Healthcare industry

Brain-computer interfaces are able to restore some mobility to paralyzed people by controlling exoskeletons. However, more complex control signals cannot yet be read from the head surface because conventional sensors are not sensitive enough. A collaboration of Fraunhofer IAF, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, University of Stuttgart and other industrial partners has taken up this challenge.

Article - 22/06/2021

Using virtual reality in the clinic to rehabilitate patients with cognitive disorders

Outdated and inadequate methods of neurological rehabilitation are still being used for patients with neurological diseases or injuries – and what’s more, the treatment is usually too late. This is because cognitive training is especially important in the critical phases when the brain is particularly plastic. The Heidelberg-based company living brain proves that early treatment is possible using an extremely innovative method – with concentrated…

Effective drugs for the treatment of diseases of the central nervous system do exist. However, the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain as the body's control center, makes it especially difficult for therapeutic biomolecules to pass through. Thus, researchers from an international consortium coordinated by the Fraunhofer IGB have spent the last four and a half years developing a novel system in the EU project "N2B-patch"…

Article - 10/03/2021

Faster to single cells using miniature grinder

Tissue cells are needed for medical diagnostics, cell therapies and tissue engineering, among other things. A novel tissue grinder gently and automatically dissociates cells from tissue. In November 2020, the newly founded biotech company Fast Forward Discoveries GmbH (FFX) delivered its first tissue grinders to customers.

Heidelberg neurobiologists decode central mechanism of degenerative processes in the brains of mouse models and develop new principle for therapeutic agents.

Dr. André Martins from the Department of Radiology at the Tübingen University Hospitals is one of this year's recipients of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Sofja Kovalevskaja Award.

Expert interview - 13/05/2019

Innovation management in the life sciences – Inova DE provides insights

Personalized medicine, medical technology, digital health and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing diagnostics and product development. Analyses are becoming faster and more precise, and data volumes can now be networked and used effectively. The goal of improving people's quality of life is within reach, and this will also strengthen Germany’s future viability. However, not every good idea can be turned into a marketable commodity.…

Article - 16/05/2018

Telemedical neurology council helps speed up stroke treatment

Stroke units save lives because specialist treatment is absolutely crucial for stroke patients. However, not all clinics have neurological specialists available 24/7, so telemedicine provides a good solution to the problem. Studies show that telemedical consultations can considerably improve the treatment of stroke patients.

Article - 19/04/2018

New combination therapy for treating stroke patients

30 to 40 percent of all stroke patients suffer from persistent signs of paralysis that prevents them from using the affected hand. The innovative combination of two non-invasive treatment methods is a therapeutic approach with considerable potential for treating severely impaired patients.

Article - 21/02/2018

HepaRegeniX – a start-up is taking it up a step!

HepaRegeniX, a biotech company founded in 2016, specialises in developing drugs that restore the regenerative capacity of diseased livers. The three founders of the biotech start-up, Prof. Dr. Lars Zender, Prof. Dr. Stefan Laufer and Dr. Wolfgang Albrecht, anticipate starting clinical testing of the first drug candidate in 2019.

Diagnostics - 29/01/2018

New test for extended blood fat analysis

Cholesterol is seen as the cause of atherosclerosis, a disease that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. However, it now seems that the way cholesterol is packaged may be even more important than high blood cholesterol levels. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy now allows the high-throughput analysis of such lipid packages.

Article - 27/06/2016

A nasal spray for treating neurodegenerative diseases

Neuroscientists from Heidelberg have created the scientific foundations for a nasal spray that can stabilise the dendrites of nerve cells, thus reducing nerve damage and brain function losses following a stroke. Prof. Dr. Hilmar Bading and his team received the 2016 German BioRegions Innovation Prize for their invention and have set up a company called FundaMental Pharma to further accelerate the development of a marketable medicinal product.

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.

Article - 13/10/2014

Data mining is likely to play an increasing role in clinical development

Data mining still plays a minor role in the research-based pharmaceutical industry. But this is likely to change in the future. Mathematician Hans-Jürgen Lomp predicts that exploratory data analysis will be used to a greater extent in the future. Lomp is the Global Head of Statistics in Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co KG’s Department of Medical Data Service and Biostatistics in Biberach.

