Healthcare industry

Smallest 3D printed miniature endoscope in the world detects cholesterol plaques and thrombs inside human and mouse arteries.

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.

Article - 12/04/2017

Imaging flow cytometry – introducing a new era of imaging

High-resolution images or quantifiable results? Up until now, researchers usually had to choose. All this has now changed thanks to a single device known as an imaging flow cytometer that combines fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The new device gives new insights into complex biological phenomena in cells. It is available for research purposes at the Research Centre for Women’s Health at the University Hospital of Tübingen, which…

Press release - 31/01/2017

Background Suppression for Super-resolution Light Microscopy

Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a new fluorescence microscopy method: STEDD (Stimulation Emission Double Depletion) nanoscopy produces images of highest resolution with suppressed background. The new method yields an enhanced image quality, which is advantageous when analyzing three-dimensional, densely arranged subcellular structures. STEDD, a further development of the STED method, is now presented in…

Company profile - 05/07/2016

HS-Analysis GmbH – using digital histology to develop new drugs

The idea of analysing tissue samples automatically sounds more of a pipe dream than anything else. However, it already happens. HS-Analysis GmbH's ability to interpret tissue samples automatically is driving new drug development a decisive step forward.

Article - 06/06/2016

ZEISS Vision Science Lab: understanding vision

Carl Zeiss AG and the University of Tübingen have been jointly running the ZEISS Vision Science Lab since 2013. This is a workgroup that is both fully integrated into research as well as delivering results for the development and improvement of products. The “Industry on Campus” professorship shows how different interests can turn out successfully for both parties involved.

Article - 24/03/2016

Retrospective: Meet & Match "Optical Imaging: Future Trends in Medical Applications"

The Meet & Match event “Optical Imaging: Future Trends in Medical Applications” – organised by BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH and the Fraunhofer Project Group for Automation in Medicine and Biotechnology (PAMB) in Mannheim on 9th March 2016 - attracted around 80 participants. Interesting lectures provided in-depth insights into future trends in optical imaging in medical applications.

Article - 16/12/2015

Small and handy – tiny LED lights can improve eye surgeons’ work

A new lighting system for vitreoretinal surgery that uses small white light-emitting diode (LED) technology, promises to be safer for patients and more practical for surgeons. It will probably be three years before the idea is launched as a medical product. Prototypes need to be optimised, approved and then tested for safety and functionality at the University Eye Hospital in Frankfurt.

Article - 26/10/2015

Ultrafast STED nanoscopy

Nobel Laureate Stefan Hell and his team at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg have achieved yet another milestone in super-resolved optical microscopy. The team have developed an ultrafast STED (stimulation emission depletion) nanoscope that now makes it possible to study molecular processes and transport processes in living cells in millisecond time steps.

Article - 05/02/2015

Successful 10th Meet & Match on biophotonics

“Biophotonics – optical technologies for diagnostics and analytics” was the theme of the 10th Meet & Match event held in Strasbourg on 29th January 2015. The event was organised by Alsace BioValley and BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH and attracted around 50 representatives from science and industry who met to discuss diagnostic and analytic issues and how they can be solved with optical technologies.

Article - 25/02/2013

How can light be used to control the behaviour of neurons?

The control of the behaviour of individual neurons simply by switching light stimuli on and off sends neuroscientists into raptures as it reveals insights into as yet hidden and complicated processes in the brain. Thanks to optogenetics this particular science fiction became reality a few years ago. Working with researchers from the Bernstein Center at the University of Freiburg and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in…

Press release - 22/05/2012

Microscope looks into cells of living fish

Microscopes provide valuable insights in the structure and dynamics of cells, in particular when the latter remain in their natural environment. However, this is very difficult especially for higher organisms. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, and the American National Institutes of Health (NIH) have now developed a new method to visualize cell structures of an eighth of…

Article - 25/10/2010

Angelika Rück visualises the dance of molecules

Angelika Rück measures the luminescence time of molecules in order to find out whether proteins are speaking with each other. She hopes that she will soon be able to differentiate inflammation from tumours. Rück who is head of microscopy at the Ulm-based ILM has worked hard with her colleagues to make the Eselsberg-based Ulm University location one of southern Germanys leading life cell imaging centres.

Dossier - 18/10/2010

New machines for the life sciences

Hardware and software applications have become an integral part of the everyday life of life sciences researchers, developers and service providers. It is impossible to imagine life science applications without effective hardware and software applications – from computer-assisted drug screening to the automatic production of biosensors for rapid, mobile, purse-size bacterial test devices. Trends such as automation and miniaturisation lead to ever…

Press release - 28/08/2010

Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs to grant ILM additional financial support

The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs has granted the Institute of Laser Technology in Medicine and Metrology (ILM) in Ulm additional financial support totalling 582,000 euros from the German government’s “Future Investment Programme”. The funding is to be used to renew and expand the institute’s equipment in 2010.

Article - 15/04/2010

Rainer Wittig: oxygen biology opens up new paths

“When one talks about light in the field of biology, the crucial role played by oxygen often comes into it.” When Rainer Wittig says that he sees himself as an oxygen researcher, he is not just simplifying his job title because essentially, that is exactly what he is. A lot of the molecular biologist’s work revolves around oxygen, in particular its highly reactive forms. Wittig has been head of the biology department at the Ulm-based ILM since…

Article - 08/12/2009

Karl Stock helps turn ideas into products

Karl Stock takes abstract ideas and turns them into useable technological possibilities. The 44-year-old works in what could best be described as the one-man engineering office at the Ulm-based Institute of Laser Technologies in Medicine and Metrology (ILM). In contrast to university institutes, Stock’s work does not simply finish with a “paper” published in a journal. Stock strives to go further and his real work starts where others often stop,…

Article - 22/09/2009

Alwin Kienle: an eye for the whole picture

Harvest time has now come for physicist Alwin Kienle. In the next year or two the results of his basic research will result in the establishment of an applied centre focusing on the determination of the optical characteristics of scattering media. The deputy director of the Ulm-based ILM hopes that the new optical competence centre will lead to attractive solutions for the pharmaceutical medical device and nutrition sectors.

The Ulm-based Institute for Laser Technologies in Medicine and Metrology (ILM) has received a 335,000 euro injection in 2009 through the German government’s Future Investment Programme (Economic Stimulus Packet II), according to the Baden-Württemberg Minister of Economic Affairs Ernst Pfister. The funds, 75 per cent of which are provided by the German government and 25 per cent by the state of Baden-Württemberg, will be used for the modernisation…

Article - 27/05/2009

Raimund Hibst brings laser into dental practices

Nowadays, in many dental practices drills are no longer used to remove caries – much to the patients’ delight. Such practices have replaced drills with lasers, a virtually painless method, with low noise levels and which does not require a local anaesthetic. This is all thanks to the work of Raimund Hibst, a physicist from the ILM in Ulm who has spent many years turning research findings into health market applications, in cooperation with…

The Institute of Laser Technology in Medicine and Metrology ILM in Ulm one of eleven applied research institutes belonging to the Baden-Württemberg Innovation Alliance will receive government funding totalling about 1.306 million euros.

In the Centre of Applied Photonics CAP at the University of Constance interdisciplinary teams of researchers are working on new optical technologies with a special focus on laser technology.

Deadline for submitting preliminary proposals written in English is the 30th June 2008.

The supervisory board of the Landesstiftung foundation has agreed to fund new projects and programmes with a total of 32.7 million euros in 2008. The board has agreed on new research and education priorities.

The major focus of the planned research initiative is precompetitive and application-oriented basic and initial research.