Healthcare industry

Article - 02/05/2011

A combination with high-tech potential: peptides and inorganic materials

At the University of Stuttgart molecular bionics researchers are working on opening up strategies for the development of new materials. Researchers at the Institute of Technical Biochemistry are investigating compound materials consisting of peptides and inorganic components. A project focusing on the development of layer structures is receiving funding from the Baden-Württemberg government.

Press release - 22/03/2011

Bringing artifical vision clinical trials to US

Retina Implant AG Partners with Wills Eye Institute to Bring Artificial Vision Clinical Trials to the United States. Wills Eye to be the Primary Investigation Site to Offer the Subretinal Approach to Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients.

Press release - 21/03/2011

Polymer brushes with mini proteins protect implants

Patients who have had surgical implants are at risk of developing serious complications due to bacterial infections. This affects around two to six per cent of patients with implants. Scientists from the KIT Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG) have now succeeded in developing a protective layer that prevents bacteria from adhering to implants and creating dangerous biofilms that can lead to serious infections. The protective layer has proven…

Press release - 13/03/2011

Vascular stent that dissolves on its own

The first ever implant in Germany of a bioresorbable, drug-coated stent in a cardiac patient has been carried out by physicians from the University of Heidelberg. In contrast to traditional metal stents, which remain permanently in the patients’ body, the innovative implant dissolves around two years after the procedure is carried out.

Press release - 28/02/2011

Mechanical engineering meets medical engineering: implant research ‘made in Stuttgart’

Engineers from the University of Stuttgart have initiated a project on the Development and optimisation of bioactive and bioresorbable ceramic layers on implants designed to investigate implants that are more durable better tolerated by users and cheaper than those that are currently on the market. The winners of the Idea Competition in Biotechnology and Medical Technology have now been announced and an expert jury has selected the Stuttgart…

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 - 03/12/2010

Review: Science meets Business Day 2010 (part I)

Germinating seeds biosensors in the human body deaf people learning to hear again and new approaches to combat the flu virus the lectures held at the Science meets Business Day which concluded this years BioValley Science Week once again highlighted the innovations brought about through the joint efforts of research and industrial players on the Upper Rhine.

Press release - 27/11/2010

European Research Council awards outstanding University of Freiburg researchers with “ERC Grants” amounting to more than 5 million euros

Three researchers from the University of Freiburg, Wilfried Weber, Wolfram Burgard and Florian Mintert, have been awarded one of the most prestigious grants in Europe: the European Research Council (ERC) has awarded the scientists “ERC Grants” totalling more than five million euros. Prof. Katrin Wendland from Augsburg who has also been awarded an “ERC Grant”, has just been appointed professor in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the…

Article - 08/11/2010

The masters of cellular circuits

What can nowadays be constructed with molecular building sets? Prof. Dr. Wilfried Weber from the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies BIOSS in Freiburg is the first scientist at the University of Freiburg to receive the prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council ERC with a purse of 1.5 million euros. Webers team recombines cellular components and works on a broad range of different issues.

Article - 18/10/2010

Maurits Ortmanns: visual prosthesis research benefits from microelectronics research in Ulm

“Around one third of all visual prosthesis research in Germany is done by the Institute of Microelectronics at Ulm University,” said Maurits Ortmanns, a young electrical engineer who has been head of the Institute of Microelectronics since 2008. He is responsible for half of this figure and his colleague Albrecht Rothermel for the other half. The two engineers work for two German manufacturers who are developing competing versions of retinal…

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…

Dossier - 20/09/2010

Neurodegenerative diseases

It is estimated that around 1.2 million people in Germany suffer from dementia, and around 200,000 people are diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases every year. It is expected that by 2050, one in three people in Germany will be over 60 and the number of age-related diseases, particularly dementias, for which no effective curative therapy is currently available, will increase considerably. Given the large numbers of elderly people and…

Press release - 04/09/2010

Improved durability of artificial hip joints

The only way to determine minimal abrasion such as that which occurs between the two metal surfaces of an artificial hip joint with high levels of precision is to use a new test method. Dr. Jan Philippe Kretzer from the Department of Orthopaedics at the University Hospital Heidelberg developed a new test system and was awarded the German Arthritis Foundation Science Prize.

Press release - 02/08/2010

NMI – 25 years of success

The NMI in Reutlingen is one of the most prestigious research institutes in Germany, “a beacon of applied research” as the Minister of Economic Affairs recently called the institute. This success is no accident: for 25 years now, the institute with its interdisciplinary team has been working efficiently and actively towards this achievement. Moreover, it greatly succeeded in bridging science and industry.

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…

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…

Press release - 02/06/2010

Hohenstein researchers make progress on biotolerance of textile implants

The capacity of a textile implant to be tolerated by the body – known as biotolerance – plays an important role in regenerative medicine. Nevertheless, the body does not always tolerate textile implants. Even modern implants made of resorbable biopolymers, such as polylactic acid, break down in the body after a certain period of time and decompose into individual acidic components.

Article - 12/04/2010

A new strategy for improving bone implants

Biomechanics is an interdisciplinary field of research and is also of great interest to aerospace engineers. Aerospace engineers at the University of Stuttgart develop equations and models in order to gain a better understanding of the interaction between bones and implants. In addition, they believe that their results will contribute to developing new implants and implant structures.

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 - 26/03/2010

Heinz Kurz GmbH: innovations for ENT surgery

Heinz Kurz GmbH based in Dusslingen close to Tübingen has been supplying the world with implants for use in otorhinolaryngology for around 30 years. The success of the medium-sized company is based on the high-quality materials it uses to develop its products as well as on an intensive dialogue with the users of its products. Heinz Kurz GmbH is the European leader in middle-ear prostheses, for which it was awarded the Baden-Württemberg Innovation…

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…

Press release - 25/01/2010

Amedrix GmbH - New investment paves the way for own production operations

The High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Life Science Fonds Esslingen are jointly investing a total of 700,000 EUR in Amedrix GmbH, which was founded in January 2009. The Esslingen-based company develops innovative, acellular medical products based on animal collagen for wound regeneration and the reconstruction of degenerated soft tissue, for example. The new investment means that necessary steps can be taken to gain approval for first medical…

Press release - 14/01/2010

Deep brain stimulation successful for treatment of severely depressive patient

A team of neurosurgeons at Heidelberg University Hospital and psychiatrists at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim have for the first time successfully treated a patient suffering from severe depression by stimulating the habenula, a tiny nerve structure in the brain. The 64-year-old woman, who had suffered from depression since age 18, could not be helped by medication or electroconvulsive therapy. Since the procedure, she is for…

Press release - 24/09/2009

Researchers successfully colonize a textile implant with human stem cells

Researchers at the Hohenstein Institute in Stuttgart, Germany developed a method to embed multipotent mesenchymal stem cells onto the surface fibers of common surgical fabric implants. Using such a product it may be possible to directly motivate the regrowth of critical tissue, such as myocardium after a heart attack.

The World Health Organization is seeking innovative technologies, in particular medical devices that offer solutions to global health concerns in low- and middle-income countries. The deadline for submission of proposals is January the 31st 2010.