Healthcare industry

Article - 12/04/2010

A new strategy for improving bone implants

Biomechanics is an interdisciplinary field of research and is also of great interest to aerospace engineers. Aerospace engineers at the University of Stuttgart develop equations and models in order to gain a better understanding of the interaction between bones and implants. In addition, they believe that their results will contribute to developing new implants and implant structures.

Article - 15/04/2009

Anke Becker: looking closely at biological systems

Not that long ago it took six months or more to sequence a single gene. Nowadays modern genomics means that it takes less than a week to sequence an entire microorganism. This development means that scientists are more interested than ever in looking into biological systems as a whole. Professor Dr. Anke Becker from the University of Freiburg is investigating how groups of genes and molecules interact with each other. She is particularly…

Article - 24/10/2011

Cadherins and Wnt signals – cell adhesion or growth and dispersion?

The proteins of the cadherin family form a kind of molecular zip that binds cells closely together thereby preventing cancer cells from migrating for example. Prof. Dr. Doris Wedlich and her team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT were involved in the discovery that cadherins are not only involved in cell adhesion but also have other functions.

The increasing number of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics is becoming a great problem in the treatment of infected wounds. The Hohenstein Institutes are developing novel wound dressings that use bacteriophages to combat even the most virulent pathogens.

Article - 18/04/2011

Can tissue be glued together in a non-invasive way?

At present, the use of substances to glue tissue together is only an idea, but it might eventually mean that surgeons will no longer need to use a needle and thread. The cellular and molecular biologist Rainer Wittig from the Ulm-based ILM hopes to develop such substances using a photochemical process. He is also planning to test substances that not only adhere to tissue but which will also be able to initiate the wound healing process.

Article - 14/05/2009

A multicentred approach for the treatment and prevention of diabetes

In order to counteract the increase in the number of diabetics it is necessary to take into account the entire psychosocial environment of the patients states Prof. Dr. Peter Nawroth a physician from Heidelberg University Hospital. The prevention of late complications must be a major goal of any treatment and patient consultation. By focusing on the development and investigation of the RAGE-dependent reaction system Nawroth and his team have…

Article - 29/10/2012

Friederike J. Gruhl – biology is not always enough

Researchers are usually only able to explore the development and growth of tumours with animal models. This is because many human cells lose their typical characteristics once outside the body. Friederike J. Gruhl from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT is working to create a biomimetic environment in Petri dishes in which prostate cells thrive and can be manipulated to become tumours for example - if required. The three-dimensional…

Article - 25/02/2013

Frauke Melchior and the SUMO wrestling match between proteins

Fifteen years ago, molecular biologist Frauke Melchior discovered a new mechanism of posttranslational protein modification that controls a variety of processes in eukaryotic cells. A small protein called SUMO is covalently bound to target proteins by specific enzymes and cleaved by other enzymes. This discovery has shaped Melchior’s scientific career.

Guest article - 07/04/2014

Experience report from Nanjing

Marcel Loewert, who is studying bioengineering (M. Sc.) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), was awarded a China scholarship from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts to spend five months at the College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering in Nanjing, capital and communications centre in China’s Jiangsu Province. Here Marcel reports about the experiences he made during his five-month stay in…

Article - 09/08/2010

Computer-assisted drug design

Bioinformaticians from Tübingen have developed the “BALL” software platform that accelerates and simplifies the search for active agents. Computer modelling and simulation enables the assessment of molecule modifications and the optimisation of their function accordingly.

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.

