Dieter Runge, Germany

My scientific research focused on the regulation of metabolism in liver and the differentiation of liver cells in culture.

I studied Biology at Free University Berlin and Georg August University in Göttingen from 1980 -1986. In Göttingen, I studied the hormonal regulation of carbohydrate metabolism in rat liver and rat hepatocyte cultures during my Diploma and PhD thesis. Received Doctorate degree from University in Göttingen in 1990. 

After that, I spent several years at universities in the USA (Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Nashville) and Germany (Justus Liebig University in Giessen) were I learnt to isolate signal transduction proteins in the cell membrane and transcription factors in the nucleus. 

In 1995, my wife and I joined the group of George Michalopoulos at the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh where I worked as a Research Associate and as a Research Assistant Professor. Here we laid the background for the company that was founded in 2004. I studied the differentiation of human and rat liver cells in culture and we learnt how to maintain hepatocellular functions for several weeks in cultured hepatocytes.

After returning to Germany in 1999, I continued to work on the differentiation of liver cells at the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Halle for one year, before I made first experiences with two Biotech Companies in Germany. 

First, Ingenium Pharmaceuticals in Munich, then, Cytonet in Hannover. There, I basically learnt how easy it is to burn money provided by investors and venture capitalists. 

So, I returned to a scientific research position at the Department of Immunology at the University of Rostock in 2002. 

In 2004, together with friends and family we founded Primacyt. Primacyt started its operations in 2005. We are GLP certified since 2006 and serve as reference laboratory for alternatives to animal experiments the European Union since 2013. 

In 2008, we have received the research prize form the German Ministry of Agriculture, Consumer Protection and Nutrition for the development of a chemically defined, serum-free human hepatocyte culture system that allow repeated application of drugs in long-term cultures of human hepatocytes and thereby can serve as an alternative to animal experiments.

We usually have close collaborations with universities, mainly the University of Pittsburgh, the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of the University of Greifswald and the Leibniz Institute for Work Research at the Technical University of Dortmund (IfADo). Together with the University of Greifswald, we have established drug transporters assays in hepatocyte cultures and the isolation and characterization of nonparenchymal liver cells. Currently, we are focusing on the development and validation of a NASH liver cell model.