The 4th symposium in the established Digital Implant Innovation Forum series took place on November 28. The focus was on model systems, imaging, data science and medical device testing. High-caliber speakers from industry and science offered exciting insights. The innovative "Human-on-a-Chip" technology platform, which enables unique preclinical insights at a systems biology level, was presented to the audience. In addition, numerous other highly interesting topics such as energy generation for medical implants, imaging and regeneration of organoids through to the 7 steps of MDR compliance were discussed, which enriched the representatives from science and industry alike.
We are looking forward to the next event in this series, which is planned for summer 2025.
Pictures: Kai Jüncke
Researchers in cardiothoracic, transplantation and vascular surgery from NIFE presented their latest scientific findings at the first Hannover Organ Transplant Summit, which took place on November 21 and 22, 2024 at the Medical Park Hannover.
With presentations and posters from several NIFE working groups, our researchers contributed to the discussion of current challenges and innovative solutions in organ transplantation.
The Hannover Organ Transplant Summit brought together international experts who are working together to address the shortage of donor organs and promote interdisciplinary exchange between clinicians and scientists.
The main topics were:
- Organ shortage and marginal donor organs
- Transplantation oncology
- Immunological approaches to saving organs
- Graft remodeling - what's next?
- Xenotransplantation - Are we ready for implementation?
Further information can be found at:
https://www.hannover-transplant-summit.org/
https://www.mhh.de/aktuelles-aus-dem-transplantationszentrum/hannover-transplant-summit-2024
Picture: Anna Junge
iGEM Competition 2024: Students at Leibniz University Hannover receive gold medal for development that could help prevent antibiotic resistance
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotic resistance could cause ten million deaths a year by 2050. A key driver of this resistance is the contamination of water with antibiotics and heavy metals; both promote the emergence of multi-resistant bacteria. A team of students at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) has now developed a fluorescent biosensor at NIFE that efficiently detects antibiotic and heavy metal contamination in water. The biosensor could help to detect even minor contamination at an early stage. The LUH team's achievement was awarded a gold medal at the international iGEM 2024 competition.
LUH students from the Biology, Physics, Molecular Microbiology and Plant Biotechnology degree programs worked together for a year on the "Hydro Guardians" project, which aims to tackle the urgent problem of antimicrobial resistance.
The cellular biosensor developed combines elements from prokaryotic (without cell nucleus) and eukaryotic cells (with cell nucleus) and uses specific biological mechanisms for detection: integration of the so-called PASTA domain (a penicillin-binding protein) enables the detection of a specific group of antibiotics, while the transcription factor MTF-1 (Metal-responsive Transcription Factor-1) recognizes heavy metals such as cadmium, zinc and copper. When antibiotics bind, the PASTA domain activates a signaling cascade that leads to a fluorescent signal, which in turn indicates the presence of these pollutants. For heavy metals, the reaction is triggered by the activation of metal homeostasis genes, which also generates fluorescence and enables reliable measurement.
By integrating various spectroscopic measurements and a comprehensive model that simulates the interactions between antibiotics, heavy metals and multi-resistant bacteria in water bodies, the team is contributing to the understanding of water pollution. The mathematical model makes it possible to adjust parameters such as the concentration of pollutants and environmental factors, allowing long-term effects of water pollution to be analyzed.
However, the project did not only take place within the laboratory: The team from Hanover interviewed experts from the fields of wastewater treatment, environmental microbiology and healthcare. This collaboration supported the development of a practical and application-oriented design. The students also wrote a book for children to raise awareness of the problem of antibiotic resistance at an early age. The team members have now been awarded the iGEM Gold Medal for their work.
The iGEM competition is a global event in the field of synthetic biology that enables students to develop innovative solutions to social challenges. The acronym iGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machine. Every year, more than 450 teams from all over the world come together in Paris to present novel projects that offer far-reaching solutions to challenges in the fields of health, the environment and technology.
