Healthcare industry

Article - 02/03/2017

Personalised antibiotics therapy: fewer antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Antibiotics have long been used as all-purpose weapons against infectious diseases – too often and too early, as we now know. This tendency has caused many bacteria to become resistant to standard antibiotics. The search for new substance classes has proved quite difficult. Care must therefore be taken to use existing antibiotics prudently in order to reduce the number of bacteria becoming resistant to them in the long term. Researchers from…

Article - 28/08/2017

SpinDiag GmbH – rapid test makes it difficult for pathogens

Antibiotic-resistant pathogens are becoming an increasing problem, especially in hospitals. Infected patients must be isolated as soon as possible. However, appropriate methods for testing patients upon admission to hospital and isolating them if necessary are still lacking. A young biotechnology company from Baden-Württemberg called SpinDiag GmbH has developed a cost-effective method for the rapid testing of microbial resistance in normal…

Spindiag, a young medtech company in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, announced today the expanded financing of its first Series A. Based on a proprietary microfluidic technology first researched at the company’s mother institute Hahn-Schickard, Spindiag is developing a sustainable platform to diagnose infections and, as a first product, a rapid test for multidrug-resistant bacteria.

The increasing number of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics is becoming a great problem in the treatment of infected wounds. The Hohenstein Institutes are developing novel wound dressings that use bacteriophages to combat even the most virulent pathogens.

Article - 30/07/2012

How to prevent pathogens from developing antibiotic resistances

For bacteria, the environment is rather like a big market where they can give and receive new survival strategies if need be. A group of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Grohmann at the Freiburg University Medical Centre is investigating how microorganisms exchange antibiotic resistance genes. In a project involving two hospitals in Mexico City, the molecular biologists are also investigating whether pathogens, resistance genes and…

Article - 09/03/2008

Successful attack on resistant tumour cells

In laboratory experiments Dr. Anja Apel from the University Hospital in Heidelberg proved that cancer cells that are resistant to radiation therapy can be made to become susceptible to this kind of treatment again by blocking the cells own recycling system.

Press release - 24/05/2010

University of Stuttgart – biopolymers as construction material of the future?

The Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart is investigating whether it is possible to replace traditional plastics in the building industry with natural fibre-reinforced biopolymers. As part of the project, which is being funded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, the ITKE researchers are working with the Nimbus Group to develop transparent lightweight building boards from biopolymers with…

The new cancer medication sorafenib inhibits resistant tumour stem cells in pancreatic cancer and is especially effective when combined with sulforaphane, an organic compound found in broccoli and cauliflower.

One year after its seed financing, SpinDiag GmbH closes a second financing round of EUR 3 million (USD 3.4 million) as planned. The financing will enable SpinDiag to complete the product development of its first product for screening for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and to start clinical trials. This will pave the way for regulatory approval in the EU.

Article - 19/09/2011

k-labor GmbH – a specialist in material analysis and characterisation

k-labor GmbH focuses on the initial inspection of samples for the automotive industry and the testing of a broad range of different materials. k-labor also specialises in environmental simulations and durability testing and offers consulting and the transfer of technologies in the plastics sector.

Article - 22/04/2014

Sugar code and hygiene in the fight against multi-resistant pathogens

Horizontal gene transfer between bacteria is a major reason for the spread of bacterial antibiotic resistance. It is the transfer of bacterial DNA from one bacterium to another, even distantly related species, by bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. Microbiologists from the University of Tübingen are investigating these mechanisms with the aim of finding new strategies that would effectively combat bacteria such as methicillin-resistant…

Article - 17/02/2014

Soil bacteria explored as source of new antibiotics

Two scientists from the Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine IMIT at the University of Tübingen PD Dr. Evi Stegmann and Dr. Yvonne Mast are exploring the biosynthesis of antibiotic substances with the aim of modifying them to make them suitable for application in the fight against multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Martin Wabitsch has received the Science Award of the city of Ulm. Wabitsch head of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University Hospital of Ulm received the award for his research on the consequences of adipositas at a young age.

