In February 2006 Avontec established a new research laboratory at the University of Heidelberg. The laboratory is located on campus in close proximity to Avontec`s founder Prof. Markus Hecker. Here, in cooperation with Prof. Hecker, Avontec scientists conduct basic research into the mechanism of action and cellular delivery of decoy oligonucleotides to enhance the molecular understanding of this new drug class. Additional programs focus on new transcription factor target discovery and product related research for Avontec’s lead candidates AVT-01 in asthma and AVT-02 in psoriasis.