A biotech company, BioVentures Institute in cooperation with the University of Gdańsk developed a molecular technology to construct recombined vaccines and next generation bio-medicine, unique on a global scale. This groundbreaking technology is currently being used to develop COVID-19 vaccine. The development of this new bio-technology was a research project co-funded by the National Center for Research and Development (NCBiR) under Innovative Economy Operative Program. Both technology and research findings are protected by multiple international patents.

University of Gdańsk actively promotes developing inventions, practical use of science, cooperation with business, including start-up  companies established on the basis of the academic know-how. Biotech company BioVentures Institute was incorporated out of such cooperation. The originator and a main co-creator of the company is prof. dr hab. Piotr Skowron from the UG Faculty of Chemistry, Head of UG Molecular Biotechnology Department. A biotech company, BioVentures Institute in cooperation with the University of Gdańsk developed a molecular technology to construct recombined vaccines and next generation bio-medicine, unique on a global scale. This groundbreaking technology is currently being used to develop COVID-19 vaccine. The technology is based on constructing artificial (not found in nature) proteins with the use of vector-enzymatic, structured coding amplification of DNA fragment epitope. It was developed through the research project co-funded by National Center for Research and Development under Innovative Economy Operative Program.

This novel technology is protected by a Polish patent and multiple international patents: PCT patent, EU patent, USA patent, Indian patent, Japanese patent and Chinese patent application, also was published in multiple international scientific periodicals., like: Materials Science & Engineering” (2020) – article by  Skowron P. et al. ‘A vector-enzymatic DNA fragment amplification-expression technology for construction of artificial, concatemeric DNA, RNA and proteins for novel biomaterials, biomedical and industrial applications’ .

The technology has been successfully applied in several projects:

• The largest University of Gdańsk research project (project worth of PLN 26 million, project originator and manager - ­prof. dr hab. Piotr Skowron), concerning bio-nanotechnology (NCBiR: TECHMATSTRATEG2);
• NCBiR STRATEGMED1 project, concerning the design of new pro-regenerative medicines
• Priority program ‘Implementation of Innovative Environmental Technologies’

The research findings are also protected by patent on Polish and EU territory.

Translation. Adam Myzyk