Healthcare industry

Press release - 21/07/2010

One Million for Cancer Research from Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation

When Harald zur Hausen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008, Manfred Lautenschläger spontaneously offered to support the Nobel laureate’s scientific work by funding a new research team. These funds will now go to Angelika Riemer, a young scientist who plans to advance the development of a vaccine which is able to cure existing infections with carcinogenic human papillomaviruses at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches…

Article - 15/10/2012

gerbion®: hunting down pathogens

Detecting viruses, bacteria or parasites in human, animal, food and environmental samples is routine for the staff of gerbion GmbH & Co. KG. The company has been using virological, microbiological and serological methods for many years, but is now also using cutting-edge molecular biology methods for detecting pathogens. The founders of the Kornwestheim-based diagnostics company have concentrated on own research work and the development of…

Article - 29/07/2011

Labor Dr. Merk und Kollegen - Viruses under control

It is difficult to imagine how Ochsenhausen-based Labor Dr. Merk und Kollegen (LMK) would be able to develop, produce and test medical products for bacterial and viral contaminations without using cell cultures. The medium-sized company also produces viruses for testing and has stored more than 80 different viruses – enveloped and non-enveloped ones, animal and human pathogens – at -80˚C.

The German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Peter Altmaier, and Dietmar Hopp, SAP co-founder and co-founder of the investment company dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG, announced today that the Federal Republic of Germany will invest 300 million Euros in the biopharmaceutical company CureVac AG, a pioneer in the preclinical and clinical development of mRNA-based drugs.

Dossier - 01/04/2013

Retroviruses: from infectious agent to therapeutic assistant

Viruses are infectious particles that use the machinery and metabolism of a host cell to replicate. Despite some similarities with accepted forms of life viruses are not considered as such. The family of retroviruses is particularly known for its most notorious representative i. e. the human immunodeficiency virus HIV which leads to AIDS and for which no cure or effective vaccine is currently available. However retroviruses are not only of…

Press release - 18/09/2012

CureVac Secures €80 Million in Series D Financing

CureVac GmbH, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of therapies and vaccines based on mRNA, announced on september 18 the completion of an €80 million financing round with its main investor, dievini Hopp BioTech Holding. In the next years, CureVac will use the proceeds mainly to advance the development of its two lead RNActive® cancer vaccines against prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC),…

The RNA Printer® is CureVac’s integrated and automated manufacturing solution for RNA vaccines and therapeutics. CureVac RNA Printer GmbH to provide dedicated infrastructure to accelerate development and broaden application range of The RNA Printer®. Dr. Markus Bergmann appointed as General Manager for CureVac RNA Printer GmbH.

Article - 15/03/2010

Innovative navigation system enables gene shuttles to reach their destination

If everything goes to plan the Department of Gene Therapy at the University of Ulm will soon lose a work group to industry. Florian Kreppels team plans to turn a particular technology into hard cash using a method that can do something other gene shuttles are unable to do namely transport their freight to a specific destination.

Article - 20/01/2014

Microarray copier – for copying DNA, RNA and protein arrays

Dr. Günter Roth from the Centre for Biological Systems Analysis at the University of Freiburg is working on the development of a microarray copier that can almost at the push of a button copy arrays of any type of molecule DNA RNA and proteins from next-generation sequencing chips onto standard slides thereby combining the world of microarrays with the sequencing world. The approach has a huge application potential for the production of…

Press release - 21/09/2010

immatics raises 54 million euros to advance its late stage clinical therapeutic cancer vaccine portfolio

immatics biotechnologies GmbH a biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer announced today that it has raised 53.8million in a Series C financing round. The new funds will allow the Company to finance the ongoing development of immatics existing pipeline of advanced therapeutic cancer vaccine candidates.

Press release - 18/04/2012

immatics appoints Dr. Rainer Kramer as Chief Business Officer

immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer, today announced the appointment of Dr. Rainer Kramer as Chief Business Officer (CBO) with immediate effect. In this newly created role, Dr. Kramer will lead immatics’ Business Development Unit in order to create optimal value from the Company’s pipeline of therapeutic cancer vaccines.

Press release - 12/11/2012

immatics appoints Peter Chambré as Chairman

immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer, today announced the appointment of Peter Chambré as Chairman of the Board with immediate effect. Peter Chambré has had extensive senior management experience in the biopharmaceutical sector and now holds several Chairman positions in the life sciences industry. He will replace Thomas Widmann, who has…

Article - 16/05/2009

Mykotown Greentech AG uses mycorrhiza to keep plants going

Mykotown Greentech AG offer mycorrhizal preparations that protect the plants against dehydration and bacteria. The fungi also enhance plant growth. The plants provide the natural soil fungi with carbon while the fungi help the plant to capture nutrients and liquids from the soil.

