Press Releases 2019

NanoEDGE is an interdisciplinary research project aiming at converging production techniques for functionalized electrodes with expertise in nanomaterial fabrication and characterization, state-of-the-art engineering, and neuroscience to pave the way for the production of multi-level sensors that can rigorously enhance the performance of established monitoring methods like electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG).

Biopsies are standard procedures in interventional radiology, not least for patients with a suspected tumor. In this instance, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly the method of choice for guiding minimally invasive tissue sampling. Yet this involves having to undergo repeated MRI scans, which patients find uncomfortable. In an ongoing R&D project, Fraunhofer researchers have now developed a system that allows acquisition of ultrasound images simultaneously to an MRI scan. These multimodal data are then combined and permanently mapped onto one another, meaning that the high-contrast MRI images can still be utilized, in combination with the live ultrasound images, once the patient is no longer inside the MRI scanner. In other words, only one MRI scan is required at the beginning of the biopsy procedure. Afterwards, the biopsy can be safely performed under the guidance of a combination of real-time ultrasound images improved with MRI contrast. The MRI-compatible ultrasound system will be on display at the MEDICA trade fair in Düsseldorf from November 18 to 21, 2019 (Hall 10, Booth G05).

Ultrasound expertise of the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT in the visionary EU-FET Open Project AMPHORA (Acoustic markers for enhanced remote sensing of radiation doses).

In the ViroSens project, researchers from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Sulzbach and Regensburg are working together with industrial partners on a novel analytical method to make the potency testing of vaccines more efficient and cost-effective. The method combines electrochemical sensor technology and biotechnology and, for the first time, enables a completely automated analysis of the infection status of test cells.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT is contributing its expertise in the field of medical biotechnology and ultrasound to a new EC project to work on the next generation of theranostics for brain pathologies using autonomous externally controllable nanonetworks.

Application-specific high-throughput stem cell production processes revolutionize industrial new drug testing. For biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies, the development of cell culture automation using innovative materials is a promising approach to optimize existing processes. By customized material characteristics, expansion and/or differentiation of human stem cells (with focus on human induced pluripotent stem cells, hiPSCs) shall be positively influenced and automated solutions for the production for high-qualitative cells shall be developed. These generated cells can then be used for the production of model systems for drug tests, toxicity studies or disease modelling, thus providing e. g., a major contribution to personalized medicine or the avoidance of animal experiments.

Together, the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT and the Fraunhofer Project Center for Stem Cell Process Engineering SPT present selected topics of laboratory technology and biotechnology in the mobile epidemiological BSL2 laboratory, the so-called »mobile EpiLab«.

EBiSC2 will secure long-term access to well characterised and quality-controlled hiPSCs for academic and commercial researchers worldwide, continuing to support R&D activities such as disease modelling and drug discovery.

If radiation or chemotherapy treatment of leukaemias or lymphomas does not bring sufficient success, the transplantation of bone marrow or blood stem cells is usually the only chance of cure. Unfortunately, the majority of patients die despite transplantation, often due to spontaneous infections, transplant versus recipient reactions and recurrences. New predictive models for the individual course of disease, as developed in the "XplOit" research project, predict the occurrence and extent of these risks and thus enable transplantation physicians to intervene at an early stage to save lives in dreaded complications.

Since mid-February 2019, the laboratories of the Main Department of Medical Biotechnology in Sulzbach are now also GLP certified. In Saarland, the Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection is responsible for issuing a GLP certificate in accordance with § 19b (1) of the Chemicals Act.