“The CENtR will be located at the laboratory base of Exploden LLC in Lviv.
The center will be managed by leading German and Ukrainian scientists.
The Ukrainian-German Center for Exemplary Research on Natural Compounds (CENtR) will be implemented by the biotechnology company Explozhen LLC together with the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Saarland in partnership with scientists from the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology of Lviv University.
According to preliminary data, CENtR will start its work in mid-2024.
The scientists discussed these issues at the 14th meeting of the Ukrainian-German Working Group on Scientific and Technological Cooperation, which took place recently in Germany.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) selected four projects from among more than 50 in a competitive selection process. The total funding for each center is about 2.5 million euros for four years.
“The choice of the research topic is not accidental – it is in the field of actinomycetes that scientists from the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology of the University have been actively working for 35 years and have an undisputed world reputation. Among a number of different areas of research on bioactive natural substances, the priority for CENtR scientists will be the search for antibacterial compounds. This is due to the urgent need for new antibiotics that would be effective against pathogenic bacteria that are resistant to all currently known medicines,” explained Professor Bohdan Ostash, Chief Research Scientist at the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology of the Faculty of Biology.
According to the scientist, if the problem of antibiotic resistance is not solved globally in the coming years, it will lead to an additional 10 million deaths and financial losses of 80 trillion euros by 2050.
This problem is no less acute for Ukraine in times of war
The uncontrolled use of a number of “last resort” antibiotics on the front line, with the inability to maintain asepticity and minimal hygiene, is already beginning to narrow the range of antibiotics that can be used to treat the wounded.
Therefore, the development of Ukraine’s own research and production base for the antibiotic industry is an urgent task. Today, the market for antibiotic substances is dominated by China and India. Any intention of these countries to stop or even reduce the supply of antibiotics may pose enormous security risks for Ukraine.
The CENtR team of scientists are mostly employees or graduates of the Faculty of Biology of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, who have been trained at leading scientific institutions around the world and have extensive experience in the study of chemistry and biology of natural compounds. The CENtR aims to uncover the genetic and chemical diversity of soil actinomycetes in order to identify new compounds with antibacterial and other bioactivities with the prospect of further medical application.
It is expected that CENtR, as a non-governmental organization, will function as a result of the BMBF funding and will be supported by the commercial partners of the project (Enzyme and Exploden), as well as by the participation of Lviv University in international scientific competitions.