr. Joachim Bertram, "ist die Entwicklung von Proteinchips möglich, auf denen mit dem Strep-tag versehene rekombinant exprimierte Proteine gerichtet und unter physiologischen Bedingungen immobilisiert werden können. Das Protein bleibt dabei prinzipiell biologisch aktiv." Das Konzept sieht vor, mit Hilfe der Strep-tag Technologie eine standardisierte Anbindung von Proteinen an Oberflächen zu entwickeln.

Das IBA-Projekt ist Teil eines IBA-geführten Verbundes (Projektvolumen: c.a. 1,3 Mio. EUR) mit dem Titel "Protein-Prozessierungs-Plattform" ("3P"), an dem die GeSiM GmbH (Dresden), die InTros GmbH (Heiligenstadt) und das Institut für Bioprozess- und Analysenmesstechnik (Heiligenstadt) beteiligt sind.


2002

December 2002: Sir Hans Krebs Prize 2002 awarded to IBA Collaborator

Goettingen, Germany, November 6, 2002 - This year's Sir Hans Krebs Prize is going to be awarded to PD Dr. med. Dirk H. Busch, Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene, Technical University Munich. The prize of Euro 10,000 is awarded by the Hannoversche Lebensversicherung a. G. for the advancement of medical basic research. Dirk Busch developed a method to functionally isolate and characterize antigen-specific T-cells. This so-called Streptamer® technology is now further developed in cooperation with IBA GmbH, Goettingen, Germany.
His recent publication "Reversible MHC multimer staining for functional isolation of T-cell populations and effective adoptive transfer" was featured in the June issue (2002) of Nature Medicine.
"We are convinced that our Streptamer® technology will have a significant impact on immunological research and the development of T-cell-based therapeutics and diagnostics" said Dr. Lothar Germeroth, CEO of IBA. The German Biotech company is going to start its world-wide marketing of the complete product range around the Streptamer® technology in April 2003.


July 2002: IBA establishes US Distribution Center

Goettingen, Germany, July 10, 2002 - IBA GmbH, a provider of exclusive tools for recombinant protein expression and purification, today announced the establishment of a US Distribution Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The German Biotech company is currently building its business activities up to a global scale. The new US Distribution Center is a direct response to the large international interest in its products, resulting from the proprietary Strep-tag technology platform for protein expression and purification.

"The extension of our business activities into the US allows us to provide optimal services to our rapidly growing number of US customers, and is thus a key element in our global growth strategy" stated Dr. Lothar Germeroth, company CEO.

IBA expects to gain a significant market share in the recombinant protein market by the prompt delivery of its extensive and comprehensive Strep-tag product portfolio. "The spectrum of our services has significantly improved: for example we now offer overnight delivery and immediate customer support and technical service with toll free numbers" said Bettina Renker, who is responsible for Marketing and Sales at IBA.


June 2002: Streptamer® Technology

IBA GmbH announced that it has developed, in close cooperation with the Technical University in Munich, the Streptamer® technology - a novel method to functionally isolate and characterize antigen-specific T-cells. Streptamer® enable for the first time a reversible, antigen-specific staining of T-cells leaving the isolated T-cells phenotypically and functionally indistinguishable from untreated cells. "We believe that our Streptamer® technology will have a significant impact on immunological research and the development of T-cell-based therapeutics and diagnostics" said Dr. Lothar Germeroth, CEO of IBA.
T-cells are the type of white blood cells (lymphocytes) responsible for the specific cell-mediated immunity. Streptamer®-isolated T-cells may provide an efficient route for treating incurable diseases including viral infections and cancers. In addition, the technology is likely to advance basic T-cell research as an essential prerequisite for novel immunological medicines.
A recent publication by Dirk H. Busch (et al.), the inventor of the Streptamer® technology, was featured in the June 2002 issue of Nature Medicine, a leading journal in the field. It introduced the Streptamer® technology as a method to isolate, for the first time, fully functional antigen-specific T-cells. "We are very excited about the potential clinical applications of the Streptamer® technology and we are currently evaluating the most promising indications" stated PD Dr. med. Dirk Busch from the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at the Technical University in Munich.

further information


April 2002: IBA appoints Dr. Lothar Germeroth as CEO

IBA GmbH has appointed Dr. Lothar Germeroth as CEO of the company. "With Dr. Germeroth we have found an experienced entrepreneur with an outstanding world-wide business expertise in the biotech arena who is able to grow our company to a global player" said the COO and coinventor of IBA´s Strep-tag technology Dr. Thomas Schmidt. Lothar Germeroth joined IBA from Cytos biotechnology AG, Switzerland, where he served as chief business officer and CEO of Cytos Proteome Therapeutics, the German subsidiary of Cytos. Prior to Cytos he has held the CEO position at Jerini AG, Berlin, Germany for five years.
"I am excited about the opportunity to work with IBA which has developed an excellent comprehensive product portfolio for handling recombinant proteins enabling a sustained growth of the company in the future." stated Dr. Lothar Germeroth.
IBA is currently expanding its business activities to a global scale as response to the large international interest in its products emerging from the proprietary Strep-tag technology platform.


2001

For a clearer position as Biotech company with internationally marketed products IBA officially changes its name from "Institut fuer Bioanalytik" to "IBA GmbH".
At the same time, Dr. Herbert Stadler, a pioneer in German biotechnology and so far CEO, becomes head of the advisory board while Dr. Thomas Schmidt is appointed CEO and Dr. Joachim Bertram CSO.


2000

IBA GmbH releases its first product guide (2001) for exclusive products and services from genes to proteins.

1999

IBA Biologics GmbH: IBA announces foundation of joint venture with GBF in Braunschweig, a leading state founded institute for biotechnology in Germany.

IBA GmbH acquires NAPS Goettingen GmbH (Nucleic Acids Product Supply), a German leader in nucleic acids technology.