Article - 17/06/2013

Evolution of light perception networks in plants

Genetically identical plants develop rather differently depending on the light conditions in which they live. In the dark the plant grows in length in order to reach the sunlight needed for photosynthesis. Exposed to light the plant then switches to a different development programme becomes green and assembles its photosynthesis machinery. Prof. Dr. Andreas Hiltbrunner from the University of Freiburg is interested in finding out how the…

Article - 22/07/2013

FESTO – tapping into the bioproduction market

Festo AG Co. KG is a leading provider of factory automation and process automation. The company has been involved in and contributed to shaping the development of such automation solutions ever since its foundation in 1925. Festo markets electrical and pneumatic drive technology valves sensors and other automation components as well as complete control units. Moreover when industrial bioproduction involving living microorganisms was gaining in…

Guest article - 02/12/2013

Field report: Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in Dalian

A grant from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts enabled Sarah Hamed to do her master’s thesis in the Laboratory of Biomedical Material Engineering at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in Dalian, China. Her activities involved research into and development and characterisation of a process for producing new alginate-chitosan microcapsule membrane structures.

The neurobiologist Prof. Dr. Hilmar Bading and the molecular biologist Prof. Dr. Ingrid Grummt are among the winners of the first Advanced Investigator Grants competition in the Life Sciences domain assigned by the European Research Council.

Part 2 - 06/10/2014

Expert interview: How are the prices of innovative diagnostic and medical devices determined?

While there are specific regulations in Germany for the reimbursement of medicines, funding for molecular diagnostics products is complex and virtually non-existent. There is hardly any medical insurance cover for medical devices, which therefore tend to be sold on the open market. The question therefore arises as to how a reasonable price can be determined for innovative diagnostic methods and tools. In the second part of the interview conducted…

Article - 17/05/2013

Dengue fever, the neglected infectious disease

Dengue fever is the most common infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes. The disease is spreading in Europe and Germany, an upward trend that is due to increased long-distance travel. There are no specific drugs or vaccine for dengue, which is why an international research network has been established to improve the management of the disease. The consortium is coordinated by the Department of Tropical Medicine at Heidelberg University.

The directors of the Tübingen Max Planck Institute MPI for Developmental Biology are pleased to have a Leibniz prizewinner in their ranks for the second year running. Dr. Elisa Izaurralde and her colleague Dr. Elena Conti have both been awarded the 2008 prize for their outstanding work in the field of RNA research.

SciLife is a new virtual presentation and communication platform for the scientific community. The platform is now also available free of charge to researchers who want to increase networking activities and who are looking for equipment and researchers.

Article - 24/03/2009

Focussing on medical benefits – Nycomed to reorient its activities

An ambassador strategy for dual innovative power The research-based pharmaceutical company Nycomed has come up with a new research and development concept for the development of promising drugs and clinical products. The company intends to place increasing emphasis on licensing and to enter into more intensive cooperation with external partners.

The EU hopes to tap innovative markets through a Lead Markets Initiative LMI in which electronic health services eHealth were identified as an important market.

Article - 09/08/2010

Elara Pharmaceuticals

The Heidelberg-based biotech company ELARA Pharmaceuticals is focused on the development of treatments of tumours through the inhibition of the hypoxia signalling pathway (HIF) and through the induction of apoptosis. The company’s lead candidate targets multiple myeloma, a cancer that arises in the plasma cells of the immune system.

Article - 13/01/2014

DIARECT AG – development and production of immunodiagnostics components

Founded by Dr. Heinz Haubruck and Prof. Dr. Bodo Liedvogel in 1998, the biotechnology company DIARECT AG (DIAgnostic by RECombinant Technology) from Freiburg sells tried and tested and new products. The company produces proteins, nucleoproteins and assay components for the diagnostics sector. These products enable the reliable identification of autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases.

Article - 13/11/2010

Evidence in personalised medicine

Personalised medicine is the potential capacity to systematically use information about an individual patient in order to select or optimise that patient’s therapeutic care and tailor individual preventive treatments. Biomarkers need to be used as objective parameters in order to determine a patient’s individual risk profile. The role that features detected by genetic tests play in the causal mechanism of diseases and whether they are suitable…

Article - 23/03/2015

cytena GmbH facilitates the separation of single cells

cytena GmbH, a start-up company which was spun out from the Department of Microscystems Engineering (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg in 2014, has developed a device that enables single cells to be deposited safely and gently using a single-cell printer called cy-Clone. Once processed, the cells can be used to study tumour heterogeneity and to create clonal cell lines for producing antibodies.