Press releases and news 2020

The wastewater treatment plant is turned into a vegetable farm, bio-based substances recovered from waste are being utilized to prevent oxidative spoilage in food packaging or provide environmentally-friendly and safe water-repellent coatings on functional textiles. In the EVOBIO project coordinated by Fraunhofer IGB, 19 Fraunhofer Institutes are working on solutions for a sustainable economy by developing new concepts that utilize material flows in bioeconomy process cycles to produce optimized materials for innovative products.

Mobile, distributed systems that provide medical care to the public can be a crucial addition to the existing healthcare infrastructure in crises and emergencies such as the current Corona pandemic. Six of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s institutes have joined forces under the lead management of the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg and are developing an integrated system for mobile, distributed medical care in the Demo-medVer project. What makes it special is that all of the complete system’s components are modularized, are closely interconnected, and complement each other. A functional prototype is intended to be built by the end of next year.

From November 16 to 20, the "Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020", the international congress for bioeconomy, took place as a digital event. Fraunhofer IGB and CBP participated in the conference in two workshops.

17 project partners from academia and industry have joined forces in the Bio2Brain network to investigate efficient administration routes of biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). The challenge is an endogenous defence system that normally protects the CNS from unwanted substances. The downside, however, is that commercial or even potential drugs cannot readily cross this barrier. In order to respond to this challenge, the Bio2Brain network will pursue more effective approaches and develop new paradigms for drug delivery technologies in the treatment of CNS diseases.

To ensure that sepsis patients receive appropriate antibiotics as quickly as possible, Fraunhofer IGB researchers have developed a diagnostic procedure that uses high-throughput sequencing of blood samples and delivers results much faster than conventional culture-based techniques. Thanks to the latest single-molecule sequencing techniques, this process has now been further improved so that pathogens can be identified after just a few hours. The basic methodology is currently being tested in a multi-center study with several hundred patients.

The TRIANKLE research consortium composed of 12 partners from 5 European countries and counts with a EU funding of €5.9M will provide fabrication of personalized implants for injured tendons or cartilages. Fraunhofer IGB will formulate and develop collagen- and gelatine-based bio-inks needed for 3D printing the personalised implants while the IGVP at the University of Stuttgart will research the bio-ink crosslinking chemistry and 3D-printing of bio-inks.

Germany generates around 38 kilograms of plastic waste per capita each year. In a joint project with the University of Stuttgart and LCS Life Cycle Simulation, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB and the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV are now working to establish a holistic concept for the sustainable use of biologically degradable packaging materials in the cosmetics industry. The project is focusing on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), which have similar properties to conventional plastics but are produced from microorganisms and without the use of fossil-based raw materials.

Infections pose an increasing risk to hospitalized patients. In collaboration with a number of partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB has developed a new therapeutic approach as part of the InnateFun project. Their strategy is to improve cells’ ability to defend themselves against harmful microorganisms by acting on their immune receptors. The researchers’ work on this therapeutic approach has reached the animal model stage. Models for infections of fungi of the genus Candida, which is also common in hospitals, were analyzed. The preliminary results are promising.

Time for climate protection is pressing. One approach to tackle this challenge is to use the greenhouse gas CO₂ as a raw material for chemicals. To this end, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, together with partners from science and industry, has pursued a new path in the EU-funded project CELBICON. The researchers were able to produce a value-added terpenoid dye from CO₂ adsorbed from air by a combination of electrochemical and biotechnological conversion.

As a predominantly arid country, South Africa faces the enormous challenge of managing existing resources sustainably. In addition to the scarce water resources, South Africa also faces energy shortages within a system that is dominated by fossil fuel generation, as well as challenges with regard to food security. Stellenbosch University and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have now established the "Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus at Stellenbosch University" as part of a strategic partnership. The objective of this long-term cooperation is to jointly develop tailored technological and cross-sectoral solutions for water, energy and food security – for the benefit of people and the environment.