Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGBThe Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB develops and optimizes processes, technologies, and products for health, sustainable chemistry and the environment. In doing so, we rely on the unique combination of expertise in biology and the engineering sciences in order to contribute to human welfare, a sustainable economy, and an intact environment with the systems approach of bioeconomy as well as bioinspired, biointegrated and biointelligent solutions.
Partnering industry and public authorities – from laboratory to pilot-scale applications
Fraunhofer IGB provides its customers and partners with research and development services encompassing the entire material value chain, accompanied by a wide range of analysis and testing services. The ability to deliver end-to-end solutions, from laboratory to pilot-scale applications, and a demonstration of the developed processes, is one of the institute’s strong points. This all-round service makes the IGB a reliable partner for industrial companies, small and medium-sized enterprises operating in many different sectors, local authorities and special-purpose associations. It also performs contract research for the EU as well as Germany’s federal and regional governments.
Our vision: We combine biology and engineering
More than ever, innovative processes and products call for the convergence or constructive interplay of previously separate technical disciplines in a systems approach. One such systems approach, which the IGB is continuously enhancing, is bioeconomy.
The institute works at the interface between biology and engineering, especially in biotechnology and bioengineering, but also through the genetic engineering of viruses and bacteria, the combination of cell culture and interfacial engineering, or DNA sequencing using bioinformatic algorithms, and the interaction of biological systems with technical materials. In this way, the IGB paves the way to new approaches and innovative solutions for industrial value creation: in medicine and medical devices, the manufacture of sustainable chemical products from renewable raw materials, and the separation of contaminants from production media, water, and environmental depollution.
Global challenges are our motivation
Through our research, we want to help find solutions for the pressing challenges of our society: such as to assure an equitable supply of food, water, and raw materials to the world’s growing population, to put an end to the shameful waste of the planet’s natural resources and help to combat climate change, to improve the accuracy of diagnostic methods used to detect infectious diseases and cancer, to provide affordable and ethical drug testing, and to develop personalized medicine for an ageing society.
Our mission: We develop sustainable technologies for human health and the health of our planet
“With our applied and customer-focused research, we develop biotechnological processes for resource-friendly production within a sustainable economy and to technology that is designed to maintain human health within a healthy environment – in short: we develop sustainable technologies for human health and the health of our planet.”