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Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine

Titelbild Jahresbericht

The Fraunhofer ITEM offers contract research on a wide range of human health issues. Last year, the institute celebrated 30 years of successful research, 10 years of clinical research into airway diseases, and the groundbreaking for a new study center for early-phase clinical trials (CRC Hannover) that will be the only medical research center of its kind in Germany. The new center (see picture) is planned to become operable in 2013.

More about the Fraunhofer ITEM

News

  • Assault on the protective shield of bacteria

    Bakterieller Biofilm

    (Feb 10, 2012) A group of researchers is now striving to develop drugs against bacterial biofilms. Biofilms are produced by numerous bacteria to protect themselves against their host's immune defense and against antibiotics that would otherwise destroy them. Severe infections are often accompanied by biofilm formation. The group of researchers, among them also scientists of the Fraunhofer ITEM, is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and by the company Sanofi.

  • Fraunhofer ITEM at SOT 2012

    SOT-2012

    The Fraunhofer ITEM will be strongly represented during this year's Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology. Besides presenting a booth (No. 423), the experts from the Fraunhofer ITEM will welcome visitors to a lunch seminar where the focus will be on nanotoxicology.

  • German Center for Lung Research has been founded

    The German Center for Lung Research (Deutsches Zentrum für Lungenforschung, DZL) has now been founded as a society. In the DZL, scientists and physicians will be collaborating throughout the country to develop novel therapies for lung diseases. At the center's Hannover location, the Fraunhofer ITEM will be participating together with the Hannover Medical School and the Leibniz University.

  • "Nobel prize in cancer reserach" awarded to Regensburg scientist

    Prof. Dr. Christoph Klein

    This year, the renowned Dr. Josef Steiner Prize, also referred to as "Nobel prize in cancer research", has been awarded to the Regensburg scientist Professor Christoph Klein. He is receiving the prize for his basic research into the formation of metastases. Since mid-2011, Professor Klein has been Head of the Fraunhofer Project Group Regensburg, which the Fraunhofer ITEM set up in cooperation with the University of Regensburg.

  • Effects of gases were tested in a lung model: prevalidation of a new method

    To predict health risks from inhalation of gases, researchers to date have to resort largely to animal experiments. In a cooperative research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and coordinated by the Fraunhofer ITEM, an in-vitro test system was explored where the gases are passed over human lung cells. The cluturing method for these cells simulates the air/liquid interface in the lung. (Click below on "more" to read the complete press release by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; available in German only.)

  • Fraunhofer ITEM is participating in two German centers for health research

    Lungenfunktionsmessung

    The Fraunhofer ITEM will participate in two German centers for health research: the German center for pulmonary research and the German center for infection research. The German center for pulmonary research has already started its work.