Healthcare industry

Article - 18/12/2012

Gene therapy medicinal products: the first gene therapy product has been approved – where does the future lie?

Is gene therapy close to broad clinical application? Following negative headlines at the end of the 1990s gene therapy had almost disappeared from the public radar to become an issue almost exclusively dealt with by research laboratories. Gene therapy has now reappeared in the public domain since the European Medicines Agency EMA gave the Dutch biotech company uniQure the go-ahead for the application of somatic gene therapy for the treatment of a…

Article - 28/07/2014

Successes and setbacks of clinical gene therapy

The use of retroviral haematopoietic stem cell gene therapy to treat hereditary immunodeficiencies has achieved great success in resolving the actual symptoms of the disease, but many of the patients that underwent therapy developed leukaemia later. Effective gene therapies involving gene shuttles that do not cause cancer are therefore required. The good news is that such therapies already exist.

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.

Article - 17/02/2009

Tissue engineering companies and EU obstacles

With the new regulation on advanced therapy medicinal products the European Union has tried to establish legal certainty with regard to gene therapy somatic cell therapy and tissue engineering products. However Dr. Heinz W. Joseph of TETEC AG is sure that the new guidelines will lead to problems for small and medium-sized companies.

MTS is specialised in the development and manufacture of extracorporeal Spark Wave® therapy systems. Our medical devices are successfully used worldwide in the fields of orthopaedics/ physiotherapy, traumatology, wound care and urology.

Article - 23/04/2009

Cancer therapy targets angiogenesis

The idea of starving tumours by interrupting their blood supply has despite initial drawbacks generated the production of blockbuster drugs and is now a major RD focus for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. But the biological effects are more complicated than originally expected.

Article - 04/08/2014

Europe’s first gene therapy

Scientists from the National Center for Tumour Diseases (NCT) have shown that adeno-associated viruses (AAV) do not pose a cancer risk. This conclusion is based on the analysis of several million patient cells treated with AAV and the finding that the viruses do not integrate into the patient genome. AAV is the first-ever gene therapy for clinical use in the Western world. AAV vectors could also potentially be used as prototypes for the treatment…

Article - 30/03/2009

Innovative sunscreen for noninvasive therapies

The importance of sunlight for human health becomes particularly obvious when people do not receive sufficient sunlight. A prime example of this is rachitis also known as English disease which is caused by vitamin D deficiency. However the exposure to too much sunlight can also be dangerous. The Empfingen-based company HelioVital has now developed a special film that enables the therapeutic use of the positive effects of sunlight without causing…

Proposals can be submitted up until 9th April 2008.

Press release - 08/01/2009

ILM – Laser Therapy Centre

The Laser Therapy Centre (LTZ) possesses numerous medical laser systems of different wavelengths and pulse structures. In cooperation with medical laser device manufacturers, the ILM is actively involved in the development of new lasers and laser applications.

Almost half of the veins transplanted to restore blood flow in the heart become clogged again within ten years after surgery. Gene therapy pre-treatment of the vein fragments that prevents the muscle cells from entering the vascular wall might decrease the risk of this happening.

Article - 12/09/2011

TransLimm brings new immunotherapies to patients more rapidly

With the establishment of the Center for Translational Immunology TransLimm the University of Tübingen has initiated a network whose objective is to quickly and effectively transfer innovative therapies into clinical application. Patients suffering from acute leukaemia might soon benefit from therapies involving antibodies optimized by recombinant antibody technology.

Article - 20/01/2020

Brain tumour patients could benefit from heavy ion therapy

Glioblastoma is a malignant brain tumour. It does not respond anywhere near as well to conventional forms of therapy than other tumours because it contains particularly resistant cancer cells. Scientists at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) at Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center have shown that heavy ion therapy is effective against these cells.

Dossier - 28/08/2018

With molecular diagnostics to biomarker-based personalised therapy

Diagnosing suitable biomarkers is a prerequisite for tailoring personalised therapies to patient heterogeneity. Genetic tests and genome sequencing play a key role in these diagnoses. Up until now, personalised therapy has achieved the greatest success in the field of oncology. However, personalised treatments are also gaining in importance for treating other diseases.

Dossier - 10/11/2014

Cell and gene therapies: from bench to bedside

While cell therapy has become standard treatment for a number of blood cancers, most cell and gene therapy approaches for the treatment of hereditary and metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer are still in the experimental phases or early clinical trials. However, recent successes give rise to the hope that cell and gene therapies will in future make important contributions to previously incurable diseases.

Cytonet GmbH & Co. KG, Germany’s leading cell therapy company, has provided the first clear evidence for the efficacy of its liver cell therapy in severe congenital metabolic disorders of newborns. The study was conducted in cooperation with the University Children’s Hospital in Heidelberg.

OPASCA supports patients, relatives and staff in outpatient and stationary facilities for radiation therapy. The company is brand leader in innovative comprehensive solutions for more safety, an efficient work-flow and patient well-being during therapy.

Press release - 14/12/2011

Towards a Therapy to Healing Stroke

The thalamus is the central translator in the brain: Specialized nerve cells (neurons) receive information from the sensory organs, process it, and transmit it deep into the brain. Researchers from the Institute of Toxicology and Genetics (ITG) of KIT have now identified the genetic factors Lhx2 and Lhx9 responsible for the development of these neurons. Their results contribute to understanding the development of the thalamus. In the long term,…

Dossier - 10/03/2014

Cancer therapy and cancer diagnostics

Thanks to improved diagnostics and therapy, today’s cancer patients can live considerably longer than patients several years ago. Nevertheless, some cancers, especially the strongly metastatic ones, are difficult to treat. Therapies targeting immune cells or cancer stem cells could potentially improve the current situation. The early detection and classification of tumours is crucial for the successful treatment of the disease, and molecular…

Press release - 08/01/2009

ILM – Laser Therapy Centre

The study carried out by the ILM investigates the fractional irradiation of wrinkles and scars using an Erbium:YAG handpiece.

Article - 19/11/2009

Cellzome - kinase inhibitors for therapy

Cellzome is a privately-owned biotechnology company which develops new drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases at its two company sites in Heidelberg (Germany) and Cambridge (UK).

The test detects K-RAS mutations and could be an additional tool for targeted therapies of patients with colorectal cancer who stand to benefit from newly developed cancer therapies that rely on the genotype of the K-RAS oncogene.

Article - 21/12/2015

Using a heart simulator for optimal therapy

A realistic computer model of the human heart is expected to make treating heart diseases more effective: doctors will be able to test medicines and surgical techniques on the computer heart and determine the most effective therapy. Olaf Dössel, director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, believes that his team's heart model is among the top five in the world.