The Comprehensive Infectious Diseases Centre at the University of Ulm was recently presented to the public. The centre is responsible for coordinating the cooperation between specialists in the diagnosis and therapy of complex infectious diseases.

Dossier - 04/07/2011

Implants of the future: bioactive, corrosion-resistant and antibacterial

People’s life expectancy is increasing due to constantly improving medical treatment. One result of this is the greater wear of joints, which then need to be replaced with implants. Increased life expectancy means that the implants remain in the body for much longer and therefore need to be longer lasting. The revision rate of implant materials used in clinical practice is still as much as 10 per cent, particularly in the case of hip and knee…

Article - 11/12/2017

KDM4 – an efficient target for the therapy of triple-negative breast cancer

While breast cancer survival has clearly improved in recent years, women with triple-negative breast cancer have benefitted very little from progress in cancer medicine. Targeted therapies aimed at inhibiting epigenetic regulators might offer a potential new option for the treatment of breast cancer. Prof. Dr. Roland Schüle and Dr. Jochen Maurer have discovered an epigenetic enzyme called KDM4 and come up with a new cell model that significantly…

Article - 17/10/2010

A high-tech strategy to become a reference laboratory

The Konstanz-based Labor Dr. Brunner is the first medical laboratory in Germany to use a worldwide revolutionary instrument for liquid sample processing in bacteriological laboratories. The Walk-Away Specimen Processor (WASP) is a faster and more reliable processor that automatically identifies resistant pathogens such as MRSA or ESBL-type bacteria that have become part of the growing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that cause…

Article - 16/01/2012

Alexander Titz: molecular design to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Pseudomonas aeruginosa has become an important cause of infection, and is often picked up in hospitals, especially by patients with weakened immune systems. It can cause respiratory and urinary tract infections, as well as lead to infections on implants and wounds. P. aeruginosa lives in a gel-like matrix, a so-called biofilm that is highly resistant to antibiotics, making it very difficult to eradicate. Dr. Alexander Titz and his team at the…

Claudia Friesen and her team of researchers from Ulm University discovered that methadone an agent used as a replacement-opiate in heroin addicts is able to kill leukaemia cells that are resistant to chemotherapy and radiation.

Press release - 23/12/2009

The spread of HIV: optimal adaptation to the human host

A new study led by the virologist and Leibniz Award winner Frank Kirchhoff from Ulm might be about to provide an explanation as to why only one of several independent transmissions of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) from chimpanzees to humans led to the global AIDS pandemic. The researchers now hope that these new findings will contribute to the search for new strategies to prevent the further spread of AIDS viruses.

Press release - 12/10/2009

Methadone for treating brain tumours - finally an effective therapy in sight?

Every year, around 5,500 people in Germany are diagnosed with malignant brain tumours. The chances of effectively treating patients with such tumours have barely improved over the last decades. A new therapeutic appears to be promising. Scientists at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University Hospital of Ulm have been able to show that methadone has the ability to combat brain tumours.

This year’s presentations at the “Science meets Business Day 2009” once again showed that the exchange between science and the industry in the BioValley works extraordinarily well. The “Science meets Business Day 2009” concluded this year’s BioValley Life Science Week, where researchers from five completely different disciplines and their industrial partners presented their views on what makes the economic location in the area bordered by…

Article - 20/02/2018

New strategies against malaria

Malaria, which is a mosquito-borne disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, is still one of the worst infectious human diseases. The parasites have developed resistance against previously effective drugs and new strategies to combat malaria are urgently needed.

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.

Press release - 10/12/2018

High distinction for stem cell researcher Andreas Trumpp

This year's State Research Prize of Baden-Württemberg awarded for outstanding achievements in applied research goes to Andreas Trumpp from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM). Theresia Bauer, State Minister of Science, Research and the Arts, presented the award, which carries a monetary prize of €100.000, at a festive ceremony on December 10, 2018.