Successful cooperation model: Phenion to become center of competence for skin research
Founded as a public-private partnership between Henkel KGaA, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and six of its professors, the biotechnological research company Phenion GmbH and Co. KG is now being expanded to become a leading center of competence for skin research. This cooperation was to efficiently translate research results into marketable products, thereby strengthening the innovative power of both partners. In the meantime, Phenion and the six Frankfurt professors, specialists in the fields of dermatology, pharmacy, microbiology and biochemistry, have developed various approaches. One of these is a complex model of the human skin, which has been so successful that it serves as a basis for new in vitro test methods to study substances that act on the skin. Henkel uses such methods to develop new products that come into contact with the skin. In vitro methods are needed worldwide, also as alternatives to animal testing, for purposes such as assuring the safety of products and raw materials.
The success of the novel cooperation model between the Frankfurt-based university and Henkel and its establishment as a leading center of competence for skin research will allow even more efficient development of new test methods and will foster an even better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in a variety of skin reactions. Phenion will be reinforced by Henkel researchers in the areas of molecular biology and dermatological studies and is due to move to new premises in the Life Science Center in Düsseldorf-Bilk in the fall of 2006.
To assure the successful transfer of research results from academia to industry in the future also, Phenion will continue to involve professors from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in interdisciplinary projects focusing on skin research and alternative test methods. Phenion is currently financing three doctoral thesis projects in various working groups of the Dermatology department at the University Hospital in Frankfurt to conduct fundamental research on skin and cell physiology. A fourth research project in Frankfurt focuses on developing a cell-based alternative test method to distinguish substances that can cause irritation or allergic reactions of the skin. New national and international partnerships with working groups of universities and research institutes are currently being planned.
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