IonGate honored for its SURFE2R Technology as “Landmark in the Land of Ideas 2008”

Frankfurt/Main (Germany), November 18, 2008. IonGate Biosciences GmbH celebrated its election as “Landmark in the Land of Ideas“ by the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas”. IonGate’s patented SURFE2R Technology (SURFace Electrogenic Event Reader) won the jury’s acclaim in the nationwide contest “365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas”. SURFE2R Technology enables scientists to detect extremely small electric currents in cell membranes. Thus, it becomes possible to analyze the otherwise poorly accessible class of transporters more precisely than ever before. Transporters are interesting targets for pharmaceuticals since they control pivotal functions like muscular and neural activity. Therefore, SURFE2R Technology and the devices based on this technology are useful tools in drug development.

Dr. Thiemo Gropp, Managing Director of IonGate Biosciences GmbH, received the award and a certificate signed by Federal President Horst Köhler from Dr. Björn Mamat, Deutsche Bank AG. Dr. Gropp, who is running IonGate’s business together with Wolfgang Lerch, said he was very pleased that IonGate was elected as landmark because winning this award was tantamount to a high level of appreciation of IonGate’s inventiveness and energy to put these ideas into action. He said the award was of particular importance to the more than 30 employees who were tirelessly looking for new tools to improve the development of medicines against diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer.

In his laudation, Dr. Björn Mamat emphasized the importance of SURFE2R Technology in the development of novel drugs, and paid his compliments to the employees of IonGate for their passion. In his opinion, IonGate’s technology is writing a chapter in the success story of Germany’s medical and social future.

“365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas“ is a nationwide contest under the auspices of Federal President Horst Köhler. Each day a different company, an institution, a non-governmental organization or a cultural institution is presenting itself publicly in order to demonstrate the creativity and the commitment of the people in Germany and of course to give proof of the outstanding quality of their ideas. Each “Landmark” sets an example for others to develop new ideas and put them into practice.

About IonGate Biosciences GmbH

IonGate Biosciences GmbH develops, produces and markets innovative screening technologies to investigate transporters and is the worldwide leading company in this area.

Transporters are essential for the metabolic functions of the cell, information processing in the entire organism, and also play a fundamental role in the health of humans. Due to their difficult experimental accessibility transporters are underrepresented in current drug screening processes to date. For the first time, IonGate’s SURFE2R One and SURFE2R Workstation 500 provide highly precise functional screening of transporters in higher-throughput and thus positions itself as a leading partner for the pharmaceutical industry. With its SURFE2R Workstation 500 IonGate has created a technological basis for an automated and robust analytical technique. The company provides total system solutions, encompassing disposables and reagents, as well as individual consulting services, which include the design of customized applications.

IonGate Biosciences GmbH is a venture capital financed biotechnology company located in Frankfurt/Main, Germany and Portland / Maine, USA. In addition to the main financier and leading partner Heidelberg Innovation the KfW holds a stake in IonGate. The company was established in 2000 and currently employs more than 30 staff members.

Wolfgang Lerch
Managing Director
IonGate Biosciences GmbH
Industriepark Hoechst / Building D528
65926 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
phone +49.69.305.85 400
fax +49.69.305.85 444
email info@iongate.net

Wolfgang Lerch
President
IonGate Biosciences Inc.
25 Bradley Drive
Westbrook, Maine 04092-2013
U.S.A.
phone: +1.207.591.6376
fax: +1.207.591.6377
email info@iongate.net

Media inquiries
Dr. Holger Bengs
Biotech Consulting
phone +49.69.619.94 273
fax +49.69.619.94 249
email info@holgerbengs.de

This release was published on openPR.