SPT Labtech, a global leader in the design and development of laboratory automation and liquid handling solutions, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s Genomics Core Facility (EMBL GeneCore), today announced a collaboration to advance fully walkaway automated genomics workflows.

Even before a tumour in the pancreas becomes discernible, an activated cancer gene actively remodels its future environment and creates an inflammatory and immune-defensive microenvironment in which the carcinoma can grow. The scientists' study opens up new possibilities for developing personalised intervention strategies - before a difficult-to-treat tumour even develops.

Hummingbird Diagnostics GmbH, a pioneer in harnessing blood-based small RNAs for early disease detection and characterization, today announced the publication of a new study in Nature Communications Medicine introducing an Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)-based method for detecting small RNA modifications in blood.

Federal government awards 3.5 million euros in funding to the collaborative research project FLU-PREP. Researchers are developing methods to identify the pandemic potential of new viruses at an early stage.

Soft robots, robot systems made of soft materials, open up new perspectives for medical technology and industry. Jun.-Prof. Dr. Aniket Pal from the University of Stuttgart is conducting research into viscoelastic materials that have the potential to embed intelligent functions in soft robots. He is receiving 1.5 million euros in funding for this research as part of the Emmy Noether Program. The funding period began on September 1, 2025.

Visual areas of the brain can reveal the colors a person is seeing while watching moving color rings. This was the result of a study by the University of Tübingen. Using MRI scanning they recorded images from the brains of subjects who were observing visual stimuli, and identified signals for red, green and yellow. The pattern of brain activity appeared similar in subjects, meaning that the color they saw could be predicted simply by comparison…

A joint team from the University of Stuttgart in Germany and the University of Melbourne in Australia has developed a new method for the straightforward analysis of tiny nanoplastic particles in environmental samples. One needs only an ordinary optical microscope and a newly developed test strip—the optical sieve. The research results have now been published in “Nature Photonics

The rapid increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria is one of the most pressing challenges facing global health. A new transatlantic Fraunhofer research project aims to counter these threats with an innovative diagnostic approach: a microfluidic rapid test system using carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) will make bacterial resistance visible in just a few minutes, significantly faster than conventional methods.

Every brain tumor is made up of cells in successive stages of activation. Researchers have now analyzed the individual structure of these activation pyramids in malignant brain tumors. In doing so, they discovered a signaling protein that slows down the transition from a dormant to an activated state by epigenetically reprogramming the cells. The hope is that this will permanently freeze cancer cells in a dormant state and thus halt tumor growth.

With its Proof of Concept grants, the European Research Council (ERC) supports scientists in further developing the economic potential of their research results. Two scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now received this coveted funding for the second time.

An international research team has deciphered a mechanism of evolutionary arms race in human cells. The findings provide insights into how mobile elements in DNA hijack cellular functions – and how cells can defend themselves against this in order to prevent conditions such as tumour formation or chronic inflammation.

SpecPlate: an innovative multiwell plate - 26/03/2025

Focus on innovative drug development - accurate, time- and cost-saving

Drug research is a complex and costly process that requires extensive laboratory analyses and vast quantities of consumables, with disposable sample carriers in particular being used in their millions. PHABIOC GmbH has come up with a solution in the form of the SpecPlate, a ground-breaking alternative to sample carriers that reduces the time taken to perform analyses as well as the quantity of materials consumed. Serial production is underway.

Stomach ulcers, gastritis and even stomach cancer are often the result of an infection with Helicobacter pylori. If the bacterium remains unrecognised for a long time, this can have serious consequences. Researchers have now developed a miniaturisable sensor system for the mobile analysis of breath that is effective, fast and inexpensive. The research team uses a biological survival trick of the stomach germ to detect the bacterium.

Up to now, schizophrenia has mainly been treated symptomatically, as little is known about the exact underlying processes. Researchers at the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute in Reutlingen have succeeded in gaining a better understanding of the driving mechanisms of the disease. This offers opportunities for the development of new drugs. They have published their findings in the journal BMC Psychiatry.

The NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have signed a groundbreaking cooperation agreement. This partnership combines the expertise of both institutions in the fields of production and characterization of materials for biological systems and energy storage as well as the application of statistical methods in medicine.

Chromosomal instability plays a role in the progression of cancer: it shapes the properties of tumor cells and drives the development of therapy resistance. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the Heidelberg Stem Cell Institute HI-STEM* and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) used state-of-the-art single-cell analysis methods to analyze the cellular heterogeneity of a specific form of acute myeloid leukemia.

Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases - 25/09/2024

Proinflammatory regulatory T lymphocytes as a therapeutic target in Crohn's disease

Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases are very stressful for those affected and increase the risk of bowel cancer. PD Dr. Robyn Laura Kosinsky from the Bosch Health Campus in Stuttgart, together with researchers from the USA, identified disfunctional regulatory T cells as important drivers of inflammation in Crohn's disease. They also found that with the help of an epigenetically active drug, it was possible to restore the cells’ original…

Research teams from the Universities of Konstanz and Potsdam are analyzing how proteins work together to enable our cells to both stick and move. The marker protein paxillin is at the centre of their interest.

