Press releases

With its rapid spread around the world, the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has triggered a public health emergency of international concern. To date, there is neither a vaccine nor drugs for treating COVID-19 patients available. Researchers of the international consortium iCAIR® are working on the development of novel anti-infective agents to treat or prevent clinically significant diseases of the respiratory tract caused by viruses, fungi and bacteria – and they recently started a project aimed at developing medications to combat the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Resistance to antibiotics is on the rise worldwide. Fraunhofer scientists have joined forces with partners in the Phage4Cure project to explore alternatives to antibiotics. One objective is to vanquish multidrug-resistant pathogens with viruses called bacteriophages. Another is to see these phages approved to treat the dreaded hospital germ Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the most frequent bacterial cause of pneumonia.

Winter is influenza season. In the northern hemisphere, cases of this infectious disease peak between November and March, and fatalities are not uncommon. Influenza vaccines can protect against the illness, but they aren’t always effective. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the vaccines for 2018/2019 were only about 20 percent effective. In the iCAIR® project, Fraunhofer researchers are collaborating with partners to develop new, urgently needed agents against influenza, as well as against other infectious diseases that are gaining ground worldwide. What is particularly interesting here is that the research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM can test the anti-infective agents in vital human lung slices.

Making novel therapeutics safer: Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM participates in an EU project to develop innovative model systems for the evaluation of immunomodulatory therapeutics

Funded with 8.3 million euros over a period of five years, a platform shall be developed to support small and medium-sized manufacturers of medical devices in the conformity assessment of their products. This will include development of three demonstrator technologies in the fields of inhalers, neural implants, and coatings for hip replacement implants.

In the project Fraunhofer iCAIR, scientists are breaking new paths in the development of anti-infective therapies: for efficacy testing of new drug candidates, they use, for example, human precision-cut lung slices (PCLS).

Aiming to support European med-tech companies in the global competition, the EU has initiated the project TBMED – An Open-Innovation Test Bed for the Development of High-Risk Medical Devices. Together with 12 project partners from Spain, France, Ireland and Germany, Fraunhofer ITEM is actively participating in the development of a test bed for medical devices of risk classification IIb and higher. The project will receive 8.5 million euros funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program and will run until the end of February 2023.

Premature babies who are born before their lungs have finished maturing often suffer from a lack of surfactant – a substance necessary for lung development. They are also particularly susceptible to illnesses of the respiratory organ, which have to be treated by means of inhalation. However, the inhalation systems available are not geared to the needs of preterm infants and newborns. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM are working with partners to develop a system that would allow drugs to be administered as aerosols in an efficient and breath-triggered manner. This would shorten therapy duration, thereby easing the strain on little bodies.

On November 8, 2018, 16 Australian researchers visited Fraunhofer ITEM as part of the InnoTour 2018. In addition to lectures on the “Integration of Human Tissue for Research and Development”, the guests were offered guided tours through the clinical research center CRC Hannover, which gave the Australian visitors an insight into the state of the art of in-vitro toxicology and ex-vivo methods.

Hip and dental implant operations are routine. But not entirely risk-free. They may result in infection that is difficult to control with oral or intravenous antibiotics. In such cases, the implant will probably need to be replaced. Fraunhofer researchers can now apply a precisely matched drug directly to the replacement implant while significantly increasing the effectiveness of the antibiotic via a synergism with silver ions. Their research will be on display at the MEDICA and COMPAMED trade fairs in Düsseldorf from November 12 to 15, 2018 (Hall 8a, Booth P13).