Healthcare industry

As many as four to five million people in Germany suffer from house dust mite allergy. Researchers from the Hohenstein Institutes have now developed a mattress that promises relief for these people. The entire mattress is heated by way of flexible textile heating elements.

In an independent market study by Ceresana Research the latest data facts and trends of the antioxidant market are analysed and presented. Data concerning the antioxidant market are subdivided by region based on value and quantity.

The German Cancer Research Centre and the Spanish company Chimera Pharma SL have signed an exclusive licensing and cooperation agreement. The two partners will develop a therapeutic vaccine against cervical cancer.

The 14th Biotech Finance Forum offered selected biotechnology and medical technology companies from all over Europe the opportunity of an exclusive meeting with internationally operative investors from the venture capital VC scene.

Article - 10/05/2008

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Prize 2008

Prof. Dr. Martin Bendszus was awarded the Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Prize 2008. He received the prize together with 10000 euros for his work dealing with in vivo diagnostics of the peripheral nervous system using magnetic resonance imaging.

Researchers have developed a method that enables them to culture lymphatic vessels under laboratory conditions. The goal of the project is to gain a better understanding of how new lymphatic vessels are formed a process known as lymphangiogenesis.

Press release - 07/05/2008

ChemCon – and how an ideal niche was found and occupied

At first sight the business idea seems somehow strange Who would deliberately choose to develop and produce pharmaceutical substances that are hardly required and if so only in small quantities. Dr. Raphael Vogler and Dr. Peter Gockel the founders and owners of Freiburg-based ChemCon GmbH have done exactly that - and found an ideal niche for their company. Even the largest companies of the industry are benefiting from ChemCons know-how and…

In their 9th German Biotechnology Report the industry experts from Ernst Young paint an essentially confident picture of the German biotech industry. However despite the general optimism the picture has a few negative points no company will go public in 2008.

The BMBF has decided to fund a Bernstein Focus on Neurotechnology in the four German regions of Berlin Frankfurt FreiburgTübingen and Göttingen with a total of 34 million euros.

The Ravensburg-based company Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co. KG is one of the leaders in biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing. We spoke with Max Horn, who has been with the company since 1981 and was appointed Managing Director in 2002.

Genetic modifications of a sugar transport protein might lead to movement disorders under permanent physical strain. This can be counteracted by fat-rich food as scientists from the University Hospital of Ulm have found out. The brain shifts to using fat.

Karin Jurkat-Rott lecturer at the Institute for Applied Physiology at the University of Ulm has been awarded the Felix Jerusalem Award 2008 of the German Society for Muscular Disorders. The award worth 7500 euros recognises causal research and therapeutic approaches.

Article - 04/05/2008

Better qualifications pay off

At the beginning of October 2008 the MBA course on Medical Devices and Healthcare Management will commence at the INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL TUTTLINGEN IBST. This masters course an extra-occupational two-year distance-learning course with attendance phases.

From the winter term 20082009 Ulm University will offer a new bachelor course in mathematical biometry. The course which is unique in Germany provides basic knowledge in applied mathematics computer science and the life sciences.

Immatics biotechnologies GmbH announced the start of a Phase III trial of its IMA910 cancer vaccine in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. The study will enroll about 70 patients in 8 European countries. The vaccine is developed to slow or halt tumor progression.

Physical activity healthy nutrition more relaxation and no permanent sleep deficiency - is there a secret recipe for eternal youth? Alexander Bürkle from Constance along with scientists from all over Europe are aiming to identify the powerful biomarkers of human ageing.

During the second Conference on Systems Biology of Mammalian Cells SBMC the MTZ-Award for medically-oriented Systems Biology will for the first time be presented. The prize sum of 5000 Euro can be divided and will be granted to the three best dissertations.

15 years ago researchers in Boston discovered the Huntington gene on chromosome 4 . Among the successful scientists was the young German neurologist Bernhard Landwehrmeyer who joined the team three months prior to the discovery and who has maintained his interest in Huntingtons disease ever since.

Professor Peter Öhlschläger established his major scientific interests very early on. During his degree thesis at the German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ in Heidelberg the immunologist succeeded in combining his two major interests namely virology and cancer. Öhlschläger is now junior professor at the University of Constance and mainly deals with the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines.

The German Research Foundation has presented recommendations for work involving highly pathogenic microorganisms and toxins. The DFGs Executive Board has now agreed on a code of conduct.

The University of Tübingen is to receive an endowed chair for the molecular biology of degenerative retinal diseases. The chair is founded by the Tistou und Charlotte Kerstan Stiftung VISION 2000 SEHEN - KUNST SINNESFUNKTIONEN.

Three companies of the Ulm BioRegion have recently announced successful achievements Boehringer Ingelheim announced that the European Commission has given the full marketing authorisation for an anti-AIDS drug ratiopharm announced the signing of discount agreements with ten public health insurance companies AOK and the Hartmann Group reported the acquisition of Kneipp.

The data-mining tool KNIME has no difficulty in discovering key relationships within large amounts of data. The software is based on the open source development method it integrates current research methods and is doted with an intuitive operational concept.

The company Rentschler from Laupheim in the south of Germany is nowadays one of the biggest biopharmaceutical contract manufacturers in Europe. This has not always been the case. A look at the companys history shows why the company which is nowadays run by the third family generation has become what it is today.

Immune cells sometimes kick over the traces. This could lead to allergic reactions. At the Freiburg Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology a group of researchers led by Professor Michael Huber is investigating the mechanisms that can prevent this from happening.