In the Elevator Pitches ideas competition at the first “Network Value” Fraunhofer symposium on December 7 to 8, 2010, IGB employee Jacqueline Pusch was placed third out of 320 participants on the first day with her idea “Plaster for Intestinal Walls.” The plaster is intended to facilitate employing the new, minimally invasive NOTES surgery technique (natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery) for operations in the abdominal cavity via the mouth. This would enable doctors performing surgery on internal organs to switch from the risky laparotomy procedure that involves making an incision in the abdominal wall.

At present it is not possible to gain operative access to the abdominal cavity via the stomach or intestinal wall for two reasons. Firstly, suitable endoscopic instruments do not exist. And secondly, there is no safe method by which the incision through the stomach or intestinal wall necessary for the operation can be sealed again. Sealing is vital in order to prevent gastric acid and bacteria escaping into the abdominal cavity and causing fatal infections. The simplest solution would be a plaster that could be applied to the incision directly after surgery from the inside – before the instruments have been completely withdrawn via the mouth. Such a plaster could be made of collagenous proteins such as those present in the intestinal matrix and be produced with the aid of the electrospinning technique.

The subject of Marc Panas’ diploma thesis at the IGVT (in cooperation with the Fraunhofer IGB) was the manufacture and characterization of amino- and carboxy-functionalized nano- or microstructured glass surfaces as well as the investigation of their interactions with primary human keratinocytes. The thesis was honored by the Association of Friends of the University of Stuttgart in 2009 as an outstanding piece of research conducted in Faculty 4 (Energy Technology, Process Engineering and Biological Engineering).

An award in the Tissue Engineering section of the BP Young Scientists & Students Award (BP YSSP), worth US $1,500, went to Xin Xiong for his doctoral research in the Fraunhofer IGB’s Molecular Biotechnology Department. The award ceremony took place at the 13th International Biotechnology Symposium (IBS) from October 12-17, 2008 in Dalian, China.

For her Masters degree thesis, Jacqueline Michaelis from Fraunhofer IGB succeeded in building a tumor test system with blood vessels in the form of a dynamic 3D tissue system. As well as tumor cells, it also contains endothelial cells which line the blood vessels. This model is much nearer to the natural situation than previous models since the endothelial cells act as a barrier to potential tumor drugs.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer IGB are investigating the production of artificial tissue. In his thesis "Development of a bioreactor for use in vascularized tissue engineering", Jan Hansmann made significant progress towards the creation of complex-structured artificial organs.

The third Hugo Geiger Prize was awarded to Elena Lindemann. During her research placement she developed a simple alternative method of gene expression analysis.

If the immune system is weakened, harmless yeast fungi can become a deadly threat: With the aid of various proteins they can penetrate human tissue. In his university thesis Xin Xiong examined how one of these proteins behaves in fungus cells.

In his thesis, which has been awarded the first Hugo-Geiger Prize, Xin Xiong for the first time ascertained the conditions in which the protein Tsa1p, which is important for hyphal growth, is expressed and occurs on the cell surface.

During her research placement at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Silke Kersen built a three-dimensional skin model with capillary-like structures. “Up to now the problem has been to stimulate endothelial cells to form capillary structures in their new artificial environment,” explains the winner of the second Hugo-Geiger Prize. “But in the correct mixture with growth factors and two further cell types that form tissue-supporting substances, a 3D network simply grows – without any additional aids.”

The first contact between the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans and the target cell in humans is through attachment or adhesion, and is controlled by certain proteins. In his thesis Jochen Schwenk investigated exactly these proteins and was awarded the second 2004 Hugo Geiger Prize for his work. Schwenk has developed a two-stage process that allows these proteins to be isolated from the cell wall and subsequently to be analyzed. He identified a total of 14 different cell wall proteins, including a previously unknown one.

Kathrin Zeller was awarded a 2003 Max Buchner Prize for her degree thesis work in using a resistance chip to show spot mutations. The graduate of the European Fresenius University in Idstein tested a DNA chip with which (based on the allele-specific primer extension) individually mutated DNA bases of a particular resistance gene of the human pathogenic fungus Candida albicans (and therefore resistant germs) can be identified.

Prize of the Max Buchner Research Foundation for Technical Chemistry at Universities

This prize is awarded annually to the five best degree theses in the fields of chemical technology and bio-technology at universities and for degree studies at polytechnic colleges. The assessment criteria are the practical application of basic scientific engineering knowledge, experimental skill and interpretation of the results. This prize has been awarded by DECHEMA e.V. since 1990.

Constantin Urban from the IGB research group
Protein screening systems was awarded on October 24th 2001 for his research on the cell wall of Candida albicans.

In 2000 students of the Fraunhofer IGB were awarded with one 1st and two 2nd prizes.

1st prize:
Dirk Rothenstein, research group Automated Protein Screening Systems (Dr. Steffen Rupp)

2nd prize:
Christoph Dieterich, research group Automated Protein Screening Systems (Dr. Steffen Rupp)

2nd prize:
Marc Schmidt-Supprian, IGB department Molecular Biotechnology / IGVT University ofStuttgart (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bernhagen)

In 1999 two students of IGB were awarded with the Hugo-Geiger-Preis:

1st prize:
Thorsten Ulf Meyer, IGB department Genetic Engineering
(Prof. Dr. Bernd Otto)

2nd prize:
Angelika Spieth, IGB department Chemical Microbiology
(Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Knackmus)