Article - 08/08/2017 N2B-patch: circumventing the blood-brain barrier There are many medications for treating central nervous system diseases. However, only a fraction of the active pharmaceutical ingredients actually reaches the site where they are needed. The reason for this is the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain and thus prevents many drugs used to treat neurological diseases from effectively penetrating the brain. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/n2b-patch-circumventing-the-blood-brain-barrier
Article - 04/07/2017 Ruxolitinib – successful graft-versus-host disease treatment Graft-versus-host disease is a serious complication in leukaemia patients who have been given a blood stem cell transplant from a genetically different person. Prof. Dr. Nikolas von Bubnoff and Prof. Dr. Robert Zeiser from the Department of Haematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at Freiburg University Medical Centre initiated a Germany-wide study to show that an active substance called ruxolitinib has a promising therapeutic effect.…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/ruxolitinib-successful-graft-versus-host-disease-treatment
Press release - 24/05/2017 High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) invests in Reutlingen-based SIGNATOPE GmbH – Safe medications thanks to new test procedures 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…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/press-release/high-tech-gruenderfonds-htgf-invests-in-reutlingen-based-signatope-gmbh-safe-medications-thanks-to-new-test-procedures
Press release - 23/05/2017 TolerogenixX secures seed funding and completes Phase I clinical trial TolerogenixX GmbH has developed a patented and clinically tested cell therapy technique for individualised immunosuppression in transplant patients. The technique enables the targeted disabling of undesired reactions caused by the immune system’s defences. As a seed stage investor, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) will finance this innovative technique and the preparations for Phase II of the clinical trial, which begins in spring 2018. Further…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/press-release/tolerogenixx-secures-seed-funding-and-completes-phase-i-clinical-trial
Personalised Medicine - 04/05/2017 Big data make therapy work better An international team of researchers has shown for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) that cancer therapy can be personalised using big data. The authors of the study “believe this paper is a step towards validation of genetic techniques as a route to personalised medicine”. https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/mit-big-data-genauer-therapieren
24.04.2017 World Day for Laboratory Animals On 24 April 2017 is "World Day for Laboratory Animals" – the BIOPRO provides information about this topic. In Baden-Württemberg alone, up to 600,000 animals are used for scientific purposes every year. In order to reduce their pain and suffering as much as possible, researchers all over the world are working on the development of innovative methods to replace animal experiments, including cell culture methods for drug analysis,…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/world-day-for-laboratory-animals
Press release - 05/04/2017 New EU rules on medical devices to enhance patient safety and modernise public health The Commission welcomes the adoption of its proposal for two Regulations on medical devices which establish a modernised and more robust EU legislative framework to ensure better protection of public health and patient safety.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/press-release/new-eu-rules-on-medical-devices-to-enhance-patient-safety-and-modernise-public-health
Article - 31/03/2017 Bosch to enter the medical technology sector – start-up culture meets proven expertise Many of us have known the Bosch Group mainly as a technology company that is active in the automotive sector. Now, the multinational company is opening up a whole new field of business and is entering the medical technology market with a new subsidiary. Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH, which is headquartered in the city of Waiblingen, has developed an innovative breath analysis device that allows asthmatics to measure the severity of airway…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/bosch-to-enter-the-medical-technology-sector-start-up-culture-meets-proven-expertise
Prenatal diagnosis - 23/03/2017 Microdroplets for safe and rapid prenatal diagnoses Although the methods used to carry out amniocentesis are quite sophisticated, there is still a 0.5 percent risk of miscarriage following the intervention. Therefore, an EU-funded project called AngeLab is developing a rapid test that only requires a blood sample of the mother rather than amniotic fluid. The test yields information on the genetic health of the foetus within only a few hours. As part of the project, researchers from the…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/microdroplets-for-safe-and-rapid-prenatal-diagnoses
Article - 07/03/2017 KiTZ: Hopp Children’s Tumour Center at NCT Heidelberg The Heidelberg University Hospital and the DKFZ have established the "Hopp Children's Tumor Center at NCT Heidelberg" (KiTZ) where doctors, scientists, nursing staff and other specialists work side by side on new diagnostic and therapeutic options to help children with cancer.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/kitz-hopp-childrens-tumour-center-at-nct-heidelberg
Article - 02/03/2017 Personalised antibiotics therapy: fewer antibiotic-resistant bacteria Antibiotics have long been used as all-purpose weapons against infectious diseases – too often and too early, as we now know. This tendency has caused many bacteria to become resistant to standard antibiotics. The search for new substance classes has proved quite difficult. Care must therefore be taken to use existing antibiotics prudently in order to reduce the number of bacteria becoming resistant to them in the long term. Researchers from…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/personalised-antibiotics-therapy-fewer-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria
Article - 22/02/2017 MammaScreen – blood test for early detection of breast cancer The MammaScreen team from the University of Heidelberg Women’s Hospital has developed a blood test for diagnosing breast cancer. This new test can detect breast cancer at a very early stage. It works on women of all ages with tumours of any type and size. https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/mammascreen-blood-test-for-early-detection-of-breast-cancer
Press release - 24/01/2017 Cancer Medications Learn to Hide The European Research Council awards Wilfried Weber an ERC Proof of Concept Grant. Wilfried Weber, Professor of Synthetic Biology at the University of Freiburg, has received a grant of roughly €150,000 for his project “Hide and Seek with Cancer Drugs” in which he is working to improve the drugs used in cancer treatment.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/press-release/cancer-medications-learn-to-hide
