Healthcare industry

Article - 06/08/2012

VivaCell Biotechnology GmbH investigates the health-promoting effect of food

VivaCell Biotechnology GmbH offers in vivo and in vitro demonstration of the efficacy of pharmaceutical and phytopharmaceutical compounds and nutraceuticals. Using its specific in vitro and in vivo models, the company has been able to prove the health-enhancing effect of numerous foods, and is thus an excellent partner in the Bioactive Plant Foods Network.

Venneos GmbH is based in Stuttgart and develops a novel imaging system for the analysis of biological cells. A consortium of business angels and family offices, along with the High-Tech Gründerfonds and Max Planck Society invest in the company to develop a market-ready product and prepare the market entry of the first product generation.

Article - 14/11/2011

BioTeSys GmbH - The basics of substance testing

Esslingen-based BioTeSys GmbH is contracted by its clients to determine the bioactive potential of substances and substance mixtures of foods and dietary supplements. Substances are tested whether or not they have a positive effect on human health using a range of chemical analyses, cell-based tests and clinical trials.

Press release - 05/09/2011

Sequenom announces European licensing agreement with GATC daughter LifeCodexx

Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM), a life sciences company providing innovative genetic analysis solutions, today announced it has partnered with LifeCodexx AG, a company focused on the development of clinically validated Next Generation Molecular Diagnostics, for the commercialization of prenatal laboratory testing services in Europe. The companies have agreed to collaborate in the development and launch of a trisomy 21 laboratory developed test…

Guest article - 15/04/2013

Varied and multi-facetted – life and research in Nanjing

Joachim Koepff spent six months in Nanjing from June to November 2012 doing practical training at the College for Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering. Here he recounts his experiences in China and his thoughts about the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science Research and the Arts scholarship that makes such short-term research stays at a Chinese research institution possible.

High-Tech Gründerfonds is investing EUR 600,000 in Reutlingen-based SIGNATOPE GmbH. SIGNATOPE will use the funds to advance the development of its unique biomarker assay system, that has been established to support pharmaceutical research. The technology is based on special antibodies and allows the early detection of possible side effects during the drug development process. Thereby, the need for animal testing will be reduced while the drug…

Article - 16/12/2013

Cellendes puts paradigm change in cell research to good use

Cells grown on the flat furfaces of tissue culture plates do not behave as they would in their natural environment. This is why scientists are now using three-dimensional substrates to replicate the natural environmental of cells in tissue cellular matrix. Dr. Brigitte Angres and Dr. Helmut Wurst founders and managing directors of Cellendes GmbH in Reutlingen have taken advantage of this new knowledge and developed two novel hydrogels for cell…

Scientists from the Center for Prenatal Diagnosis and Human Genetics, Kudamm-199, in Berlin have been working with scientists from GATC Biotech AG and LifeCodexx AG to develop a non-invasive diagnostic test based on Next Generation Sequencing which reliably detects a fetal trisomy 21 (Down syndrome).

Article - 09/12/2013

Stronger base pairing improves DNA analyses

A team from the Institute of Organic Chemistry at Stuttgart University has found a chemical substitute for one of the four primary DNA building blocks, i.e. thymine. Thymine can cause problems in DNA hybridisation experiments. The thymine substitute called “E”, which stands for ethynylpyridone, binds more strongly and selectively with the adenine base on the complementary DNA strand than thymine. Highly specific DNA tests might benefit from the…

Article - 03/07/2018

The digital laboratory is picking up speed

A new team at the Fraunhofer IPA is developing digital laboratory systems to support industrial partners in planning and managing laboratory processes. This benefits companies in terms of quality assurance, economic efficiency and, notably, ergonomic improvements to the work place.

Dossier - 01/02/2008

Glycobiotechnology - sugar research is picking up speed

Alongside DNA and proteins sugar structures play an important role in cellular transport and communication processes. They are also part of the molecular control and regulation machinery making them of particular interest to biotechnologists. The pharmaceutical industry as well as the food sector and material sciences have realised the potential of sugar structures.

Article - 18/09/2010

Empa Testmaterials: assessing the effectiveness of washing processes

Empa Testmaterials AG focuses on the research and development of test systems and materials that enable biofilm to be successfully removed from washing machines as well as controlling the level of hygiene of individual wash cycles. As a competence centre in washing and cleaning the company specialises in the assessment of washing and cleaning processes in terms of effectiveness energy efficiency damage and hygiene.

