Press / Publications

SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged at the end of 2019 has caused COVID-19 pandemic with over 3.7 million deaths worldwide, more than 1 million deaths in Europe and about 90.000 deaths in Germany. At the moment, variants originating in very different countries are still spreading rapidly and keeping the world on tenterhooks. We need technologies that are fast, accurate, portable to facilitate detection wherever needed, and do not require expensive, complex laboratory equipment or the expertise of highly skilled people.

Fraunhofer researchers are working as part of an international consortium to develop ammonia-based fuel cells. When used as fuel for ships with electric engines, ammonia is as eco-friendly as hydrogen, but easier and safer to handle. Fraunhofer reports on this in "Research News".

The BMBF-funded project CTCelect is making significant progress in the investigation of isolated circulating tumor cells (CTCs). In an integrated approach including user surveys as well as ethical and legal aspects, the consortium has developed and tested a system for CTC isolation over the last four years, which is robust and easy to use for the user and is based on the patient-friendly collection of a single blood sample. With the help of the development status of the open and thus flexibly applicable CTCelect system validated on real samples, extensive new results in medical research are made possible.

A new type of microreactor for synthesis with Grignard reagents will make reactions faster, safer and also yield a purer product. What’s more, the new microreactor is scalable and can be operated flexibly. Fraunhofer reports on this in "Research News".

As a pioneer in applied research, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft brings together the expertise of 23 separate Fraunhofer facilities to develop new development and production technologies for innovative cell and gene therapeutics, as well as vaccines, in the “Production for Intelligent Medicine” innovation cluster. As a first step of the project, a concept for a modular pilot plant for the automatic production of these therapeutics is to be developed combining both Industry 4.0 and Health 4.0.

Fraunhofer IMM participates in a maritime innovation project looking to install the world’s first high-power fuel cell to be powered by green ammonia on a vessel. The project has been awarded 10 million Euro funding from the European Union.

Launch of a new H2020 project aiming to incite a transition to a more flexible and sustainable chemistry by taking novel integrated upstream and downstream processing paths involving flow chemistry and membrane technology in two chemo-enzymatic processes to an industrial level.

Based on the long term experience in micro fluidics and lab-on-a-chip systems Fraunhofer IMM will develop a microfluidic cartridge which can perform a fully automatic complete sample preparation and all required analytical steps once inserted into the instrument.

The Fraunhofer ICT -IMM Institute and Döhler are collaborating in the development of a new microbiological detection method based on microfluidics.

Fraunhofer ICT-IMM is coordinating a national research cooperation dealing with the development of a microreactor system for the environmentally friendly utilization of CO2 by means of sunlight.