Article - 21/12/2016 For all types of tests: Signatope’s biomarker assays Signatope is a new biotech company that has been offering innovative biomarker assays for application in drug discovery since August 2016. The company’s assays can be used in all phases of drug development to detect potential adverse drug effects on the kidneys, liver and other organs in any species whatsoever using minute amounts of sample.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/for-all-types-of-tests-signatopes-biomarker-assays
Article - 08/11/2016 Towards at-home genetic testing The ability to detect a broad range of conditions and modifications in human, animal, plant and pathogen genes is highly important in the field of medicine for diagnosing diseases and starting therapy as quickly as possible. Chemists at the University of Konstanz have now developed a genetic test that does not need to be carried out in the laboratory and can be evaluated with the naked eye, similar to a pregnancy test. The test would therefore be…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/towards-at-home-genetic-testing
Article - 05/09/2016 Apogenix: immuno-oncological protein drugs for the treatment of malignant diseases Apogenix AG, a biopharmaceutical company from Heidelberg that specialises in immuno-oncology, develops protein drugs that target central signalling pathways involved in regulating the growth, migration and apoptosis of malfunctioning cells and thus offer novel treatment options for cancer and other malignant diseases.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/apogenix-immunonkologische-proteinwirkstoffe-gegen-maligne-erkrankungen
Article - 22/08/2016 Ad-O-Lytics – a new biotech start-up from Ulm A few years ago, Florian Kreppel developed a therapeutic approach that combined genetic vaccines with molecular address labels. It worked quite well, but the resulting product did not have the anticipated immunising properties and was put on the backburner. Now Kreppel's group of researchers is nearing completion of another project. The researchers plan to use a patented virotherapeutic platform technology for cancer treatment to establish a…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/ad-o-lytics-a-new-biotech-start-up-from-ulm
Article - 02/08/2016 Can the ticking Huntington clock be stopped? An early phase clinical study involving thirty-six Huntington’s disease (HD) patients is currently underway to investigate whether a method called gene silencing can cure the disease. If the gene that causes the disease can be turned off, it would be the first step towards a treatment that not only fights symptoms but actually treats the causes of HD, hence providing a cure. https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/can-the-ticking-huntington-clock-be-stopped
Company profile - 25/07/2016 300MICRONS: 3D cell culture solutions tailored to customer needs What happens in tissues and organs and how do they react to pharmaceutical substances? Three-dimensional cell cultures can reproduce reality far better than a single-cell layer can. With good reason. Reality is far from two-dimensional. A company called 300MICRONS GmbH develops films with tiny indentations that provide optimal conditions for cells to grow into 3D cell aggregates.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/300microns-3d-cell-culture-solutions-tailored-to-customer-needs
Article - 19/07/2016 Licence to kill – the enormous potential of CAR T cells With 6 million euros of EU funding, the CARAT project aims to optimise a technology called CAR T that is used to equip T cells with antibody fragments and specifically direct them to destroy cancer cells. The CARAT consortium comprises a multinational team of experts from the Institute for Cell- and Gene Therapy at the Freiburg University Medical Center led by Prof. Dr. Toni Cathomen and seven partner institutions. Cathomen’s team is developing…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/licence-to-kill-the-enormous-potential-of-car-t-cells
Company profile - 14/07/2016 neuroloop GmbH: how the manipulation of neuronal information can lower blood pressure Millions of people worldwide suffer from high blood pressure. However, taking medicines to control high blood pressure does not work for everyone. Dr. Dennis Plachta and Prof. Dr. Thomas Stieglitz from IMTEK have now developed a neurostimulator to control blood pressure. Together with Dr. Michael Lauk, an experienced company founder, the two researchers set up a company called neuroloop, which is funded by Aesculap AG and aims to turn the…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/neuroloop-gmbh-how-the-manipulation-of-neuronal-information-can-lower-blood-pressure
Company profile - 05/07/2016 HS-Analysis GmbH – using digital histology to develop new drugs The idea of analysing tissue samples automatically sounds more of a pipe dream than anything else. However, it already happens. HS-Analysis GmbH's ability to interpret tissue samples automatically is driving new drug development a decisive step forward.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/hs-analysis-gmbh-using-digital-histology-to-develop-new-drugs
Article - 30/05/2016 The unknown dark spot of the microcosm The world of microorganisms is still largely unknown. Researchers such as Kai Sohn from the Fraunhofer IGB in Stuttgart are working on decoding, analysing and gradually gaining a better understanding of the microbial genome. In their search for new enzymes and other biomolecules, both biotechnologists and pharmacologists are interested in micoorganisms, and physicians are hoping that detailed insights into the microbial genome will lead to the…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/the-unknown-dark-spot-of-the-microcosm
Article - 09/05/2016 FlexiTel – microsensors for tissue monitoring When soft tissue is transplanted, for example in a patient undergoing tumour surgery, care must be taken to ensure that the new tissue is connected to the blood system in the area where the tumour has been removed. How well this works is difficult to find out, especially in the case of deep-seated defects. Partially implantable microsensor probes called FlexiTel have the potential to improve this situation by monitoring success during the first…https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/flexitel-microsensors-for-tissue-monitoring
Article - 02/05/2016 Hepatitis C: a new starting point for vaccine development With approximately 150,000 infected people in Germany, hepatitis C is a common disease for which therapies, but no vaccine, are available. Dr. Tobias Böttler from the Freiburg University Medical Center and his team are exploring the body’s immune response to the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and have found valuable information that could be used for vaccine development.https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/news/hepatitis-c-a-new-starting-point-for-vaccine-development