Skin models as an alternative to animal testing

A Fraunhofer start-up aims to significantly reduce animal testing with skin models grown from human stem cells

05-Jun-2024 - Animal testing has long been a fixture of medical and pharmaceutical research, but alternative methods are growing more and more important. Innovative methods allow for research aimed directly at humans — without using animal testing as an intermediate step. TigerShark Science, a planned ...

Innovative bioreactor research processes and cryotechnologies improve active ingredient tests using human cell cultures

This is paving the way for efficient real-world use of these cell cultures in toxicity testing and drug discovery

06-May-2024 - Many new drug candidates end up failing because they cause serious side effects in clinical trials. This is a common occurrence if the cells used come from animal tissue, for example. Specially prepared cell cultures made from human tissue known as human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells ...

With AI and lasers to fully automated cell selection

Continuous movement versus stop-and-go process

14-Mar-2024 - Tests on living cell cultures are becoming increasingly important for personalized medicine, drug development and clinical research. The Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Laser Technology ILT and for Production Technology IPT have developed an AI-assisted high-throughput process that now ...

Designer immune cells for drug discovery, potency and safety testing

Precise therapeutics testing — preventing animal testing

07-Dec-2022 - To prevent testing on animals and create even more precise ways of testing therapeutics, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly turning to human immune cells. However, the availability of cells like these has been limited to date. Now, Fraunhofer researchers have succeeded in scaling the ...

Stem cells from the bioreactor

Process for the mass production

05-Nov-2021 - With the aid of artificial stem cells, it will soon be possible to establish new treatments for previously incurable diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. At the Fraunhofer Project Center for Stem Cell Process Engineering SPT, a process for the mass production of these so called induced ...

Cell-based fish from the bioreactor

Alternative to fishing –

06-Aug-2021 - Already about 90 percent of all fish stocks are considered maximally exploited or overfished. But as the world's population continues to grow, more and more people rely on fish as a source of protein. Bluu GmbH – a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Research and Development Center for Marine and Cellular ...

Hard-magnetic coatings for high-precision microscopy

Examination of minuscule cell structures in precise detail and at great speed

07-Jan-2021 - Microscopy is at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus. Special microscopes, which enable scientists to view minute cell structures, are an indispensable tool in the development of vaccines and new therapies. Such equipment comprises not only a microscope with high optical resolution ...

New Process for Marker-free Cell Selection

08-Mar-2018 - At this year’s analytica trade fair in Munich, three Fraunhofer Institutes will be presenting a project from pre-competitive research. Biologists, computer scientists and laser experts have developed a process to analyze and select cells and then examine their protein production. In ...

Fast, personalized therapy choices through light-based cell sorting

04-Apr-2016 - Cells and biomolecules circulating in our blood carry diagnostic information that, when analyzed, present a key for highly effective tailored therapy concepts. In order to unlock this information, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT have developed AnaLighter, a ...

Highly automated live cell imaging speeds up the search for new drugs

10-Sep-2014 - Fraunhofer FIT will present the latest version of its Zeta Fluorescence Image Analysis software at MipTec. Zeta, now extended to a software platform, supports the complete work process of finding new pharmaceutical agents. At MipTec, Fraunhofer FIT will demo advanced Zeta applications in cancer ...