20 years – Anniversary PlasmidFactory
20 years PlasmidFactory - Company from OWL with international successes
For PlasmidFactory GmbH & Co. KG, a global biopharmaceutical company, a special year ends with a special event: the company will celebrate its 20th anniversary in December 2020.
PlasmidFactory GmbH & Co. KG started its business in Bielefeld in 2000 with 4 employees. In the meantime, under the founder and managing director Dr. Martin Schleef, the company has become a well-known contract manufacturer (CMO) for plasmid and minicircle DNA. With a national and international customer base from the fields of cancer research, gene and cell therapy, CAR-T cell development and vaccine production, PlasmidFactory is a leader in this biotechnological field.
The company employs a team of biologists, chemists, engineers and technical assistants and produces plasmid and minicircle DNA according to customer requirements in modern laboratories with explicitly high quality standards.
Research and development activities of the company are also of high importance and focus on its core competencies of production, development, analysis and storage of plasmid and minicircle DNA.
Today, PlasmidFactory has 27 employees and is currently working at full speed and on an exceptional scale on the production of components for vaccine productions, in addition to scientific investigations and optimizations. "We are proud of this and are giving everything technically and humanly possible for this important feat!" says Dr. Martin Schleef about the state of production.
No less significant is the company's outstanding achievement for research in the field of cancer therapy. PlasmidFactory has developed and patented a method with which so-called CAR-T cells can be produced. Here, in contrast to conventional methods, no viral vectors are used, but PlasmidFactory's proprietary minicircle technology. Corresponding products are currently undergoing clinical trials, with initial successes already being reported.
The business areas as well as the R&D activities of PlasmidFactory, which are partly carried out in close cooperation with national and international partners, mainly refer to the following areas
- Transient AAV production
- Development of resistance gene-free, non-viral vector systems (e.g. minicircle)
- Investigation of the influence of various factors on the long-term stability of plasmid DNA (e.g. plasmid size, DNA concentration, storage medium)
- Influence of freezing and thawing conditions on plasmid topology distribution.
- DNA vaccines against fibrosarcoma of the cat
- Production of dimeric plasmids (e.g. reporter gene vectors)
- Extension of the fields of application of capillary gel electrophoresis
- Optimization of vectors for co-transfection, e.g. for the production of viral vectors (AAV or LV) or for efficient antibody or RNA production
- Optimization of lentiviral vector systems
- Vector development for hepatitis vaccines
- Clinical and preclinical studies on non-viral gene transfer
We would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and the European Commission (Network of Excellence CLINIGENE) for the financial and content-related support of the research activities, which have led to a successful expansion of the product range offered.
About the fact that OWL is moving into the center of biotechnology, the team of the PlasmidFactory is happy to celebrate the 20th anniversary - of course under corona conditions!
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