Ministerium für Wirtschaft des Landes Brandenburg and European Union

Processes and equipment for non-invasive intravital diagnostics are developed in the R&D department at Luckenwalde using innovative technologies from the area of biophotonics. These new procedures and machines will be used in monitoring of birth, diagnostics of cardiovascular diseases and diagnostics of dementia like M. Alzheimer. The project ‚Hochsensitives Messverfahren zur gleichzeitigen Detektion verschiedener Parameter am Patientengehirn’ (carried out from January 2008 till December 2009) is supported by the Ministry of Economics of the Federal State of Brandenburg and the European Union.

Across Barriers GmbH, Saarbrücken

The  collaboration with the Across Barriers GmbH, Saarbrücken (www.acrossbarriers.de) supplements the product portfolio with respect to the characterization of active ingredients.

In-vitro models for drug and formulation characterization

This biotechnology company founded in 1998, provides new in-vitro methods for drug and formulation characterization as a service for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical industry.  It specializes in in-vitro models of cell and tissue systems that simulate the transport of substances and their formulations across biological barriers and so allow early conclusions about the permeability.  In combination with analysis and physicochemical characterization, it provides all the testing methods for the classification of active substances according to the BCS directive of the FDA.

Promising or less suitable substances can be distinguished with high capacity and speed already at an early stage of drug development. The in vitro models also allow a classification of formulations which are administered via novel dosage forms such as aerosols for inhalation or transdermal methods.

Service from preclinical development up to application in vivo

By working together, the two companies can offer a complete package for the pharmaceutical industry, which includes the complete preclinical development and characterization of new drugs up to their application in vivo. In addition, the merger offers synergy potential in areas like research and development to support customers even better in their drug and formulation development.

AEROPATH is an ambitious interdisciplinary research program with the aim of combating multi-drug resistant bacteria. It is part of the Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development of the European Union. Multidrug-resistant hospital pathogens represent a major threat to the public health. The project AEROPATH focuses on Pseudomonas aeruginosa (the project title is derived from P. aeruginosa pathogenesis), which accounts for a significant proportion of hospital-acquired infections and has a mortality rate of around 50% of patients at risk. The main objective is the development of new drugs that are effective against P. aeruginosa, and hopefully other resistant species.

Within this project mfd diagnostics GmbH has the task of testing the pathogens for their pathogenicity in an in vivo experiment and the newly developed antibiotics for their mode of action against the bacteria and the host organism (overview-poster).

Here you can learn more about this project: www.aeropath.eu

NANOTOME is a joint project of the BMBF-funded project Biophotonics: a multidisciplinary programme to the development of optical solutions for biological and medical questions. NANOTOME stands for Nanoscale imaging data entry and manipulation of single cells. A high-precision microscope system for biologists and physicians is to be realized, which allows both the detection and the manipulation of cellular and subcellular structures.

In this joint project  the part of mfd Diagnostics GmbH is to explore the disease mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease using sub-cellular and extracellular changes in different stages of the disease. Using the collected data profiles and patterns are created that represent a very fine signature of the disease at different stages in the light of changing external influences. Based on these results targeted therapies and appropriate therapies can be developed that are much more efficient and present fewer side effects and allow the control of the causative disease.

You can get more information under www.biophotonik.org.