Research – Department of Life Sciences
The Department Life Sciences acts as an international academic competence centre of interdisciplinary education and research.
From disease models to drug development
The Department of Life Sciences aims to facilitate communication and interaction between researchers looking at various aspects of applied biomedicine research. We focus on cancer, immune system disorders, toxicology, drug research and the latest bioprocess engineering techniques, to name just a few of our areas of expertise.
The interdisciplinary team is optimally positioned to move rapidly from disease modelling to the identification and development of drugs and lead compounds. Moreover, we have established an international scientific network including universities, research institutes, small and medium-sized enterprises and global pharmaceutical players.
Research focus areas: Department of Life Sciences
In the Department of Life Sciences we concentrate our research activities on the following main research focuses
Production and characterisation of new materials (with a focus on renewable raw materials using environmentally friendly and sustainable processes), evaluation of micro- and macroscopic properties, as well as qualitative, quantitative and structural analysis of starting, intermediate and end products.
Identification, validation and optimisation of molecules and biologics that can be employed in personalised medicine or antiviral therapy, or as biomarkers.
Systematic characterisation of bioreactors (oxygen transfer based on geometry, transfer matrices and macromixing); optimisation of bioprocesses for manufacturing recombinant materials in bacterial host systems and yeast systems; establishment of co-cultivation of extremophile microorganisms to produce pharmaceutically effective secondary metabolites.

Institute of Biotechnology
Research, development and knowledge transfer
We are involved in a steadily growing number of projects conducted in collaboration with research and industry partners from Austria and abroad. This collaborative approach also opens up new opportunities for our students, who are offered places on top-quality PhD programmes as a result of their participation in research partnerships with our institute.

Research Institute Krems Bioanalytics
Contract research in the field of biotechnology
Krems Bioanalytics (IKB) is the contract research institute at IMC Krems. The IKB provides contract research for the pharmaceutical industry, biotech companies and academia since 2014. It offers in-depth scientific expertise in hematology, immunology and oncology.

Clinical Proteomics Krems endowed professorship
Research using the high-end mass spectrometer
The objective of this endowed professorship is to set up Clinical Proteomics Krems, a research laboratory in which high-resolution mass spectrometry will be used to develop cutting-edge proteomics technologies for biomedical research and patient-specific analysis in clinical studies.

Certificate of compliance with GLP
New therapeutic molecules must meet the safety requirements of regulatory authorities (EMA, FDA) before they are launched to the market. One critical issue is the characterisation of adverse side effects and their negative impact on patients’ health. We have started a long-term collaboration with companies to develop novel technologies and methods for the rapid and reliable testing of adverse side effects in preclinical models and in clinical samples. These technologies must meet the highest quality standards of “Good Laboratory Practice” (GLP), an internationally recognised quality assurance system for laboratory work, inspected by the scope of the Austrian 10 national GLP monitoring programme.