Biotech at home in Mainz: start-up LigniLabs signs lease agreement for LAB 1
The ink has dried and the next tenant for LAB 1, the first building on the new biotechnology and life sciences site at the entrance to the city of Mainz is now known: ‘Professor Frederik Wurm from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) and his start-up LigniLabs is renting a space covering around 470 m²,’ announced Molitor Managing Director F. Albrecht Graf von Pfeil. Together with G. L. Kayser Immobilien GmbH and IGM Immobilien Gesellschaft Mainz mbH, Molitor is developing the InnovationLabz laboratory space close to the city’s universities and well-known research institutes. The news also sends a major signal for Mainz as an up-and-coming biotechnology location. For polymer researcher Wurm, the location marks the end of a desperate search for suitable laboratory space. ‘LigniLabs is delighted to be given the opportunity to move into LAB 1. Laboratory space for chemical research is hard to find, and the proximity to our MPIP institute is ideal,’ says Wurm.
The activities of the successful spin-off in the field of sustainable crop protection are set to gain further momentum in the new premises. Together with his team, Wurm has developed a biotechnological fungicide that is of real importance to viticulture: its active ingredient fights the insidious fungal grapevine disease esca. If esca infests a grapevine trunk, it is destroyed from the inside within a short space of time. The fungal disease is difficult to control with conventional fungicides. Wurm’s biotechnological fungicide ESCApe breaks new ground in grapevine protection: encapsulated in microspheres, the active ingredient is injected into the grapevine stem through a small borehole. The fungus dies as a result of absorbing the active ingredient.
LAB 1 is due for completion in summer 2025. At the new LigniLabs site, Wurm will continue to develop his biologically based crop protection products and embark on the approval process for the biological fungicide. The first batches of the initial ESCApe product are also set to be produced in LAB 1. It is quite possible that more space will very quickly be needed as LigniLabs continues to grow successfully. Molitor Managing Director F. Albrecht Graf von Pfeil is prepared for this eventuality: ‘LAB 1 is just the start. We are now working flat out to develop further laboratory buildings in order to meet the high demand as quickly as possible,’ says von Pfeil, while Edmund Schmitz, Managing Director of G.L. Kayser Immobilien GmbH, adds: ‘The planning application for LAB 2 – a site occupying around 8,000 m² – has already been submitted.’
Innovationspark Mainz GmbH & Co. KG is a joint venture between J. Molitor Immobilien GmbH, G.L. Kayser Immobilien GmbH and IGM Immobilien Gesellschaft Mainz mbh.
