Press releases

Julia Penk, degree candidate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI received one of the 2019 Karl Schügerl Awards in recognition of her thesis.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI welcomed Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and Novartis Oncology Germany on Tuesday June 11, 2019.

A test system has been developed at Fraunhofer IZI to assess the health of dairy cows and identify sick animals in the herd at an early stage based on immunological biomarkers in the milk. With the company NovaTec Immundiagnostica GmbH, an industry partner has now been found that will market the test from fall 2019.

On February 20, 2019, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI and the South Korean Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding. By this both institutions confirm their willingness to cooperate in the future.

Producing vaccines is a tricky task – especially in the case of inactivated vaccines, in which pathogens must be killed without altering their structure. Until now, this task has generally involved the use of toxic chemicals. Now, however, an innovative new technology developed by Fraunhofer researchers – the first solution of its kind – will use electron beams to produce inactivated vaccines quickly, reproducibly and without the use of chemicals.

Fraunhofer IZI’s “Molecular Drug Biochemistry and Therapy Development” (MWT) project group was set up in October 2013 to explore and develop new molecular strategies for the treatment of neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases. Over the course of its five-year start-up phase, the group has become a fully-fledged part of the research market and has positioned itself well for the future. Following its evaluation on 10 April 2018, and after a unanimous vote taken by the evaluation committee on 30 November 2018, the off-site department in Halle (Saale) has been included in the regular federal and state financing received by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, safeguarding its future from 1 January 2019.

On October 11, 2018, representatives from Fraunhofer IZI and the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine came together in Yokohama, Japan, on the occasion of the BioJapan 2018 conference, where they signed a memorandum of understanding.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that would not normally affect mice in their natural habitat. Despite this, the animals are indispensable when it comes to Alzheimer’s research. Novel mouse models are required to more clearly display the complex interactions and relations involved in Alzheimer’s disease; models that would lead to a better understanding of the causes and progression of the disease and – it is hoped – that would facilitate the development of promising therapies and would enable the disease to be diagnosed as early as possible. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI have now taken an important step forward in creating more appropriate mouse models. At the beginning of November, the team from Halle (Saale), Germany, attended the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting, where they presented for the very first time their latest advances in the development of new animal models, addressing a wide scientific audience.

In August 2018, a pilot plant for low-energy electron irradiation of liquids was installed and commissioned at Fraunhofer IZI in Leipzig. This plant is designed to contribute to scaling up an innovative procedure for inactivating viruses and other pathogens from laboratory to industrial scale.

On 19 October 2018, the Fraunhofer project center "Microelectronic and Optical Systems for Biomedicine" (MEOS) celebrated its opening in Erfurt, Thuringia, together with top representatives from the fields of politics, science and business. Three Fraunhofer institutes – the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI – will conduct joint research projects into new biomedical applications in this area in future, working closely together with business partners.