»Stirring up excitement«

Created by Freie Universität Berlin, Scale Up Lab of will be one of the first tenants at FUHUB, which is part of the WISTA-managed Zukunftsort Berlin-Südwest

Bio and life science research—particularly fundamental research—often operates on the barely imaginable nanometre scale. The substances or structures created at this scale are typically designed for medical applications or the development of new materials. However, before these innovations can be used in the industry and brought to market, it must be possible to produce them at the kilogram or gram scale. This is where the new Scale Up Lab makes its impact.

“We want to help bring research results to the streets,” says Rainer Haag, professor of organic and macromolecular chemistry at Freie Universität Berlin (FU). Scale Up Lab will become a central research hub in Berlin’s Southwest, which is a so-called Zukunftsort, German for ‘future place’, one of eleven WISTA-managed locations in Berlin focusing on future innovation. To this end, the FU has secured over 800 square metres of laboratory space at FUHUB for the next ten years. The move is scheduled for the early summer of 2025.

WISTA Management GmbH has been developing the 5-hectare FUBIC site on Fabeckstrasse in direct vicinity to FU since 2017. The resulting campus will serve as a home for technology-oriented start-ups and companies in the fields of life sciences, healthcare, and computer science. The WISTA-built FUBIC Innovation Centre will be at the heart of the campus—surrounded by several other properties. One of them is home to FUHUB.

FUHUB is Germany’s first hybrid wooden laboratory building with platinum certification for sustainable construction. It also adheres to the all-electric concept put forward by the whole site. The developer, Driven Investment GmbH, has integrated biodiverse green roofs, heat pumps, and rainwater retention systems. Photovoltaic panels cover 70 percent of the roof area. “This allows us to operate sustainably, despite the high demands from tenants to laboratory infrastructure—things like ventilation, adjacent media, or elevators with specific load capacities and dimensions for laboratory equipment,” says the developer.

Professor Haag’s research team works within the Berlin GreenChem Transfer Space, aiming to find sustainable solutions for waste management and close material cycles. This includes developing biodegradable materials and methods for removing bacteria and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water.

Biomedical materials are also part of their core research areas—with a particular emphasis on hydrogels and mucins. In the StemGel project, for example, an innovative technology was developed to create an artificial environment for stem cells. This enables the cells to develop optimally and differentiate into various types. A specialised hydrogel is used for this process, which will be produced at scale by Scale Up Lab.

A hydrogel is a water-rich material with a soft, flexible structure—similar to jelly. It can store large amounts of water, thus creating ideal conditions for cell growth. What makes StemGel unique is that it is synthetic and xenofree, meaning it contains no animal-derived components.

This "synthetic jelly" could play a crucial role in medicine, including stem cell treatments. The vision: replacing defective cells with healthy cells derived from stem cells. “With its synthetic ‘mucus’, StemGel provides the essential building blocks for a potential hydrogel matrix,” says Haag. 

To ensure these new materials and technologies are available in sufficient quantities for testing and application, production scaling is essential. That’s precisely what the FU’s Scale Up Lab is facilitating. Large mixers and reactors ranging from 10 to 100 litres will be in operation at the lab. “We now want to stir up excitement in green chemistry,” says Professor Haag.

Rico Bigelmann for POTENZIAL

• FUHUB Berlin | Office & Laboratory Space (fuhub-berlin.com)
• We are Driven – New Way of Thinking for Real Estate Developments (driven-investment.com)