Institute for drug research

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Main laboratory building of the IMF in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde

The Institute for Drug Research ( IWF ) was a non-university research institute of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (AdW). It existed from January 1976 to December 1991 and was based in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde at Alfred-Kowalke-Straße  4. With around 230 employees at the end of its existence, it was one of the biomedically oriented academy institutes. The director of the institute from its founding to its dissolution was the pharmacologist Peter Oehme . The institute was part of the Research Center for Molecular Biology and Medicine of the AdW.

History of origin

The historical roots of the Institute for Active Substance Research (IWF) lay on the Berlin-Bucher Medical Campus - in the Institute for Pharmacology of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (AdW) headed by Friedrich Jung . In this institute, the pharmacologist Peter Oehme headed the peptide pharmacological working group and was also the deputy director of the institute since 1968 . His declared concept was the establishment of a modern, interdisciplinary drug research.

Since there were no development opportunities for this on the Berlin-Buch campus, especially due to the limited space, the peptide pharmacology and peptide chemistry of the pharmacological institute moved to an academy site in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde in 1971. After a short interim phase as the “Territorial Complex Berlin-Friedrichsfelde” and as the “external area” of the “AdW Central Institute for Molecular Biology” founded in Berlin-Buch in 1972, the “Institute for Drug Research (IWF)” of the AdW was founded here on January 1, 1976. The founding director was the aforementioned pharmacologist Peter Oehme . He headed the institute until it closed at the end of 1991.

At the same time as the IWF, the "Institute for Pharmacological Research (IPhF)" of the "Pharmaceutical Combine Germed" was set up under the direction of Professor Erhard Göres , also an academic student of Friedrich Jung . Both institutes worked closely together in the Academy-Industry-Complex (AIK) "Drug Research " .

Researches

The scientific spectrum of the IMF was extensive. It ranged from new methods for finding general relationships between structure and chemical properties of a molecule with its biological effectiveness, cell breeding and cell pharmacological investigations including alternatives to animal experiments, peptide chemical, organic-synthetic and biopharmaceutical work up to a multi-layered CNS, cardiovascular system - and immunopharmacology. The director of the institute headed a research department with a focus on regulatory pharmacology.

The results of the IMF ranged from basic research to participation in the development of peptide drugs for medical diagnostics and therapy as well as drugs, especially for cardiovascular diseases .

At the time of the institute's 10th anniversary in 1986, the IMF had 240 employees, 90 of whom were scientists. This made it one of the smaller AdW institutes. Up to this point in time, more than 600 scientific papers, including monographs and monograph articles, have been published. 160 results have been registered for patents. The institute was internationally recognized, anchored in a number of international committees and co-organized international conferences. The leading scientific staff at that time were: Klaus-Dieter Jentzsch (cell pharmacology), Hartmut Niedrich (peptide chemistry / drug chemistry), Burkhard Mehlis (biopharmacy / analysis), Rainer Franke (theoretical molecular pharmacology) , Hans Löwe (cardiovascular pharmacology).

The IMF's scientific focus was interdisciplinary peptide research. The investigations into the neuropeptide substance P (SP) played an essential role. Together with the group of physiologist Karl Hecht , an anti-stress effect was described for SP, the mechanism of action was investigated and a general model for the adaptive effect of regulatory peptides was developed. In addition, the relationships between stress and SP for the development of addiction were examined. For many years, Peter Oehme was a co-organizer of the international Substance P symposia.

Up until German unification, the IMF developed into an internationally recognized research institute with extensive collaborations in both East and West. In addition, there was close cooperation with clinical institutions and the pharmaceutical industry. The official evaluation results of the Science Council of the Federal Republic of 1991 stated: The IMF “is a successful example of interdisciplinary research” with “several future-oriented research approaches”. This was followed by the recommendation: "... to found an institution for molecular pharmacology from the IMF that orients the work on adaptation processes with the long-term goal of addiction research". Despite this positive evaluation, the IMF, like all AdW institutes, was closed on December 31, 1991. The Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology, which belongs to the Leibniz Association , emerged from the institute .

The Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) was founded on January 1, 1992. The FMP initially remained at the Berlin-Friedrichfelde location and had to master a number of difficult years. Only in 1996 did a stabilization take place with the appointment of the Gießen pharmacologist Walter Rosenthal . In 2000, the FMP was able to move into a modern new building on the Berlin-Buch campus near the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC). A historical circle was thus closed for the pharmacologists and peptide chemists who “moved out” of the Buch campus in 1971.

