Help for tracheostomy patients - 23/10/2025

Biomimetic speaking valve: how a carnivorous plant makes speaking safer

Nature is the best engineer, so they say, and it's always worth taking a closer look. An interdisciplinary group of researchers did just this and drew inspiration from an aquatic plant to develop a novel speaking valve for tracheostomy patients. At the University Medical Center Freiburg, Dr. Claudius Stahl and his team may have addressed a life-threatening issue that can arise in everyday clinical practice by creating a biomimetic valve with…

The committee of the Joint Science Conference of the federal government and federal states in its meeting cleared the way for the application submitted by ZEW Mannheim for a research programme focusing on the implications of the digital transformation for the analysis and the design of digital health care markets. This paves the way for an expansion of the Institute's activities by establishing an independent health economics research unit.

The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is supporting the “Sleep-Neuro-Path” research network with around 1.6 million euros. Coordinated by the Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) in Mannheim, a team of scientists is investigating the role of sleep-related biomarkers in the development of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

A method developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB enables bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic pathogens in sepsis patients to be identified much faster than before and with the highest precision. The approach is based on high-throughput sequencing of cell-free DNA circulating in the blood and was honored with the EARTO Innovation Award in the "Impact Delivered" category on October 14,…

Dr. Andrea Toulouse from the Institute of Applied Optics receives €1.8 million in funding from the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung as part of the CZS Nexus program to establish a new junior research group. She conducts research in the field of micro-optics and fiber-based 3D printing. Her vision is to develop 3D printers that will one day be able to build biological tissue directly inside the body.