Healthcare industry

Article - 12/08/2009

More effective extraction of small RNAs

Small RNAs are gaining in importance in research as well as in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. However the potential of these molecules can only be exploited fully if very pure RNAs can be extracted from the cells in sufficiently high quantities. Currently used methods are expensive and only designed for large cell quantities. In addition the operation of the extraction systems is very complicated. A new biochip developed by Dr.…

Article - 06/08/2009

PEPperPRINT wins award for its peptide chips

PEPperPRINT GmbH, a spin-off of the German Cancer Research Centre, has won the Science4Life Venture Cup, a German start-up contest that comes with the most prize money. The Heidelberg-based start-up company was previously awarded the renowned research prize by the German Stifterverband and was chosen as a “Landmark in the Land of Ideas” competition run by the German government in 2009.

febit holding gmbh announced today the launch of the first human cancer biochip for HybSelectâ, febit’s highly automated technology for sequence capture, enabling targeted Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). The new catalog cancer biochip features 115 important genes which are reported to be associated with common types of cancer by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Press release - 30/06/2009

febit First to Offer Newly Published Mouse Genome on a Chip for DNA/RNA Detection and Enrichment

In the near future, Next-Generation Sequencing technologies will lead to a rising number of completed genomes of model organisms and other species of interest, as demonstrated by the updated mouse genome. This accelerated development will generate a variety of tools available in the short term for the application of the new data into experiments. febit’s technology enables the conversion of new sequence data into biochips for gene expression…

Press release - 29/04/2009

febit Receives European Patent for Gene Extraction Procedure

febit holding gmbh announced today, that the company has been granted the first European patent (EP1436609) for a microarray-based nucleic acid extraction procedure. In conjunction with the US patent US7320862, febit now holds a unique patent position in the dynamic market of sample preparation for second-generation sequencers.

Although there is very little difference between the biotechnological methods used in the dairy industry and those used in other industries nevertheless biotechnology operates differently here. Why can certain goals sometimes be reached more effectively without academic research?

Dossier - 29/09/2008

Drug screening - higher throughput, quicker and more effective thanks to automation

Over the last few years automation has revolutionised the search for pharmaceutical compounds. Using methods such as high-throughput screening or high-content screening it is possible to analyse thousands of molecule activities very quickly.

In a collaborative project scientists in Stuttgart and Heidelberg succeeded in cutting the production costs for highly complex peptide arrays by a factor of 100 at the same time as being able to increase the number of functional peptides by a factor of 20.

The NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute in Reutlingen is a role model for how research findings can be turned into financially sustainable products and services. Prof. Hugo Hämmerle has been a key figure in this success story for over 20 years. In February 2008 he took over as Managing Director of the institute.

In the second article in the series on the platforms successful cooperations BioValley presents an encouraging approach for improving the quality of life of severely ill cancer patients and the successful establishment of an industrial biochip platform.

Things that work on a small scale are not necessarily as successful on a large one. It takes a lot of patience and money to scale up analytical or therapeutic processes from the laboratory to industrial production. A new platform consisting of several building blocks minimises the costs.

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.

Partnering with Prognosys Biosciences febit offers a new Genome-to-Array Service. This Service gives scientists access to the latest technology and know-how in sequencing and microarrays even for DNA where no standard microarrays are available.