Healthcare industry

Article - 30/05/2011

Technology Licensing Office (TLB): invention and patent management

The Technology Licensing Office TLB works in partnership with science and industry and is continuously coming up with new ways to ensure the economic success of inventions from all the key fields of technology. Dr. Frank Schlotter head of Life Sciences at the Karlsruhe-based TLB provides insights into the work that his office does taking as examples innovations from the fields of regenerative medicine and diagnostics.

Article - 30/05/2011

BioRN Innovation Center: Innovation broker for market and society

With the establishment of the BioRN Innovation Center in the Rhine-Neckar Life Science Cluster, a professional, specialist and neutral intermediary between science and industry will be available to support the transfer of technologies in all of the cluster’s research institutions. In addition, the BioRN Innovation Center acts as a partner for strategic alliances set up to reinforce the competitiveness of the institutions on the European and…

Curetis AG, an innovative molecular diagnostics company focusing on the development and commercialization of in-vitro diagnostic products for infectious diseases, today announced an extension of its Series A financing, bringing the total size of the round to € 24.5 million. CD-Venture joined the funding as a new investor, while all of Curetis' existing VC investors participated in the round. Several private investors also continued to…

Press release - 26/04/2011

Green Light for Four New Centres of Health Research

The decision has been taken: The German Centres of Health Research which are to be set up in the areas of infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, lung diseases and cancer will involve more than 100 universities, university hospitals and non-university research institutions at 27 locations. Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan decided on the funding of four new centres on Friday after considering recommendations submitted by panels of…

Article - 11/04/2011

movisens GmbH – innovative systems for measuring psychophysiological parameters

In an effort to reduce the number of visits to GPs or clinics whilst enabling doctors to closely monitor their patients ECG breathing or physical activity Karlsruhe-based movisens GmbH offers mobile systems for measuring physiological parameters. The companys clients include research institutions hospitals employers and the police and fire brigade.

Article - 21/03/2011

Immunotherapy: the rocky road to clinical application

Hans-Georg Rammensee has one major goal: he wants to contribute to the successful application of immunotherapy in clinical settings and is convinced that this will only be possible once individualised immunotherapies are used. Individualised immunotherapy refers to the induction of a specific immune response against specific tumour-associated antigens. Rammensee has made major progress in this area and is now focused on overcoming the obstacles…

Article - 06/03/2011

Heidelberg Translational Lung Research Centre

University and non-university research institutions in Heidelberg that carry out research into lung diseases have established an expert network – the Heidelberg Translational Lung Research Centre – which is part of the new BMBF-funded German Centre for Lung Research. In Heidelberg, research focuses on the development and treatment of cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and lung cancer.

Press release - 28/02/2011

Heidelberg "start-up" wins the German Industry’s Innovation Award 2010

PEPperPRINT GmbH has won the 2010 German Industry’s Innovation Award in the category “Start-Up Companies”. The Heidelberg-based biotechnology company was awarded the prize by the German Minister of Education and Research, Dr. Annette Schavan, at a German industry festive event recently held in the Frankfurt Congress Centre.

Press release - 08/01/2011

Sense2care - new dimension of blood gas analysis systems

Established in August 2010 at the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen (NMI) in Reutlingen, sense2care is an innovative medical technology company. The High-Tech Foundation Fund has now awarded sense2care a total of €500,000 for investing in the development of miniaturised systems to monitor critically ill patients in the operating theatre and in intensive care.

Article - 30/11/2010

Off-label use in children: the problem is known but improvement happens step by slow step

The majority of drugs prescribed to children and adolescents have not been specifically licensed for their use. The majority of drugs have been tested and formulated for adults. This so-called off-label practice is associated with greater risks than those one would expect in medicinal therapy. We talked to Michael Kölch senior consultant in the Department of Paediatric and Adolescent PsychiatryPsychotherapy at Ulm University Hospital about this…

Dossier - 29/11/2010

Drug safety and the difficulty of making ends meet

Everybody wants safe drugs – manufacturers, doctors and patients. However, many dangers, both avoidable and unavoidable, make medicinal treatment a high-risk process, despite all best efforts and assertions. Not enough information on drug-related risks is available, and the estimated number of adverse drug reactions that go unreported is quite high.

Article - 29/11/2010

Adverse skin reactions - more than just skin deep

Severe skin reactions such as toxic epidermal necrolysis TEN and Stevens-Johnson syndrome SJS are caused by drugs that have originally been developed for the treatment or alleviation of other diseases. In some cases the consumption of these drugs can be fatal. The Centre for Documentation of Severe Skin Reactions dZh in Freiburg has been collecting information on rare skin diseases for around 20 years.