Important research focuses at the IWF were peptide and adaptation research , which arose from the Central Institute for Molecular Biology in Berlin-Buch , as well as the pharmacology of the cardiovascular system and medicinal chemistry .

One of the publications issued by the institute was the series “Contributions to Active Ingredient Research” published by the Berlin Academy Verlag .

swell

  • The Wikipedia article IWF was expanded based on the panel on the IWF in the "Museum for the History of Science on the Biomedical Campus in Berlin-Buch "; this was done with the consent of the PR manager Anette Krause .
  • P. Oehme : Five decades of research and teaching in pharmacology. Experienced and lived in science. trafo-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89626-582-2 (autobiography of the founder and director of the institute)
  • P. Oehme, E. Göres, W. Rosenthal, D. Ganten: Pharmacological institutions Berlin-Buch and Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. In: A. Philippu (ed.): History and work of the pharmacological, clinical-pharmacological and toxicological institutes in German-speaking countries. Volume I, Berenkamp Verlag, 2004, pp. 698-711.
  • P. Oehme: Experiences from an academy-industrial complex. In: W. Scheler (ed.): The Berlin Academy after 1945. Contemporary witnesses report. In: Treatises of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin. Volume 6, 2001, pp. 143-149.
  • Institute for drug research (ed.): Institute for drug research of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR 1976–1986. Self-published.
  • P. Oehme, K. Hecht : Reflections on substance P research; Reflections on Substance P Research (with 50 references). Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin, 2017. (leibnizsozietaet.de)
  • P. Oehme: Substance P - selected problems of chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, physiology and pathophysiology. (= Contributions to drug research. Volume 12). Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Berlin 1981.
  • W. Scheler , P. Oehme: Between medicine and society. On the life and work of Friedrich Jung . (= Treatises of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin. Volume 8). trafo Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89626-345-5 .
  • P. Oehme, W. Scheler: Friedrich Karl Jung - scientific biography. In: A. Philippu (ed.): History and work of the pharmacological, clinical-pharmacological and toxicological institutes in German-speaking countries. Volume V: Autobiographies II and Selected Biographies. Berenkamp Verlag, 2017, pp. 261–264.
  • P. Oehme: The work of Friedrich Jung in Berlin pharmacology. In: J. Gross, G. Jacobasch , P. Oehme (eds.): Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin. Volume 123/124, trafo Verlag, Berlin 2015, pp. 29–44.
  • F. Jung , P. Oehme, H. Rein: Medicines and society. (= Treatises of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. 1971). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1971.
  • P. Oehme, J. Bergmann, M. Bienert, H. Hilse, L. Piesche, P. Minh Thu, E. Scheer: Biological action of Substance P - is differentiation by affinity and intrinsic efficacy. In: US v. Euler, B. Pernow (Ed.): Substance P. (= Nobel symposium. 37). Raven Press, New York 1977, pp. 327-335.
  • P. Oehme, H. Hilse, E. Morgenstern, E. Göres: Does Substance P produce analgesia or hyperalgesia? In: Science. 208, 1980, pp. 305-307.
  • K. Hecht, P. Oehme, M. Poppei: Action of Substance P on neurotic-hypertensive rats. In: Pharmacy. 34, 1979, pp. 654-657.
  • P. Oehme, K. Hecht, L. Piesche, H. Hilse, E. Morgenstern, M. Poppei: Substance P as a modulator of physiological and pathological processes. In: CA Marsan, WZ Traczyk, US v. Euler (Ed.): Neuropeptides and neural transmission. (= International brain organization monograph series. 7). Raven Press, New York 1980, pp. 73-84.
  • P. Oehme, H. Löwe, E. Göres (Eds.): III. Berlin Active Substance Symposium Peptides and Adaptation - Basic Research and Clinical Aspects. (= Contributions to drug research. Issue 36). Self-published by the IMF, 1990.
  • H. Coper , P. Oehme: New opportunities for a Berlin addiction research network. In: Materials on Health Research. Series of publications on the Federal Government's program for research and development in the service of health. 19, 1991, pp. 175-182.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ P. Oehme: Five decades of research and teaching in pharmacology. trafo Verlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2006, p. 66.