This extensive research and development work by the LUH team was recognized by the jury with a gold medal for excellence in synthetic biology. In addition, the team was nominated for the "Best New Basic Part Award" for the development of a novel antibiotic-sensitive promoter. The performance of team member Davin Höllmann, who achieved second place at the iGEM Hackathon for the development of a Human Practices Maturity Model Toolkit, also deserves special mention. The project was realized with the support of the "Principal Investigators" Prof. Dr. Alexander Heisterkamp and PD Dr. Stefan Kalies, as well as the "Instructors" Lara Gentemann, Niklas Rüprich, Anna E. Seidler and Sören Donath. The scientists of the Biophotonics Group at the Institute of Quantum Optics supported the students in all project phases and made it possible for them to use the laboratories of the Biophotonics Group at NIFE.
The following LUH students were involved in the "Hydro Guardian" project: Leon Kasperek, Lisa Marie de Sousa Miranda, Davin Höllmann, Jan Schimansky, Vanessa Bruhn, Jan Niklas Gelhoet, Jule Kiel, Lara Patyk, Emilie Baron, Aylin Talu, Céline Beckhausen, Kristina Bittroff, Nico Kowitz, Veronika Marx, Elena Zukina, Karlina Mundin, Jules Pourtawaf and Milena Müller.
Click here for the project page.
Text: Milena Müller
International cooperation in cutting-edge medicine: Renowned surgeon Prof. Dr. Borys Todurov reports on how transplant programs in Ukraine are continued under the most difficult conditions. He and his team are undergoing further training at the MHH.
Organ transplants have been saving people's lives and improving their quality of life for many years. They have also been part of medical care in Ukraine for more than 20 years. In 2019, the renowned surgeon Prof. Dr. Borys Todurov, Director of the Kiev Heart Institutewill perform the first heart transplant on a child in Ukraine. This development has been severely jeopardized since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Until November 17, 2024, Professor Todurov and four Ukrainian specialists will be guests at the Transplant Center of the Hannover Medical School (MHH)to train in surgical techniques and the use of modern equipment. At the MHH, one of the largest transplant centers in Europe, there is extensive expertise in organ preservation and the transplantation of heart, lungs, liver, kidney and pancreas. Some of the organ perfusions are also carried out at NIFE.
"The MHH initiative shows what is possible when excellent medical research and humanitarian commitment come together," says Dr. Andreas Philippi, Lower Saxony's Minister for Social Affairs, Labour, Health and Equality. "At a time when international solidarity is more important than ever, Hannover is sending a strong signal - for knowledge transfer, for cooperation and for cohesion in Europe."
The transplant programs in Ukraine are continuing under the most difficult conditions. Heart transplants are particularly affected because the time window between organ removal and transplantation can only be four to five hours. "Due to the war, we can no longer transport the organs by helicopter. The transportation time for the organs by land is too long," reports Professor Todurov. "We have therefore removed some seats from the back of a bus to transport our seriously ill patients, our team and our equipment to the donor hospital. We bring the patients back to Kyiv for intensive care. We do our work, even when it's dangerous."
"For each operation, a driver, the surgeon and two assistant doctors, two anesthetists, a perfusionist and a nurse travel through the war-ravaged country," Professor Todurov continues. "As the clinics and hospitals throughout the country do not have the special equipment for a heart transplant, the team brings equipment and materials with them. The bus has space for four boxes per service as well as a bypass machine, a heart-lung machine, heating and cooling devices, perfusion systems, monitors and surgical equipment."
"Heart transplantation in times of war is an enormous achievement," praises the Director of the MHH Clinic for Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Prof. Dr. Arjang Ruhparwar. "Professor Todurov and his team already visited our clinic in 2020 and gained insights, particularly in the surgical field of heart and lung transplantation, intensive care and aftercare. In the meantime, close contact has been established with the MHH on both the clinical and research side, especially with the Institute of Transplant Immunology."
