In 2017 many exceptional projects from our partners reached important milestones, amongst them potential diagnostics and therapeutics as well as platform technologies e.g. for imaging. We make the successful achievement of these milestones transparent, showing the step-by-step transfer of research results towards application – for the benefit of…
Ascenion has negotiated a licence agreement between Medical School Hannover (MHH) and its spin-off Cardior Pharmaceuticals providing the company with exclusive and comprehensive rights to its lead candidate against heart failure. The licence further consolidates Cardior’s strong IP position in the field and highlights the candidate’s recent…
Ascenion, the knowledge and technology transfer partner of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), has negotiated an agreement with Roche Diagnostics (F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd), providing the company with an option to receive exclusive rights to use proprietary nanoparticles for in-vitro diagnostic applications. The particles were…
Everyone has back pain at some point or other. Between 20 and 30% of Europeans have chronic back pain, and in 5% of these cases the cause is inflammatory rheumatic disease, or spondyloarthritis (SpA). The immune system attacks cartilage and bone tissue, which is not only extremely painful, but can also cause significant damage to the spine and…
Around 400,000 people in Germany suffer a heart attack each year. In a fifth of those affected, this leads to a complex process of restructuring in the heart. In an attempt to compensate for the damage, heart muscle cells grow and enlarge. The heart’s volume increases, but the force with which it pumps decreases. This pathological process can…
In 2017 Ascenion also supported the transfer of EU-financed research projects, for example as a consortium partner on projects in the European research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. Two such cooperations started at the beginning of 2017:
UTILE
11 partners are working together on UTILE to support the commercialization of EU-financed…
The vision of introducing genes into human cells to heal life-threatening diseases is more than 50 years old. Today, the first gene therapies are approved. Transduction – the successful transfer of genes into the target cells via viral shuttle-systems – remains, however, a critical bottle-neck. Frequently only a small proportion of the desired…
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a much-feared hospital germ. It can cause dangerous infections, is extremely resilient, and has acquired multiple resistance as a result of its extensive presence in the hospital environment, so that available antibiotics are frequently ineffective against it. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical…
2016 saw the market launch of a new test from Roche Diagnostics: Elecsys GDF-15. Based on research by Prof. Kai C. Wollert at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) it enables better risk evaluation of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The serum level of GDF-15 can be measured with the test in about 20 minutes. The prognostic significance of…
Funding of EUR 3.5 million was secured in June 2016 by Prof. Reinhard Zeidler and his team at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. The support comes from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Helmholtz Validation Fund (HVF). It will enable the team of scientists and clinicians to advance their innovative approach to…
In September 2016 the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and the WILEX subsidiary Heidelberg Pharma signed an option agreement with the goal of developing a new therapy for the treatment of multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells in bone marrow. Under the terms of the agreement, Heidelberg Pharma will couple MDC antibodies that…
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is characterized by the persistent narrowing of the airways, often leading to difficulties in breathing and panic attacks. In 2016 the innovative respiratory support device Vigaro received CE Mark approval. In contrast to current devices delivering high-intensity ventilation, Vigaro supports inhalation using…
Meningococci, the main pathogens of bacterial meningitis, still cause epidemics in certain regions in the world, for example in Africa and India. There is an effective vaccine, but its production is cumbersome. Up to now, large amounts of the pathogen had to be cultured, from which the required antigens were isolated in several production stages.…
The European Commission has granted approval for Amgen’s BLINCYTO® (blinatumomab) for the treatment of pediatric patients with certain forms of B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
So far, children with relapsed or refractory ALL had limited treatment options beyond chemotherapy. The approval provides them with a new immunotherapy option…
Drug developer Berlin Cures announced the successful completion of its Phase 1 study of its lead candidate BC 007 for the treatment of cardiomyopathy. BC 007 is a DNA-based aptamer compound that binds to and eliminates functional pathogenic autoantibodies targeting the beta-1 adrenoceptor. Even a moderate dose was able to eliminate the…
Boost for the first new tuberculosis vaccine in nearly 100 years
21 August 2018, Munich – Ascenion GmbH, the technology transfer partner of the Helmholtz Institute for Infection Research (HZI), has successfully negotiated the trade sale of the HZI spin-off Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM) to its longstanding partner, Serum Institute of…
