Healthcare industry

Article - 25/03/2013

SHENC – shear flow regulation of hemostasis

The first step in closing wounds is the aggregation of the von Willebrand factor glycoprotein with blood platelets, which plugs the hole in the blood vessel and stops blood from leaking out. Using computer simulations and artificial blood vessel experiments, researchers from Mannheim have shown that this aggregation is a reversible process that depends on the shear forces resulting from the flow of the blood. This also prevents the clogging of…

Article - 07/07/2010

Excellent vascular research in Baden-Württemberg

The fact that the DFG are continuing to fund the only collaborative research centre (SFB, Sonderforschungsbereich) in Germany that is exclusively focused on vascular research underlines the concentrated expertise found in Mannheim and Heidelberg in the field of vascular biology.

Article - 11/02/2010

Johanna Schanz: Liver model as an alternative to animal experiments

Blood vessels of a piece of pig’s intestine are used as carrier material for the IGB’s liver model and the cells seeded on the blood vessels stem from human biopsies. Dr. Johanna Schanz from the Fraunhofer IGB used this combination to produce her doctoral thesis which led to impressive results: a functional system of blood vessels in a biological carrier structure. Schanz’s outstanding thesis results have led to the creation of a liver model for…

Article - 22/09/2009

Alwin Kienle: an eye for the whole picture

Harvest time has now come for physicist Alwin Kienle. In the next year or two the results of his basic research will result in the establishment of an applied centre focusing on the determination of the optical characteristics of scattering media. The deputy director of the Ulm-based ILM hopes that the new optical competence centre will lead to attractive solutions for the pharmaceutical medical device and nutrition sectors.

Neurologists at the University Hospital of Mannheim are the central points of contact of the largest European stroke project to date. The European Union is providing more than 21 million euros over five years for research focusing on stroke.

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…

Press release - 30/09/2011

Blood Vessels from Your Printer

Researchers have been working at growing tissue and organs in the laboratory for a long time. These days, tissue engineering enables us to build up artificial tissue, although science still hasn’t been successful with larger organs. Now, researchers at Fraunhofer are applying new techniques and materials to come up with artificial blood vessels in their BioRap project that will be able to supply artificial tissue and maybe even complex organs in…

Article - 19/05/2009

What makes blood vessels sprout?

Calcified arteries or capillaries – this is often associated with blood stasis, reduced oxygen supply, and subsequent cardiac strain that compensates these deficiencies. Dr. Sebastian Grundmann from the Department of Cardiology and Angiology at the University Medical Centre Freiburg and his team are investigating how the growth of blood vessels is triggered, and potentially find ways to naturally deviate the site of congestion.

Article - 04/07/2011

The adhesion of cells to the endothelium and to artificial surfaces

Professor Stefan W. Schneider from the Mannheim Medical Faculty is investigating the function of the vascular endothelium and its interaction with blood and tumour cells using microfluidics methods that enable him to measure the adhesion of cells to the walls of blood vessels under physiological flow conditions. As part of an interdisciplinary project, he is investigating the characteristics of wafer-thin surfaces covered with living cells, which…

Researchers at the German Cancer Research Center have discovered a key molecule that is responsible for the immature structure of blood vessels in malignant tumors. If this molecule is switched off in mice vessels normalize so that immune cells are better able to get to the tumor tissue.

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.

Scientists from Mannheim Heidelberg an Freiburg working together in the cooperative research area Vascular Biology have developed a method that can be used to create a human vascular system in mice which stays functional even after several months.

Press release - 08/09/2009

Angiogenesis as a key for tissue engineering

The German Research Foundation is to fund a research priority of the Department of Plastic Surgery at the Freiburg University Medical Centre. Researchers around the world working in the area of regenerative medicine are all equally hopeful of generating tissue replacements using modern tissue engineering. The development of tissue cells on carrier materials seems quite promising. However, tissue-engineered implants are often rejected by patients…

Article - 23/04/2009

Cancer therapy targets angiogenesis

The idea of starving tumours by interrupting their blood supply has despite initial drawbacks generated the production of blockbuster drugs and is now a major RD focus for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. But the biological effects are more complicated than originally expected.