Article - 08/11/2010

Individual genome sequencing – for whom?

Next-generation sequencing technologies are fast and effective. This is exactly the reason why the International Cancer Genome Consortium, of which the German Cancer Research Center is part, has set itself the goal of sequencing thousands of individual cancer genomes. Private companies also offer the possibility of sequencing genomes for private clients. It looks as if the problematic vision of “googling your genes” might become reality.

Article - 27/09/2010

Harald Langer combines cardiology with immunology

The Volkswagen Foundation has taken the decision to finance a “Lichtenberg Professorship” at the University of Tübingen for a period of up to eight years. The new chair, cardiologist Dr. Harald Langer, uses molecular and cell biology methods to investigate how the immune system affects the development of arteriosclerosis in order to come up with innovative therapeutic strategies.

Press release - 21/09/2010

immatics raises 54 million euros to advance its late stage clinical therapeutic cancer vaccine portfolio

immatics biotechnologies GmbH a biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer announced today that it has raised 53.8million in a Series C financing round. The new funds will allow the Company to finance the ongoing development of immatics existing pipeline of advanced therapeutic cancer vaccine candidates.

Press release - 18/09/2010

Groundbreaking for the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology

On 13th September 2010 the ground was broken for the construction of the new Centre for Plant Molecular Biology ZMBP at the University of Tübingen. The 35.5 million-euro costs will be covered in equal parts by the German and Baden-Württemberg governments as part of their supra-regional research funding policy.

Scientists at the universities of Tübingen and Mainz have developed a blood test that is able to provide conclusive proof of gene doping. The test is still effective even if the actual doping took place some time before the test. The new test is based on a procedure developed in Tübingen in 2006 that enables transgenic DNA to be detected in the blood. The efficiency of this procedure has now been proven for the first time in laboratory mice.

Nitec Pharma AG, a spin-off from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany) and Horizon Therapeutics, Inc. (USA) have announced the combination of their businesses to become Horizon Pharma, Inc. and the filing of a registration statement for a proposed initial public offering. The company’s Mannheim-based subsidiary, which is focused on the development and commercialisation of drugs for the treatment of pain and chronic inflammatory diseases, has been named…

A new high-performance microscopy system funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) will be in operation at the Institute of Zoology at the University of Heidelberg. The biologist Prof. Dr. Jochen Wittbrodt and his team will use the system to investigate central development stages in animals, in particular embryonic development processes that lead to the formation of a complete fish.

Press release - 14/08/2010

Data management and new simulation methods for the virtual liver

Researchers at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies HITS are part of the national Virtual Liver Network initiated and financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF.

Article - 09/08/2010

Elara Pharmaceuticals

The Heidelberg-based biotech company ELARA Pharmaceuticals is focused on the development of treatments of tumours through the inhibition of the hypoxia signalling pathway (HIF) and through the induction of apoptosis. The company’s lead candidate targets multiple myeloma, a cancer that arises in the plasma cells of the immune system.

Article - 15/07/2010

A special focus on intercellular mediators

Transmembrane proteins constitute around one third of all cellular proteins. Around half of all drugs that are currently on the market target the function of a specific class of transmembrane proteins, i.e. the G-protein coupled receptors. However, little is yet known about how transmembrane proteins are integrated into the membranes and how they are folded. Dr. Jörg H. Kleinschmidt hopes to shed light into the mechanisms of membrane protein…

With a € 1.5 Mio Second Closing, Curetis has now increased its Series A financing round to € 20 Mio. This additional financing will enable Curetis to complete the development of its innovative diagnostic products through to market entry. Quality Certification for its diagnostic product development represents an additional milestone in Curetis' commercial strategy. At the same time, Curetis has added internationally recognized expertise in…

Article - 17/05/2010

Dietmar Hopp: Awarded Great Cross of Merit on his 70th birthday

Dietmar Hopp entrepreneur and co-founder of SAP sports patron biotech investor provider of funds and great promoter of his native region has turned 70. To celebrate the occasion the German Federal President has awarded Hopp the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Bundesverdienstkreuz which was presented to him by the Baden-Württemberg Minister President Stefan Mappus.

Press release - 17/05/2010

Bioliq® pilot plant at KIT close to completion

The completion of the bioliq® pilot plant on the northern campus of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is now a certainty. Following the commitment by the German and Baden-Württemberg governments to provide 11 million euros in financing, the KIT has now also signed contracts with companies that will work with KIT in the implementation of the two final processing stages. These two stages involve the production of second-generation…