In the summer, the transport van was in danger of breaking down. Prof. Dr. Christine Falk, Director of the Institute of Transplantation Immunology, organized a fundraising campaign for a new trolley and personally drove the bus to the Heart Institute in Kyiv with a humanitarian aid transport. "Our personal contact has resulted in a joint research project to extend the transportation times of donor hearts and thus avoid transporting patients. Todurov's team is currently testing special cool boxes for blood products for the transportation of donor hearts, which enable constant and controlled cooling. My team is researching the immunological effects of this method on the damage caused to heart tissue during transportation."
"Organ preservation and perfusion is a highly topical issue in transplant medicine," explains Prof. Dr. Moritz Schmelzle, Director of the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery and Head of the Transplant Center. "The joint research project is part of the R-CUBE excellence initiative, which focuses on the regeneration, repair and replacement of organs. Organ preservation is also the central topic of our Hannover Transplant Summit, which will take place in the Medical Park on November 21 and 22, 2024."
The visit of Professor Todurov's team is supported by the MHH Transplant Center and the Volkswagen Foundation.
The aid deliveries were supported by colleagues from clinics in Hanover, including Dr. Martin Schott, Dr. Dirk Hahne, Dr. André Gottschalk, DIAKOVERE Friederikenstift, as well as Mariya Maksymtsiv and Pastor Roman Maksymtsiv from the parish of St. Volodymyr in Hanover.
The "Hannover Organ Transplant Summit 2024 - Current Trends in Translational Research" will take place on November 21 and 22, 2024. At the symposium, experts from MHH and from Germany and abroad will present current research findings on topics including transplant oncology, graft remodeling and xenotransplantation. The conference venue is the Rotunda in the Medical Park Hannover.
More information: https://www.hannover-transplant-summit.org
Text: Inka Burow
The Institute for Biomedical Translation (IBT) aims to translate cutting-edge biomedical research into clinical practice. To this end, the IBT has awarded start-up funding of more than 1.6 million euros in the second funding round. Nine research projects took part in the final round of the competition for the funding, and the jury has now selected two winners. One of them is the Bacta Implants project led by Dr. Verena Scheper, a scientist at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology (ENT) at Hannover Medical School (MHH). Together with her team, she is developing implants for the treatment of hearing disorders. The project is now being supported by the IBT with around 770,000 euros over two years. "This funding enables us to conduct a clinical study to prove that our idea works," says PD Dr. Scheper. MHH President Professor Dr. Michael Manns is also delighted with the success: "The translation of cutting-edge clinical research into application is the driving force for better patient care. The IBT accelerates this transfer as an incubator through start-up funding."
Bacta Implants enables the targeted delivery of active substances to areas of the body that are difficult to access. The first goal of the platform technology is to combat hearing loss. Using 3D printing with a bio-plotter, an elastic implant is created from silicone that contains an active ingredient to combat hearing loss and is precisely adapted to the individual patient's anatomy. The implant can be inserted directly into the so-called round window niche, which connects the middle ear with the inner ear, via a small incision in the eardrum under local anesthetic. Until now, sudden hearing loss has been treated with tablets or injections. The problem with this is that only a small proportion of the active ingredients used reach the inner ear. Therefore, either the healing effect is too low or the dose must be so high that undesirable side effects occur. "Both can be avoided with our implant because the active ingredient does not have to take a detour and can be targeted to the right place," emphasizes PD Dr. Scheper.
The round window implant (RNI) has already been effectively tested on patients with sudden hearing loss in individual treatment trials. However, before PD Dr. Scheper and her two colleagues from the ENT clinic can set up their own company and put their innovative development into practice, the team must prove in a clinical trial that the RNI actually delivers the drug to the inner ear. "This first study is a prerequisite for us to be able to conduct a registration study," says the scientist. Now she and her colleagues are delighted that the prize money from the IBT start-up competition will provide them with the financial means to prove this.