Knowledge of the target structures for the immune cells is a basic prerequisite for the development of personalized cancer immunotherapies. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center and the NCT Heidelberg are publishing a sensitive method based on mass spectroscopy to identify such tumor-specific "neoepitopes". The analytical method is designed to detect these low abundance protein fragments and requires minimal amounts of…

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen developed the groundbreaking tool SynTracker. SynTracker expands traditional microbial analysis by considering genomic structural variation to complement existing SNP-based methods. This innovation reveals more precision and depths of microbial strain diversity and evolution.

Cancer genomes are the result of diverse mutation processes. Scientists have analyzed the molecular evolution of tumors after exposure to mutagenic chemicals. DNA lesions that persists unrepaired over several cell generations lead to sequence variations at the site of damage. This enabled the researchers to distinguish the contribution of the triggering lesion from that of the subsequent repair in shaping the mutation pattern.

Invasive infections such as sepsis require immediate and targeted treatment. Experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB and group partners have succeeded in establishing a reconceptualized detection principle that can make a crucial contribution to saving lives through fast, ultra-accurate pathogen identification. They have been chosen to receive the 2024 Stifterverband Science Prize for their efforts.

The Damietta Server broadens the accessibility to protein design research and its applications in various biotechnological and biomedical fields. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, the University of Tübingen, and the University Hospital Tübingen have developed a web-based toolkit to accelerate and simplify protein design without needing powerful computers or extensive protein design expertise on the user’s end.

Why 3,000 bars are needed to take a comprehensive look at a protein: Konstanz researchers Frederic Berner and Michael Kovermann present a new high-pressure spectroscopy method to unravel the properties of proteins' native structures.

The market for medical technology is innovative, dynamic, and growing. Bosch sees medical technology as a strategic growth field and intends to expand its Bosch Healthcare Solutions subsidiary, based in Waiblingen. Bosch has now entered into a new partnership with the German diagnostics solutions company R-Biopharm. This partnership will be focused on Bosch’s universal, fully automated Vivalytic molecular diagnostic analysis platform.

Collagen has been used in ophthalmology since the 1990s, particularly in the treatment of corneal defects. However, why and how this technique works was only known in theory. Researchers at the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute in Reutlingen led by Lu Fan have found the necessary evidence and can now reliably explain how this technique works.

Team involving the University of Freiburg has developed a new analytical method for the basement membrane in human lungs.

In living cells, a vast number of transient events occur simultaneously. The recording of these activities is a prerequisite for a molecular understanding of life. Scientists at the MPI for Medical Research in Heidelberg and their collaboration partners have created a novel technology that allows cellular events to be recorded through chemical labeling with fluorescent dyes for later analysis, opening up new ways to study cellular physiology.

Computer scientists from the Cluster of Excellence Collective Behaviour developed a model, that explains how collective scenarios such as diseases may proceed.

The AutoProNano German/French collaborative project involves developing a process for the automated production of nanoparticles for in vitro and in vivo diagnostics. The project is being launched within the smart analytics cooperation network. This international initiative has been funded by the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) since May 2020.

Proteins have characteristic amino acid sequences, the analysis of which is fundamental for research and medicine. These can be decoded; however, so-called protein sequencing is expensive and time-consuming. A large-scale research project led by Prof. Dr. Jan Behrends from the Institute of Physiology at the University of Freiburg now aims to establish a new technology for protein sequencing using nanopores, which will be rapid and cost-effective.

The newborn's immune system is suddenly confronted with microorganisms, food and numerous environmental influences at birth. How do the baby's immune cells prepare for this moment during pregnancy and birth? How do external influences shape the immune system immediately after birth? And what influence does an event like a premature birth have?

Changes known as epigenetic modifications play an important role in cancer development, among other things. Being able to analyze them quickly and reliably could, for example, contribute significantly to the further development of personalized therapy.

Laboratory automation - 29/11/2021

Reaching the goal quickly and efficiently with the help of artificial intelligence

Medical research is slow, costly and time-consuming. The system developed by the start-up LABMaiTE could soon change that. With the help of artificial intelligence, it will be possible to automate laboratory experiments and collect and analyse data at the same time.

As cancer progresses, the tumor cells continually change, ultimately resulting in a tumor consisting of a large number of different cell clones with different characteristics. This is referred to as "tumor heterogeneity". In many cases, the cancer cells become resistant to the treatments available.

PixelBiotech GmbH - 27/07/2021

Searching for tracks with cytogenetics and AI

The startup Pixelbiotech combines fluorescence techniques with artificial intelligence to detect DNA and RNA in medical samples. HuluFISH is the name of the method, which allows for countless applications - from detecting viral infections, such as COVID-19 or African swine fever virus, to the quality control of gene and immunotherapeutic procedures in cancer medicine.

To diagnose an infection with the coronavirus, usually a throat swab is taken and genetic viral material detected by using a highly sensitive PCR. To date, more than 65 million of these tests have been performed in Germany alone. Due to the massive increase in testing worldwide and simultaneous loss of production, there was a significant shortage of test materials in the early stage of the pandemic.

