Biotech location Mainz: Startup LigniLabs signs lease for LAB 1
The ink has dried, the next tenant for the LAB 1 inaugural building at the new biotechnology and life science site at the Mainz city entrance has been confirmed: “Prof. Dr. Frederik Wurm from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) will set up his start-up LigniLabs on around 470 m²,” says 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 in the immediate vicinity of the university, college and well-known research institutes. The news is also an important signal for the up-and-coming biotechnology location of Mainz. The location solution puts an end to polymer researcher Wurm’s desperate search for suitable laboratory space. “LigniLabs is very happy about the opportunity to move into LAB 1. Laboratory space for chemical research is hard to find and the proximity to our home institute MPIP is ideal,” says Wurm.
The new premises are intended to provide further momentum for the successful spin-off in the field of sustainable plant protection. Together with his team, Wurm has developed a biotechnological fungicide that is of great importance for viticulture: its active ingredient combats the insidious vine fungal disease Esca. If Esca attacks a vine, it is destroyed from the inside within a short time. Conventional fungicides are almost ineffective in combating the fungal disease. Wurm’s biotechnological fungicide ESCApe is breaking new ground in vine protection: the active ingredient encapsulated in microspheres is injected into the vine through a small hole. The fungus dies when it absorbs the active ingredient.
LAB 1 will be completed as early as summer 2025. At the new LigniLabs site, Wurm will continue to drive forward its product development in bio-based crop protection and initiate the approval of the bio-fungicide. The first batches of the initial product ESCApe will also be produced in LAB 1. It is quite possible that with the continued successful development of LigniLabs, the space requirement will also grow very quickly. Molitor Managing Director F. Albrecht Graf von Pfeil is prepared: “LAB 1 is just the beginning. 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, and Edmund Schmitz, Managing Director of G.L. Kayser Immobilien GmbH adds: “The building application for LAB 2 with around 8,000 m² has already been submitted.”
Innovationspark Mainz GmbH & Co. KG is a joint company of the regional project developers J. Molitor Immobilien GmbH, G.L. Kayser Immobilien GmbH and IGM Immobilien Gesellschaft Mainz mbH.
