Healthcare industry

The Centre for Regenerative Biology and Medicine ZRM in Tübingen has joined forces with Naturin GmbH based in Weinheim. The partners plan to develop new carrier materials on the basis of collagen which improve cell cultures and medical implants.

Dossier - 20/12/2012

Medical technology – serving healthcare

Modern healthcare would be impossible without medical technology. The achievements in medical technology are indispensable for our health and quality of life. The range of medical technology available covers surgical instruments and implants to diagnostic methods and medical devices.

Article - 07/04/2014

Christina Wege: from plant viruses to biomaterials

Plant viruses can be engineered in many ways for use by and in humans. Amongst other things, they can be used as scaffold structures for bioactive molecules, which might help improve implants. Prof. Dr. Christina Wege from the University of Stuttgart is studying these and many more options for the use of harmless viruses for human application.

Article - 20/01/2014

Curetis AG: Miniaturised laboratory for the simple, rapid and reliable diagnosis of serious infections

Acute pneumonia usually leaves doctors with no choice the situation can quickly become life threatening requiring doctors to act quickly. Instead of waiting for laboratory results they often prescribe an antibiotic that is effective against numerous bacterial species in the hope that it will also work against the bacterium that has caused the inflammation in the lung tissue. Curetis AG from Holzgerlingen close to Stuttgart has developed a…

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…

Press release - 08/01/2009

ILM – Bioactive interfaces

It is particularly important to consider the biocompatibility of material interfaces. For example, implant materials with a surface composition that favours cell growth have a decisive advantage. However there are other cases where biophobic material characteristics might be more suitable. For example, specifically modifying the surface of surgical metals might prevent pathogens from attaching and could also make the cleaning and deactivation of…

Is there a slight chance that patients suffering from Retinitis pigmentosa or even from age-related macular degeneration might be able to regain their vision? A microchip implanted beneath the retina might at least give such patients the ability to make out the outlines of objects.

Article - 21/05/2012

Microchip facilitates bowel movements

Faecal incontinence is a common problem, but is still a strong taboo. A small microchip, implanted above the sacral bone, promises to make sufferers’ lives a lot easier. Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) not only restores patients’ ability to control defaecation, but also provides new insights into the innervation and physiology of the bowel and the pelvic floor.

Article - 29/10/2015

Personalised Parkinson’s therapy using intelligent brain stimulation

For many decades, deep brain stimulation has been used for treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. However, the mechanisms of the procedure, which involves implanting stimulation probes into low lying brain areas, are still not clear. Prof. Alireza Gharabaghi, Dr. Daniel Weiss and their teams of researchers at the University of Tübingen have now been able to demonstrate a direct relationship between deep brain…

Article - 16/12/2013

Cellendes puts paradigm change in cell research to good use

Cells grown on the flat furfaces of tissue culture plates do not behave as they would in their natural environment. This is why scientists are now using three-dimensional substrates to replicate the natural environmental of cells in tissue cellular matrix. Dr. Brigitte Angres and Dr. Helmut Wurst founders and managing directors of Cellendes GmbH in Reutlingen have taken advantage of this new knowledge and developed two novel hydrogels for cell…

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.

Expert interview - 03/03/2021

Healthcare movers – the future of Baden-Württemberg's healthcare industry

The 'Healthcare Movers 2020 - Baden-Württemberg Report' reveals the potentials and challenges Baden-Württemberg healthcare companies encounter as the digital transformation of the healthcare market progresses. In an interview with Dr. Ariane Pott from BIOPRO, the authors of the report, Beatus Hofrichter and Dr. Ursula Kramer, explain what is required to take the major step towards becoming a digital avant-garde company.

