Setting new pathways for the innovation in spinal surgery for the benefits of patients and healthcare systems in the EU

Genera Research Ltd

Genera Research is a small privately owned company located in the Zagreb area of Croatia, with focus on producing high quality therapeutic proteins using cell culture technology. Genera’s leading drug candidate, bone morphogenic protein BMP-6, is produced for use in orthopedic surgery. It is administered to patients in form of an autologous blood coagulum, OSTEOGROW, and has advanced through phase II clinical trials with funding by an FP7 grant. The continuation of this project, OSTEOproSPINE, using BMP6 in spinal arthrodesis, is funded by a Horizon2020 grant.

Key employees

Hermann Oppermann, MD is the director of Genera Research and expert in the production of recombinant proteins. He started in Biotechnology at Genentech already in 1981 in San Francisco. He then moved to the Boston area where he discovered BMP-7 and -8 (aka OP-1, OP-2) and expressed numerous other BMPs and proteins. He designed the expression systems for BMP-7 which was used clinically (Stryker Biotech) in a commercial bone device. He also coinvented the single-chain antibodies together with James Huston. Earlier he worked with Nobel laureates Bishop and Varmus and discovered the cellular c-src oncogenic protein. His scientific career began in the area of molecular cell biology and virology at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in New Jersey. Oppermann has 65 published papers with approximately 12.000 citations and holds 98 patents.

Tamara Bozic, MS, is the quality control person. Bozic is an expert for protein validation, during the production process and commercial production of the product. She is specialized in protein stability determination and the communication on protein product quality aspects with regulatory agencies.

Dora Adanić, Chief Operating Officer, tasked with overseeing the day-to-day operational and administrative functions of Genera Resarch Ltd.

Staff members involved