Article - 19/11/2015

Immune cells are reprogrammed in Alzheimer’s brains

Scientists from the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen are pursuing an innovative treatment approach for Alzheimer’s disease using immune cells to eliminate the protein deposits that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s. Dr. Jonas Neher and his team tested whether exchanging brain-specific immune cells with fresh, more active cells has a positive effect on the disease.

Article - 23/08/2010

Antibiotics for the prevention of malaria

Researchers from Heidelberg and Berlin have shown that if malaria-infected mice are administered an antibiotic, no parasites appear in the blood and the mice are protected from this life-threatening disease. The scientists believe that antibiotics also have the potential to strengthen the human immune system as well as making it possible to provide a natural needle-free vaccination against malaria.

Article - 02/05/2016

Hepatitis C: a new starting point for vaccine development

With approximately 150,000 infected people in Germany, hepatitis C is a common disease for which therapies, but no vaccine, are available. Dr. Tobias Böttler from the Freiburg University Medical Center and his team are exploring the body’s immune response to the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and have found valuable information that could be used for vaccine development.

Article - 29/11/2010

Against chronic liver inflammation and liver cancer

Chronic hepatitis B and C are the major causes of liver cancer. In contrast to hepatitis B viruses, there is no hepatitis C virus vaccination available. New research carried out by Professor Bartenschlager and his colleagues from Heidelberg might give rise to new strategies for the development of vaccines and medications for the prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infections.

Expert interview on NTDs – part 1 - 11/04/2019

Neglected tropical diseases – Carsten Köhler: impulses from Baden-Württemberg

More than one billion people worldwide suffer from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). NTDs are mostly poverty-related infectious diseases that prevail in tropical countries due to lack of research and measures to detect, prevent and control them. Dr. Dr. Carsten Köhler reports on the political, economic and scientific contributions Germany and Baden-Württemberg can make to successfully change this situation.

From 24 till 30 April 2017 is "European Immunization Week" – the BIOPRO provides information about this topic. Influenza pandemics are dangerous and can claim many lives. Children and the elderly in particular run a high risk of developing influenza-related complications, because their immune system is often weakened by the virus. In Germany, annual vaccination against seasonal influenza has therefore been recommended for these target…

Press release - 21/05/2010

The road to individualized tumour vaccines

What are the typical cancer cell characteristics that our immune system is directed against? Using a new biochemical method, scientists from the Neurosurgery Department of the Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Centre (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) are now able to answer this question for each individual patient. The method is expected to help identify new target structures for individualized tumour vaccines.

Article - 30/07/2009

Keeping as many valuable attachments as possible

The goal of many projects focusing on the purification of recombinant proteins is to rapidly and effectively remove substances and side products that would compromise the quality and quantity of biopharmaceutical compounds. A consortium of industrial and scientific partners is currently focusing on a different step in the biopharmaceutical production process: the goal is to keep as many as possible of the drugs’ ‘attachments’. The project focuses…

Innovative Therapies - 20/08/2020

Labor Dr. Merk is fully committed to viral therapies

Labor Dr. Merk & Kollegen is reorienting its business towards viral therapeutics. With this change of strategy, the company, which has decades of expertise in virology, wants to position itself in a timely fashion in the growing new market for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP). In gene and virotherapies (oncolytic viruses), tumour vaccines and CAR-T cell therapies, viruses are essential as vectors, killers of tumour cells or…

Press release - 06/03/2015

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invests €46 million in CureVac

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CureVac announced that the foundation has made a commitment to invest €46 million in CureVac, a leading clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in mRNA-based vaccine technologies. As part of the agreement, the foundation will also provide separate funding for several projects to develop prophylactic vaccines based on CureVac’s proprietary messenger RNA platform. In addition, CureVac’s…

Article - 26/03/2010

How do killer cells manage to survive?

It is not easy for the body to protect itself once a virus has broken through the body’s lines of defence and caused a chronic infection. This task is made even more difficult when the intruders are viral hepatitis pathogens that attack the liver, the place where immunological tolerance is induced. Jörg Reimann (physician) and Reinhold Schirmbeck (biologist) are working on the development of T-cell-mediated therapeutic vaccination strategies to…

Press release - 02/03/2011

immatics appoints Dr. Harald Stock to its Board

immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer, today announced the appointment of Dr. Harald F. Stock to the board of directors, effective February 2011.