Article - 08/07/2021

Individual operation risk assessment by the Cognitive Medical Assistant

Despite modern surgical techniques and anaesthetic procedures, serious complications can occur during surgical interventions. An interdisciplinary team at Heidelberg University Hospital has launched a project called the Cognitive Medical Assistant (German: Der Kognitive Medizinische Assistant, KoMed for short), designed to better assess the individual risk of these interventions. The project’s goal is to systematically and comprehensively analyse…

The Deep-Tech Start-Up memetis GmbH from Germany, which produces the world’s most compact and lightest commercially available valves driven by shape memory alloys, announces a new partnership with Fluid-o-Tech S.r.l., an Italian innovation and market leader in the field of fluid-pumps.

Article - 10/03/2021

Faster to single cells using miniature grinder

Tissue cells are needed for medical diagnostics, cell therapies and tissue engineering, among other things. A novel tissue grinder gently and automatically dissociates cells from tissue. In November 2020, the newly founded biotech company Fast Forward Discoveries GmbH (FFX) delivered its first tissue grinders to customers.

Biochip systems - 02/09/2020

Miniature organs with great potential

Dr. Peter Loskill and his team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart and the University Hospital of Tübingen are developing what is known as an "organ-on-a-chip" (OoC). An OoC is a microfluidic system that simulates small functional units of organ tissue. OoCs can be used in different ways: in basic and pharmaceutical research as well as in clinical research and application, where they might render many animal experiments…

Innovative Therapies - 20/08/2020

Labor Dr. Merk is fully committed to viral therapies

Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen is reorienting its business towards viral therapeutics. With this change of strategy, the company, which has decades of expertise in virology, wants to position itself in a timely fashion in the growing new market for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP). In gene and virotherapies (oncolytic viruses), tumour vaccines and CAR-T cell therapies, viruses are essential as vectors, killers of tumour cells or…

CeGat GmbH - 06/08/2020

CeGaT: Specific coronavirus antibody test for all

Have I perhaps already had COVID-19 in the past? This is a question many of us have been asking. Reliable tests that would provide the answer have simply not been available until now. However, the Tübingen-based biotech company CeGaT is now offering a coronavirus antibody test to anyone who wants one, thus answering this question with the highest probability currently possible. Response to the offer has been huge in the few weeks since the test…

Microstructure Technology - 17/07/2020

An electronic nose for many applications

Sensory organs are sophisticated masterpieces of nature. That is why humans have often tried to copy them. Be it cameras or microphones - there are technical objects that have always been based on natural models such as the eye or the ear. For a long time, however, no artificial sense of smell has featured in the technical repertoire. Now researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed an electronic nose. It can…

SICOS BW GmbH - 18/06/2020

High-performance computing and data analytics to combat coronavirus

In an epidemic, data exchange and the use of innovative technologies are essential to be able to act effectively and quickly against the infection. High-performance computers and data analytics make a valuable contribution to this. SICOS BW is a promising solution centre that bridges the gap from numerical simulation, big data and AI to companies in the medical technology sector.

Innovations in the field of endoscopy - 08/06/2020

Gastroscopies with pill cameras

A pill camera to examine the gastrointestinal tract that can be swallowed without major difficulty, controlled intuitively from the outside and deliver images in real time - why would any doctor or patient say no? To non-experts, it sounds more like science fiction but such a device is actually already in development: since 2019, Tübingen-based Ovesco Endoscopy AG and three partners have been working together on this in a project called nuEndo.

Article - 18/03/2019

EHR and PHR: digital records in the German healthcare system

EHRs, i.e. electronic health records (German: Patientenakte, ePA), are hailed as the key to increasing the quality of care. The Appointment Service and Supply Act (TSVG), adopted on 14th March 2019, requires the German statutory health insurance funds to provide policyholders with electronic health records from 1st January 2021 onwards.

Expert interview - 16/01/2019

Cybersecurity is an important issue for the pharmaceutical industry

In an increasingly interconnected world, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors need to be aware of cybersecurity threats in manufacturing. We talked about these threats with Holger Mettler who is in charge of computer system validation and cybersecurity at Exyte (formerly M + W), a global enterprise that designs, engineers and constructs complex manufacturing facilities and buildings for the life sciences industry.

Dossier - 28/08/2018

With molecular diagnostics to biomarker-based personalised therapy

Diagnosing suitable biomarkers is a prerequisite for tailoring personalised therapies to patient heterogeneity. Genetic tests and genome sequencing play a key role in these diagnoses. Up until now, personalised therapy has achieved the greatest success in the field of oncology. However, personalised treatments are also gaining in importance for treating other diseases.

Baden-Württemberg is currently home to 193 biotechnology companies, most of which specialise in so-called ‘red biotechnology’ - i.e. applications in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. The biotech sector includes not only traditional biotechnology companies, but also companies from the fields of bioinformatics, diagnostics, analytics and biotechnological production.