Dossier - 12/04/2010

Biomechanics – a broad field

Biomechanics is a combination of the life sciences and the engineering sciences. Based on their knowledge and understanding of mechanics and the development of complex mathematical models and computer simulations engineers mathematicians and computer specialists help scientists gain new insights and give medical specialists access to new therapeutic options. In many cases such as in the development of implants or in sports medicine engineers…

Article - 01/02/2010

Innovative and award-winning: vascular implants “Made in Hechingen”

On the 26th November 2009, the Hechingen-based medical technology company JOTEC GMBH was awarded the Baden-Württemberg Innovation Prize. JOTEC specialises in solutions for the therapy of vascular diseases. The company’s “E-vita open” is an innovative hybrid stentgraft system for use in cardiac surgery. The stentgraft is ideal for treating the thoracic aorta as it significantly simplifies therapeutic procedures at the same time as putting less…

Article - 19/05/2014

Amedrix establishes new collagen and implant production technology

Amedrix GmbH, which is based in the Life Science Center in Esslingen and currently has a staff of eight people, develops innovative acellular medical products on the basis of animal collagen. The company's ChondroFiller products have the advantage over existing cartilage treatment options such as microfracture surgery, OCT (osteochondral transplant) surgery or ACT (autologous chondrocyte transplantation) in that they can be produced without…

Article - 06/06/2011

Knowledge transfer depends on the application of learning

The ability of scientists from different disciplines to understand each other as well as excellent communication skills play an ever-increasing role in the transfer of knowledge from academic research to industry. Vice president of research at the Konstanz University of Applied Sciences HTWG Professor Gunter Voigt explains how academia and industry work together and also highlights the conditions that are necessary for such cooperations to lead…

Article - 28/04/2014

New ways to interfere with bacterial strategies

Bacteria themselves provide the key to their destruction. New insights into the growth and interaction between different pathogens are used in microbial genetics to develop new methods and active substances for combatting multidrug-resistant bacterial strains.

All movements - each grip and step - have their origin in the brain. Carsten Mehring and his group at the Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience and the Institute for Biology I at the University of Freiburg plan to use brain signals for the control of prostheses or for the operation of computers.

Press release - 28/09/2012

Safer, more effective and innovative medical devices

Ranging from simple sticking plasters to the most sophisticated life-supporting machines medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices are central to our health and quality of life. To ensure that these devices serve the needs and ensure the safety of European citizens the European Commission proposed two Regulations which are fit for purpose more transparent and better adapted to scientific and technological progress.

Article - 17/05/2016

Medical devices legislation: laborious compromises in Brussels

The revision of the European legislation on medical devices is aimed at making medical devices safer and rebuilding the trust of patients. Rather than implementing the system change that was being planned after the silicone breast implant scandal in 2010, the EU called for open public consultation to prevent such incidents from occurring. As a result, revision of the legislation has been ongoing since autumn 2012.

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 - 23/01/2012

Karen Lienkamp: intelligent surface materials fight off microbes

Resistant germs are tough and will settle anywhere. They grow on all types of surface which is a major cause for concern for medical doctors and industrial researchers alike. The chemist Dr. Karen Lienkamp Junior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies FRIAS and head of a group of junior researchers at the University of Freiburg develops surface materials for biomedical applications and industrial production facilities.

Article - 13/11/2017

An artificial heart valve with the potential to grow

About 30,000 artificial heart valves are implanted in Germany every year. The durability of these heart valves presents a major challenge, requiring them to be exchanged time and again, especially in young patients. Researchers from the Stuttgart Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB have developed a new artificial heart valve material on which cells that are naturally present in a patient’s blood can form new…

CorTec just closed a new investment that will support bringing new personalized therapies for neurological diseases to patients. With Mangold Invest a new investor could be attracted who wants to go along that way with the young medical engineering company located in Freiburg. Equally convinced of the success of this project are the previous investors who are participating in this round of financing.

Press release - 15/09/2009

Nose drops rather than transplantation – an alternative and complementary method to animal testing

On 14th September 2009 the physician Dr. Lusine Danielyan from Tübingen was awarded the Förderpreis Ersatz- und Ergänzungsmethoden zum Tierversuch des Landes Baden-Württemberg Prize for alternative and complementary methods to animal testing in Stuttgart. The young scientist who works in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University Hospital of Tübingen has…