Article - 30/06/2014

The German National Cohort: collecting data for a healthier future

A large-scale long-term cohort study will be carried out to explain the causes of widespread diseases, in particular cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes, and to identify the risk factors that lead to or favour the development of a certain disease. The principal objective of the German National Cohort (GNC) is to create the conditions that enable the development of new strategies for the prevention, risk assessment and early…

Article - 07/01/2014

Martin Scheffner: a biochemist exploring a versatile protein

Ubiquitin is found in almost all tissues and is involved in a wide variety of cellular processes e.g. protein degradation signal transduction and cell cycle control. The addition of ubiquitin alters the characteristics of proteins including their half life function or location. Prof. Dr. Martin Scheffners work is dedicated to the exploration of this versatile protein. The researcher from Konstanz studies the enzymes of the ubiquitin system and…

Article - 11/11/2013

Vitaphone GmbH - innovative telemedicine

Vitaphone GmbH from Mannheim is a leading international telemedical service provider. Its services range from telecardiological functional diagnostics, 24/7 telemonitoring of risk patients to integrative care management of chronically ill patients. Vitaphone is particularly involved in the application of structured telemonitoring-based therapy programmes for patients with heart failure.

Dossier - 19/08/2013

Telemedicine: advances in high-tech healthcare

Increasing average longevity, the growing number of chronic diseases and health economy issues are all generating an ever-increasing demand for inexpensive therapy options that are not time- or location dependent. For the past 10 years or so, telemedicine has been offering advanced solutions for a broad range of medical and health issues. Despite this progress, the use of telecommunication and information technologies in the provision of remote…

Article - 03/06/2013

Laser light for the diagnosis of stroke

Stroke is one of the most common causes of death in the Western world and in Germany the most common cause of moderate to severe disabilities. Besides effective prevention, the rapid and specific diagnosis of impaired blood circulation in the brain is key in the effective treatment of stroke patients. PD Dr. Thomas Gisler from the University of Konstanz has developed CereFLux, a method that allows the flow of blood in the human brain to be…

Article - 25/02/2013

Frauke Melchior and the SUMO wrestling match between proteins

Fifteen years ago, molecular biologist Frauke Melchior discovered a new mechanism of posttranslational protein modification that controls a variety of processes in eukaryotic cells. A small protein called SUMO is covalently bound to target proteins by specific enzymes and cleaved by other enzymes. This discovery has shaped Melchior’s scientific career.

Article - 04/02/2013

SYGNIS Pharma - the "new" one: development and commercialisation of molecular diagnostics products

Heidelberg-based SYGNIS Pharma AG is to discontinue its therapeutic R&D projects targeting human nervous system diseases and will in future focus on the research and development of novel molecular biology technologies, including DNA amplification and sequencing as well as drug screening.

Article - 28/12/2012

When cells go out of control – researchers to unveil the secret of cell ageing

The process of ageing appears, at least at first sight, to be fairly tangible and is visible both at individual and societal level. Nevertheless, science has not yet come up with detailed insights into the physiology of ageing. Jörg Bergemann, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Albstadt-Sigmaringen University of Applied Sciences, is studying the processes of ageing in skin cells in a project that has recently been granted funding by the…

Article - 22/10/2012

syneed imaging: precise visualisation of functional tissue properties

Functional medical imaging modalities are of great significance in modern medical diagnostics. Existing ways of diagnosing diseases are now being expanded with the arrival of the innovative parameter imaging method. syneed imaging uses proprietary highly sensitive software for the analysis of dynamic image data. This software complements standard methods such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging and increases the significance of…

Dossier - 24/05/2012

Biochips: microsystems technology for the life sciences

Nanoscale robots and intelligent measurement systems in arteries, fingernail-sized DNA chips that can be used to analyze thousands of genes in tiny samples, intelligent DNA microsensors – the trend in the life sciences is moving towards miniaturization in all areas including electronics, sensor systems and the handling of liquids. Over the last few years, a research area with growing potential has developed at the interface of physics, the…

Article - 13/02/2012

A strange combination: green tea extract and light for treating Alzheimer’s

Andrei Sommer from the University of Ulm and colleagues from Ulm, Heidelberg and Berlin have succeeded in reducing amyloid beta deposits in human neuroblastoma cells by up to 60 per cent in vitro. The researchers found that the apparently strange combination of green tea and red light has the potential to lead to the development of new therapies for Alzheimer’s. There are currently no treatments available that stop or reverse the progression of…