Groundbreaking ceremony for new centre for gene and cell therapy

Kai Wegner (l-r), Governing Mayor of Berlin, Heyo K. Kroemer, pharmacologist, Lars Klingbeil, Federal Minister of Finance, Stefan Oelrich, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG, and Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister for Research, Technology and Space, at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Berlin Center for Gene and Cell Therapies.

Construction of a new centre for gene and cell therapy has begun in Berlin-Mitte.

The so-called translation centre will work on the transfer of research results into healthcare. Charité is working together with Bayer AG on the project. The Berlin Institute of Health at the Charité has now been added as a third partner. The project is largely funded by the federal government and the state of Berlin. 

Space for 15 to 20 start-ups

"Gene and cell therapies are a beacon of hope for all those people for whom conventional therapies have failed or for whom there is no effective treatment to date," writes Charité in a press release. Among other things, the new centre will provide space for 15 to 20 start-ups in various stages of development as well as a production facility for the development of gene and cell therapeutics up to clinical phase II.

First building block for Life Science Campus

"The Translational Centre for Gene and Cell Therapies is the first central building block of a life science campus in the heart of Berlin, where science and research, start-ups and established companies are working on the future of medicine," said Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) at the ground-breaking ceremony, according to a press release. The centre is being built on the Bayer campus at Berlin's Nordhafen. A ten-storey building with a total area of around 20,000 square metres will be built there in the coming months. In addition to the Berlin Centre for Gene and Cell Therapies (BC GCT), other tenants are to move in, the Charité announced.