The Künze lab had the pleasure, together with the Kalkhof lab (Fraunhofer IZI), to host the third meeting of the EU research network ISOS. The two groups and collaboration partners from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK) and from Complutense University (Madrid, Spain) met for two days (31.3. – 1.4.2025) at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Leipzig. The program, including project reports, lab tours, brainstorming sessions and a workshop on GxP and patenting, offered lots of opportunities for scientific exchange. Some social highlights represented the sightseeing tour through the city centre of Leipzig and the conference dinner at the historical tavern ‘Zills Tunnel’ where our guests could taste traditional Saxonian cuisine.
The next meeting of the ISOS network will happen in September 2025 in Newcastle. The goal of the ISOS project is to develop a hydrogel-based living material for the sustained in situ release of drugs and the therapy of age-related macular degeneration. To this end, the Künze designs protein binders for the inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor.