Last week on February 15th, BioRN visited Heidelberg Pharma AG in Ladenburg to interview Artjom Wischnjow, Associate Director Business Development. With the aim to showcase BioRN companies, institutions, and players in the network, BioRN established a new event format: M2M – Member to Member. In an interview format, BioRN portraits its members, to understand their business and mission and present their value to the other members in the cluster.
Even if not mushrooms picker himself, Artjom explained during the interview, how Heidelberg Pharma is the first company to use the active ingredient from the death cap mushroom Amanitin for cancer therapy.
Heidelberg Pharma has been working for some years on a proprietary technology for so called ATACs (Antibody Amanitin Conjugates). ATACs are ADCs (antibody drug conjugates) that combine the high affinity and specificity of antibodies with the potency of cytotoxic small molecules for the treatment of cancer. Amanitin is cross-linked to different antibodies designed to target the compound to the cancer cell, where it is absorbed. There, the Amanitin is released and inhibits RNA polymerase II, which results in programmed cell death, or apoptosis.
Discover the ‘beauty of science’ behind this innovation “made in” Heidelberg Pharma in the full interview on demand.