Press releases and news 2007

Whether consumer goods, spare parts or medicines – counterfeit products cause huge turnover losses worldwide. Not only this, but in the case of medicines, pirated products can be downright dangerous. In response to this phenomenon, scientists at the Fraunhofer IGB have developed a process to make safety labels on medicine packaging more forgery-proof.

Jacqueline Michaelis developed a novel tumor model containing a functioning bloodstream. She was awarded the Hugo Geiger Prize for her Masters theses.

Overcrowded mega-cities without adequate water supplies or sewage disposal facilities, frequent flooding and extreme drought are problems that a new urban infrastructural concept can help solve. It has a flex-ible, water-saving vacuum sewerage network.

Conventional antimycotic drugs have a narrow spectrum of effect and can cause severe side effects. Using a new automated screening assay, researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart, Germany, are searching for specific and better tolerated antimycotics.

Shaking and tapping is often the only way to get the last drop of ketchup out of the bottle. But in future, even this final drop will slide out easily onto the barbecued steak – thanks to a special coating on the packaging.

Surgical instruments or implants that are contaminated with residual bacteria, or pyrogens, can cause blood poisoning in patients. Researchers are developing a test that imitates the human immune system in the laboratory, eliminating the need for animal experiments.

Before a new medical device can be launched onto the market its biological compatibility has to be demonstrated. Fraunhofer IGB has received accreditation for this test also with its three-dimensional skin model, an organoid in-vitro tissue model. The skin model is also suitable for testing chemicals according to the new EU chemical directive REACH. In both instances it helps to avoid animal experiments.

Subitec GmbH from Stuttgart has successfully completed its first round of financing worth Euro 610,000. The lead investor of this biotech company, specialising in production of microalgal biomass, is High-Tech Gründerfonds. Business angel Dr. Helmut Hengstenberg was acquired as a side investor. A pilot plant can now be constructed.

Interferon-beta is used for multiple sclerosis therapy. An interferon-beta protein developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Stuttgart, Germany, in collaboration with CinnaGen company, Tehran, Iran, is now the first therapeutic protein from a Fraunhofer laboratory to be approved as biogeneric / biosimilar medicine.