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 - 24/09/2015

New test system for detection of HPV-related oral cavity cancers

The number of people suffering from oral or oropharyngeal cancer is rising steadily. The major cause of these cancers is human papillomaviruses (HPV) that colonise the oral cavity, where they are difficult to detect. QIAGEN Lake Constance GmbH from Stockach, in cooperation with Abviris Deutschland GmbH, has developed a new test system to improve the detection of oral HPV. This new system enables rapid and reliable quantitative detection of…

Expert interview - 17/10/2018

Biologicals are becoming increasingly important to Boehringer Ingelheim

Biopharmaceuticals are playing an increasingly important role in Boehringer Ingelheim’s development pipeline. Visible evidence of this is the company’s Biologicals Development Centre (BDC) that is currently being constructed in Boehringer Ingelheim’s Biberach plant and will bring the company’s process development under one roof by early 2020. Walter Pytlik from BIOPRO talked with Dr. Ing. Ralf Schumacher about the new centre.

Article - 05/11/2010

DITABIS: Custom-made analysis systems for research and industry

Outstanding quality, clever product design, flexibility and rapid implementation make Pforzheim-based DITABIS Digital Biomedical Imaging Systems AG a true racing stable for device developments. The company’s key competences include imaging plate technology and fluorescence scanning, procedures that can be used to record high-resolution digital images in a contrast-rich and highly linear way. The innovative imaging systems are predominantly used…

Article - 09/08/2010

IBAM GbR - Enzymes, neurotransmitters and Greek mountain tea

The Denzlingen-based company IBAM GbR offers solutions that enable faster and cost-effective drug discovery. IBAM GbR was spun off from the University of Freiburg and supports industrial customers in identifying biochemical targets of potential drugs or the modes of action of enzymes and second messengers in the central nervous system and other tissues. Over the last few years the companys managing director Dr. Rainer Knörle and his partner Dr.…

Press release - 20/01/2008

LifeCodexx AG - Clarity within the genetic data jungle

Constance based GATC Biotech founds the subsidiary company LifeCodexx AG. LifeCodexx is the first web-based information service for the storage and utilisation of biological and medical data from the analysis of genetic codes and protein codes in the EU.

Article - 25/02/2013

Molecular monitoring of premature infants

Premature births are not uncommon in Germany where around seven percent of newborns are born before week 37 of pregnancy. The WHO estimates that the numbers of preterm births are growing due to the increasing age of mothers. Doctors caring for the tiny patients are faced with a dilemma because regular blood samples required for the clinical monitoring of important blood parameters cannot be taken due to the infants low body volume.

Diagnostics - 29/01/2018

New test for extended blood fat analysis

Cholesterol is seen as the cause of atherosclerosis, a disease that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. However, it now seems that the way cholesterol is packaged may be even more important than high blood cholesterol levels. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy now allows the high-throughput analysis of such lipid packages.

Article - 17/12/2012

rent-a-lab – the bioassay specialist

rent-a-lab has been offering services to detect and determine the quantity of biomolecules for around ten years. The company is mainly focused on studies related to the binding of biomolecules to GTP-binding protein-coupled receptors, a field that has attracted a great deal of attention following the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012 for the identification of this important class of receptors.

Press release - 29/03/2012

GATC Biotech’s NightXpress sequencing service goes Europe-wide

GATC Biotech, Europe’s leading sequencing provider, now offers its overnight sequencing service NightXpress Europe wide. This unique overnight service has been made possible by the recently opened European Custom Sequencing Centre in Cologne. In Constance, the company’s headquarters, GATC Biotech is building up the European Genome and Diagnostics Centre.

Article - 03/07/2010

Erbasens: Using the power of nature

Before setting up her own company biologist Dr. Elke Schulz amassed a wealth of knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry. Now she harnesses the power of plants to develop and sell dietary supplements and natural cosmetics. Her company Erbasens specialises in combining high-quality oils and plant essences to create products such as Paramirum that safeguards the effectiveness of the immune system and promotes the bodys defence systems.

Article - 13/10/2014

Personalised cancer therapy based on microRNA analysis

microRNAs are not just required for the regulation of gene expression, their expression signatures also allow conclusions to be drawn on the type and progression of cancer. Sensovation AG is therefore working with partners from industry and clinical research to develop an automated microRNA analysis platform that can detect and evaluate microRNA signatures faster than has previously been possible. The system is designed to make it easier to…

Article - 06/08/2012

varionostic: specialist in epigenetic analyses

Ulm-based varionostic helps epigenetics researchers to obtain information on gene activity. The company is specifically focused on the analysis of methyl groups (-CH3) that are attached to DNA and turn genes on and off. Just as the field of epigenetics, previously only known to insiders, has emerged as a biomedical area of research, the University of Ulm spin-off has matured and grown over the past six years since it was set up.