Collagen

Collagen is the most important structural protein in animal organisms. It forms fibres and fibre networks and provides shape and stability for organs and tissues. It can be extracted from hides, tendons, ligaments and other tissues and serves as biopolymer for the manufacture of a large number of products. Depending on the method it can be processed into films, threads, non-woven fabrics, tubes or 3D moulds. Collagen-based products are applied in numerous fields such as the food production industry (sausage casings, pet food), the cosmetics industry (collagen hydrolysates), the pharmaceutical industry (drug delivery) or medical engineering (wound dressings, implants, suture material, tissue engineering).

Head of Department

" Being a chemist I have long been fascinated by the protein chemistry. The numerous combinations of only twenty amino acids lead to an enormous variety of structures, properties and functions. Collagen is the most important and most frequent structural protein in animal organisms. But it is much more than that. After a number of decades of collagen research we are just starting to understand the interaction of collagen with cells and other biomolecules beyond a simple supporting function for the collagen to be able to assume diverse tasks in the organism. To decode the secrets of collagen and make use of them – that is what we are working on."

Dr. Enno Klüver

Head of Department Collagen

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MORE THAN 130 YEARS OF COLLAGEN RESEARCH SPEAK VOLUMES

For more than 130 years we have been dealing with the raw material collagen. Founded as Deutsche Gerberschule (German Tanner's School) the institute had been committed to the research of all aspects of leather from the beginning. But leather is nothing else but collagen – the natural fibre network of hide from which foreign substances were removed and which was preserved by tanning. Thus, the high material competence in the field of leather which developed over the years was always connected with a deep knowledge of the underlying biopolymer collagen: with its chemistry, its structure and its material properties. The high scientific level acquired this way in the field of collagen characterises our institute to this day. Meanwhile collagen is not only used for leather but also for a large number of other scopes of application. In particular the manufacture of collagen-based medical products has become more and more important over the last years. About 15 projects around the extraction, preparation and processing of collagen are performed each year at our institute, but there is still a lot to do.