Healthcare industry

Article - 02/09/2013

Sectio chirurgica: live and interactive anatomy

Telemedical teaching is taking off: Tübingen’s Sectio chirurgica (TSC) is already used by around 25% of all medical students in German-speaking countries. TSC transmits surgical interventions and procedures performed by renowned surgeons into auditoriums and via Internet live stream.

Medical technology is indispensible for human health and contributes a great deal to improving the quality of our lives. The field of medical technology covers many areas. These range from simple disposable products and consumables such as dressing materials and other clinical supplies, to IT-related telemedicine, homecare and eHealth systems as well as high-technology and innovative robotics, imaging, diagnostics and life-support systems. 838…

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…

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…

Article - 03/10/2010

Measuring body forces with sensors contained in the implant

In collaboration with WITTENSTEIN intens GmbH and Prof. Rainer Baumgart ZEM Munich researchers from the University of Konstanz have further developed the fully implantable telemetrically-controlled distraction nail FITBONE. They have equipped the nail with sensors and energy- and data transmission modules to carry out biomechanical movement and load-bearing analyses of the locomotor system in vivo. The researchers goal is to develop a system to…

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.

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 - 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.

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.

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.

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…

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…

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.

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 - 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.

On 26th May 2010, Viscofan BioEngineering announced that it has entered into a 2-year cooperation with the Department of Urology at the University Hospital of Tübingen. Under the terms of the agreement, the company’s “Collagen Cell Carrier” (CCC) will be evaluated in in vitro and pre-clinical models for its suitability as a scaffold for urothelial cells and subsequently as an urological implant. The goal of the cooperation is to enable the use of…

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…

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 - 19/08/2013

Brain mapping – ‘eavesdropping’ on the brain

Although numerous scientists have spent decades exploring the brain and many things are already known the brain is still considered one of the greatest mysteries of science. While structural elements such as cell and axon distribution can only be mapped post mortem motor and sensory functions can only be studied in vivo i.e. using living organisms. Dr. Tonio Ball and his colleagues at the BrainLinks-BrainTools cluster of excellence at the…

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…

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.

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 - 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 - 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…