Healthcare industry

Prof. Dr. Harald Gießen from the Institute of Physics (4) as well as Prof. Dr. Alois Herkommer and Dr. Simon Thiele from the Institute of Applied Optics at the University of Stuttgart received the Gips Schüle Research Award 2021 on October 19, 2021. The researchers were awarded the prize, which is valued at EUR 50,000.

A pioneering technique developed by the Prevedel Group at EMBL allows neuroscientists to observe live neurons deep inside the brain – or any other cell hidden within an opaque tissue. The technique is based on two state-of-the-art microscopy methods, three-photon microscopy and adaptive optics. The paper reporting on this advancement was published on 30th September 2021 in Nature Methods.

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…

Article - 13/12/2016

Smart sensor technology from Ulm can do more than just breath analysis

Detecting disease-specific molecules in human breath is technically feasible, but time-consuming and rather costly. "µbreath" could soon change this. The breath gas analysis device has all the necessary requirements for commercial success in the healthcare sector: it is compact, accurate, highly sensitive and fast. The chemist who developed µbreath, Prof. Boris Mizaikoff from Ulm University, and his partners are hoping to start…

Article - 04/12/2015

Exploring the retinal code

Dr. Philipp Berens from the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of Tübingen uses computer models to study how light that enters the retina is turned into events that trigger nerve impulses. The bioinformatician has recently received the BMBF’s Bernstein Award for Computational Neuroscience.

Article - 28/11/2014

Martin Plenio - turning Ulm’s quantum biology into a technology forge

Quantum biology has the potential to become the next big research coup. Professor Martin Plenio, 46, director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Ulm University and one of the world’s leading quantum technologists, is right at the forefront. He has been Alexander von Humboldt Professor since 2009, and holds a part-time professorship at Imperial College London, where he was formerly chair of quantum physics.

Article - 25/11/2013

Elisa May: a sharp, microscopic look at DNA damage

DNA damage is part of our everyday life. Every day, tens of thousands of DNA single-strand breaks occur in every cell, but we have a variety of sophisticated genome maintenance mechanisms to protect ourselves against such problems. However, serious diseases can result in cases where the cellular repair system fails. Amongst other things, there is a close relationship between the failure of DNA repair mechanisms and the development of cancer.…

Press release - 09/10/2012

Bacterium in a Laser Trap

Scientists from the Department of Microsystems Engineering IMTEK of the University of Freiburg have constructed an innovative new optical trap that can grab and scan tiny elongated bacteria with the help of a laser. Optical tweezers could previously only be used to grab bacteria at one point not to manipulate their orientation. The Freiburg researchers have now succeeded in using a quickly moving focused laser beam to exert an equally distributed…

Press release - 30/09/2011

Blood Vessels from Your Printer

Researchers have been working at growing tissue and organs in the laboratory for a long time. These days, tissue engineering enables us to build up artificial tissue, although science still hasn’t been successful with larger organs. Now, researchers at Fraunhofer are applying new techniques and materials to come up with artificial blood vessels in their BioRap project that will be able to supply artificial tissue and maybe even complex organs in…

Article - 12/07/2011

Deeper insight into the activity of the cortex

Visual and tactile objects in our surroundings are translated into a perception by complex interactions of neurons in the cortex. The principles underlying spatial and temporal organization of neuronal activity during decision-making and object perception are not well understood yet. Jason Kerr from Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, in collaboration with Winfried Denk from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research…

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 - 11/10/2010

University of Konstanz – crystallinity is key

Renewable resources not only provide the field of biotechnology with interesting possibilities for the development of new materials. Scientists from the Department of Chemical Material Science at the University of Konstanz have now succeeded in chemically synthesising a new type of plastic from plant oils.

Article - 09/10/2010

A smart device for non-invasive renal function testing

Scientists from the Medical Research Centre in Mannheim led by Prof. Gretz have developed an optoelectronic measuring device for the non-invasive assessment of renal function. The device, which can be applied to the skin like tape, is a technology platform that can be further developed for application in other fields.

Press release - 22/09/2009

Nanoparticles: researchers to map protein corona

The way nanoparticles behave in the human body not only depends on their chemical structure. Of greater importance is the way they interact with biological molecules. Professor Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has developed new methods that enable the quantitative measurement of these dynamic processes.

Article - 04/03/2009

New modern microscopy centre brings together different disciplines

Microscopy service imaging support and method development these are the three major pillars of the Bioimaging Center BIC at the University of Constance that was inaugurated in October 2008.

Press release - 08/01/2009

ILM - Microscopy

There are many different light microscopy methods for dealing with biological and medical issues on the cellular level. In many cases, this also involves the use of lasers either for the manipulation of cells or for the laser-assisted microscopic investigation of cells. A number of different confocal laser microscopy methods have proved to be particularly successful in such investigations to the extent that they have become virtually…

Hartmut Geiger a biochemist and stem cell researcher at Ulm University Hospital is using genetic methods to investigate the molecular basis of the physiological ageing of haematopoietic stem cells. After having spent a period in Cincinnati Geiger is currently head of the clinical research group Molecular and cellular ageing from the mechanisms of action to clinical perspectives.

The new Clinical Research Unit Heavy ion therapy in radiooncology headed up by Professor Dr. Oliver Jäkel from the University Hospital of Heidelberg hopes to find an answer to the question of the relative importance of ion therapy in radiotherapy.

Dossier - 03/07/2008

Molecular imaging - a close look inside the human body

Molecular imaging recognises the functional state of cells and molecules. It visualises biological processes on the cellular and molecular level and is thus able to detect pathological alterations a long time before disease symptoms become apparent. Molecular imaging offers new possibilities for improving diagnosis and enabling more targeted therapies than has previously been possible. Many experts regard molecular imaging as a paradigm shift in…

Cancer cells are dangerous foodies. They metabolise far greater amounts of sugar than healthy cells. Nuclear medicine experts make use of cancer cells craving for sugar since the advent of modern positron emission tomography PET. This has led to an improvement in the quality of cancer treatment.

The NanoZoomer robot at the TIGA High-Tech Imaging Centre at the University of Heidelberg delivers images of cells and tissues and analyses them completely automatically. The system creates virtual slides that can then be viewed at different focal planes.

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.

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