Article - 27/04/2009

Interaction mechanisms between tumours and blood vessels

In recognition of the growing importance of angiogenesis research in the field of oncology the German Research Foundation has established two new research consortia as part of its Angiogenesis research priority programme one project focuses on the mechanisms of vascular differentiation and the second on the interaction between tumour cells and cells of the vascular wall which are prerequisites for tumour growth and metastasis.

Article - 05/04/2009

JOTEC – artificial blood vessel specialist

JOTEC GmbH a medical device company based in Hechingen has a broad range of solutions on offer for the therapy of vascular diseases including artificial blood vessels and stentgrafts and is an international leader in this field. The company not only produces traditional vascular grafts from high-quality plastics but also absorbable bioartificial vascular grafts and cell-coated grafts made from biomaterials. Such an approach is currently unique in…

Smallest 3D printed miniature endoscope in the world detects cholesterol plaques and thrombs inside human and mouse arteries.

Press release - 25/06/2010

Von-Langenbeck Prize awarded for the first time to regenerative medicine methods

In 2010 the Von-Langenbeck Prize was awarded to Dr. Thorsten Walles from the Schillerhöhe Hospital in Stuttgart. In cooperation with his partners Walles has developed an innovative method for regenerative medicine applications which involves the generation of tissue from the patients own cells to replace defective air pipes and oesophagus. The prize was awarded for the first time ever to a medical doctor in recognition of the development and…

Article - 23/04/2012

Vascular grafts: biomolecules to prevent blood vessels from reclosing

Obstructed blood vessels can be operated on and adequate blood flow restored. However, stents and bypasses are often subject to high reclosure rates. Excessive immune reactions close to where the intervention took place might prevent the regeneration of adjacent vessel walls and even lead to reclosure. New interventions involving RNA interference seem to be a way out of this dilemma.

Article - 04/03/2013

TellTargeting Medical GmbH – targeted chemotherapy using CARL®

The needs of cancer patients are clear chemotherapies that are as gentle as possible associated with minimal adverse effects and have a rapid effect. This is often difficult to achieve because the drug that stops tumour growth needs to remain in the body for a certain amount of time during which time it damages cancerous as well as healthy structures. Dr. Gerhard Pütz and Dr. Jürgen Eckes founded the company TellTargeting Medical GmbH Co. KG…

Article - 23/05/2011

KIT researchers attempt to grow cardiomyocytes in Petri dishes

Regenerative medicine specialists are aiming to be able to grow complete organs from stem cells some time in the future. However although the microscopically small cells are able to do many things they are not able to grow organs on their own. Dr. Alexandra Rolletschek and her team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT are investigating how stem cells can be grown into heart muscle cells cardiomyocytes in Petri dishes.

Dossier - 24/05/2010

Animal experiments: alternatives need to be found urgently

In Baden-Württemberg alone up to 600000 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 artificial blood vessel systems for testing chemicals and rapid computer simulations used in diabetes research.

Article - 18/08/2014

VAXIMM: Vaccines that impede cancer growth

VAXIMM GmbH, a young biotechnology company from Mannheim, Germany, specialises in the development of vaccines for cancer treatment. The company’s first product candidate, VXM01, is a live oral vaccine that targets the VEGFR-2 receptor and hence the blood supply of tumours. VXM01 is currently undergoing clinical testing in pancreatic cancer patients.

The method is elegant and cardiologists love it heart catheter examination. The number of catheter examinations carried out has continuously increased over the last few years. In 2005 in Germany an impressive number of 772000 heart catheter examinations were carried out.

Article - 15/04/2010

Molecular biomechanics or mechanobiochemistry

Frauke Gräter is head of the Molecular Biomechanics research group at the Institute for Theoretical Studies in Heidelberg. Gräter uses computer-based methods to investigate the mechanical forces acting on biological macromolecules in the nanometre range. Her team was also able to show that highly complex processes such as haemostasis are regulated by shear forces.