Healthcare industry

Tübingen-based Hölle & Hüttner AG is taking over the entire share capital of Cologne-based INTAVIS Bioanalytical Instruments AG retroactively as of 1 January 2008. Both companies specialise in the development and marketing of systems for the automation of biochemical and molecular biological processes.

Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center DKFZ in Heidelberg have now shown that inspection of both sides of the colon also reduces cancer risk in the right part of the colon by more than 50 percent. The overall risk was found to be 77 percent lower. This means that colonoscopy provides very good protection from colon cancer - even though it is not a 100 percent guarantee.

Press release - 13/12/2016

Early-diagnosis systems from Baden-Württemberg help prevent the spread of drug-resistant pathogens

More and more bacteria are developing resistance to multiple antimicrobial drugs. These multidrug-resistant bacteria can impede the action of common antibiotics via mutations or DNA transfer. More than 30,000 people are infected every year with multidrug-resistant bacteria in German hospitals alone. This could be prevented with appropriate hygiene measures and innovative test systems. Innovative test systems that enable reliable and rapid…

Press release - 09/01/2012

EU: "Virtual liver" technology helps detect liver tumours

Scientists and surgeons from France, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland have developed a "virtual liver", using EU research funding, which will help surgeons better plan and carry out tumour operations and ensure quicker patient recovery. The PASSPORT project (Patient-Specific Simulation and Pre-Operative Realistic Training) makes a uniquely accurate "virtual liver" available to physicians based on medical images sent by…

Article - 30/04/2012

German Cardiac Society meeting 2012 - Medicine for sick hearts

The recent German Cardiac Society meeting in Mannheim in April 2012 focused on the latest findings related to the prognosis, diagnosis and therapy of heart diseases. While great progress has been made in the therapy of disease symptoms, it will still take a long time before gene and stem cell therapies that target the causes of disease find their way into clinical application. The conference also presented the new German Centre for Cardiovascular…

Press release - 15/11/2010

ASPEX- an advanced Schizosaccharomyces expression system

The ASPEX system Asahi Glass Schizosaccharomyces Expression is a full-scale contract manufacturing service for recombinant proteins with up to the 3000 L scale. It is based on S. pombe an endotoxin-free fission yeast isolated from east African beer. Examples for gene expressions in the ASPEX system are manifold. The dedicated production facility located close to the Research Center is organized under cGMP rules and thus enables supply of…

Dossier - 07/02/2011

The era of personalised medicine is dawning

A promising future does not easily disappear into thin air. This is certainly the case with the vision of personalised medicine. For many years, biomedical researchers have vaunted the potential benefits of their findings despite the fact that neutral observers do not think that personalised medicine will really take off within the next 15 or 20 years. Moreover personalised medicine is a controversial term. So what is the state of play right now?

Article - 29/04/2013

‘Autotech meets Biotech’ – current status and outlook

Intensive cooperation between the engineering-driven sectors and the biotechnology sector is a prerequisite for driving forward automation in the field of biotechnology. The Engineering – Life Sciences – Automation (ELSA) cluster initiative of BioRegio STERN Management GmbH aims to promote cross-industry cooperation. A study entitled ‘Biotech meets Autotech’, which was carried out as part of the ELSA project, provides insights into the current…

Biametrics Marken and Rechte GmbH has developed new analytical devices based on reflectometric interference spectroscopy thus adopting the trend of label-free detection methods. This is because labelling tends to interfere with the natural activity of the biomolecules under investigation.

Article - 06/02/2012

Ten outstanding ideas in biotechnology and medical technology

The results of the feasibility studies funded under the Idea Competition in Biotechnology and Medical Technology were presented in the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart between 16th and 18th January 2012. Ten of the 42 project ideas were recommended for further funding.

Five new companies from the Stuttgart/Tübingen region in southwestern Germany have joined the Cyber Valley Start-Up Network. The innovative technologies and products of AmbiGate, Cytolytics, Mojin Robotics, plus10 and Tactai aim to achieve ground-breaking improvements in the fields of public health, manufacturing, and customer service. These start-ups join ten other companies that are already part of the Cyber Valley Start-Up Network.

The University of Tübingen opened its new laboratory for Preclinical Imaging and Imaging Technology of the Werner Siemens Foundation. The professorship is the only one in Europe combining preclinical imaging and the development of new imaging technologies.

The NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute in Reutlingen organised its biannual MEA conference from 8 to 11 July 2008. More than 200 developers and microelectrode array users from 18 countries came together in Reutlingen to present their latest developments and results.

Article - 14/08/2018

Simple and fast: new optical method for analysing living cells

The junior researchers Dr. Daniel Geiger, Tobias Neckernuß and Jonas Pfeil from Ulm have developed an innovative method for non-contact real-time analysis of cells and other particles. The analysis involves low data rates and correspondingly little effort. This is what makes the method so attractive for medical applications.

The first European Conference for Clinical Nanomedicine is to be held soon in Basel. BIOPRO has therefore discussed this promising area of application with Beat Löffler and Dr. Patrick Hunziker the founders of the European Foundation for Clinical Nanomedicine.

Press release - 01/06/2011

Heidelberg expert to coordinate European network on inherited metabolic disorders

A European network for research into rare inherited metabolic disorders will be coordinated by PD Dr. Stefan Kölker, head of the Division of Inherited Metabolic Diseases at the Centre for Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, University of Heidelberg. The project, which will initially run for three years, has a financial volume of 1.3 million euros. More than 40 partners from 17 European countries are part of the “European registry and network for…

So-called silent mutations have no effect on the composition of a protein. They are therefore not considered to promote cancer. However, scientists from the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), partner site Essen, now describe in a case of kidney cancer an overlooked silent mutation with a major impact on prognosis.

Article - 14/12/2016

Transcranial brain stimulation to counteract chronic tiredness

You may well be familiar with the ”leaden” feeling associated with lack of sleep. However, chronic tiredness lasting many months might be a sign of a serious disease. Dr. Lukas Frase, together with Prof. Dr. Christoph Nissen’s team at the Freiburg University Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, has come up with a method to help patients with abnormally high sleep needs. The method uses weak electrostimulation and has the…

Scientists at the University Hospital of Ulm and the Hanover Medical School MHH have succeeded in deciphering genetic defects in patients suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia. Their findings allow for more individualised therapies in the future.

Article - 19/01/2015

Kay Gottschalk and the physics of cells

You learn a great deal about the physical aspects of cells when you talk to Prof. Dr. Kay-E. Gottschalk. For example, their ability to react as solid and liquid, to adapt their environment to suit themselves and to exert and respond to forces. The 42-year-old has great respect for the smallest of living units, i.e. cells, which he calls smart composite materials. Working on the boundaries of medicine, biology, chemistry and physics, Gottschalk…

A new method allows stem cells and cancer stem cells to be studied at the single cell level and the resulting cell clones to be traced directly. Studying thousands of individual cells in parallel, the researchers combined the analysis of the genomic cancer mutations with the associated expression profiles.

Article - 13/12/2016

Smart sensor technology from Ulm can do more than just breath analysis

Detecting disease-specific molecules in human breath is technically feasible, but time-consuming and rather costly. "µbreath" could soon change this. The breath gas analysis device has all the necessary requirements for commercial success in the healthcare sector: it is compact, accurate, highly sensitive and fast. The chemist who developed µbreath, Prof. Boris Mizaikoff from Ulm University, and his partners are hoping to start…

Article - 24/03/2014

DNA – from Watson and Crick to modern molecular biology

Watson and Crick deciphered the structure of DNA around 60 years ago and thus provided the key to understanding how genetic information is passed on. Since this discovery, which laid the foundation for molecular biology, new insights and developments have significantly changed many research areas and have also found their way into our everyday lives. DNA sequencing, genetic fingerprinting or personalised medicine – Watson and Crick’s heritage is…

Article - 03/03/2016

Liquid biopsies – beacons of hope for cancer diagnosis?

Researchers around the world, including researchers from the Freiburg University Medical Center, are working on developing simple blood tests, so-called liquid biopsies, that can be used to obtain accurate information about tumour staging and the progress of therapy. An international liquid biopsy symposium was held in Freiburg in October 2015 and has produced valuable insights.

Experienced medical physicists are able to detect everything without needing an operating table or a scalpel to construct a detailed picture of a patient’s cardiovascular system. Dr. Michael Markl is one of these experts, who nevertheless require top technological equipment, i.e. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to gain comprehensive insights into the vascular system.