Three projects each from the MHH, the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) took part in the second round of the Institute for Biomedical Translation (IBT) Lower Saxony competition. In addition to the Bacta Implants project, the HZI project PROTON convinced the jury. It is developing a technology to prevent dangerous bacterial infections and will receive funding of around 890,000 euros.
Service:
The press release of the IBT you will find here.
More information can be obtained from PD Dr. Verena Scheper, scheper.verena@mh-hannover.de.
Text: Kirsten Pötzke
20 children spent an exciting Future Day at the Lower Saxony Center for Biomedical Engineering and Implant Research on 25.04.2024, where they gained fascinating insights into the world of implant research. Among other things, the students learned how cells can help deaf patients, how light gets into cells and how blood can be better preserved. Just like last year, we were able to provide a program for Ukrainian students. It was an inspiring experience for everyone involved!
From Bärbel Hilbig
People with hearing problems are quickly isolated, cut off from conversations, also because those around them may not even be aware of their impairment. How hearing impaired people can hear again or simply hear better is the major topic of the researchers in the Lower Saxony Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all". Hannover Medical School (MHH) is focusing on improvements to hearing implants.
One example: cochlear implants are an established technique for helping people with moderate to complete hearing loss. The electronic hearing prosthesis is surgically embedded in the skull bone behind the ear. "The most challenging step is to insert the attached electrode into the sensitive structure in the inner ear so that it then hangs freely in the cochlea," reports research group leader Thomas Rau. This has to be done very carefully.
This is because a minimal injury could result in the patient losing their residual hearing. "Some patients therefore decide against an operation," says employee Georg Böttcher-Rebmann.
Until now, surgeons have had to rely on their instincts when inserting the thin and flexible electrode. However, the resistance they have to react to can hardly be felt. Georg Böttcher-Rebmann has developed a tool with a force sensor that measures the forces acting on the implant. The prototype is now being tested in a clinical trial with patients.
The "Hearing4all" Cluster of Excellence is led by the University of Oldenburg, with the MHH and Leibniz University also playing a major role. In Hanover alone, 15 working groups are conducting research directly in the network, with others cooperating. At Leibniz University, for example, chemists are developing coatings for cochlear implants that store anti-inflammatory drugs and release them after surgery.
The federal and state governments have been paying 55 million euros for seven years since 2019, 23 million of which will go to Hanover. MHH has also raised almost 15 million euros in additional funding since then.
Source reference: HAZ from 02.04.2024, page 11
Picture: Tim Schaarschmidt
Working groups from the Lower Saxony Center for Biomedical Engineering and Implant Research were present at the Health Weeks in Aufhof to give citizens an insight into their research work and impart knowledge. Through interactive presentations and informative discussions, the working groups succeeded in making the complex topic of biomedical engineering and implant research understandable and tangible. Visitors had the opportunity to find out about the latest developments and technologies and ask questions, resulting in a lively exchange between scientists and the public. The event helped to emphasize the importance of these research areas for people's health and well-being and to promote understanding of them among the general public.
Cover picture: ©Karin Kaiser/MHH
On 30.1.24 the 3rd event in the series 'Digital Implant Innovation Forum' took place very successfully at the NIFE, an event with 12 lectures on all aspects of tissue engineering (TE) as well as poster publications by individual groups in and around the NIFE.
Prof. Holger Blume and Prof. Meike Stiesch were present on behalf of the NIFE Board of Directors, while the President of the MHH, Prof. Manns, gave a welcoming address at lunchtime, emphasizing the multidisciplinary research work of the NIFE and in particular its value for the high-quality training of young female scientists. The TE is ultimately subject to the same "harsh conditions" as human or animal transplants, with high quality requirements in terms of function, strategies for maintaining function and immunological compatibility in the recipient. The event, which was very successful and packed with presentations, also covered topics from basic research on new possibilities for autologous cell harvesting and expansion from various body cell niches and immunogenic masking to prevent rejection, as well as very innovative possibilities for oxygen or pH monitoring in or on tissue, and completely new implant concepts such as carbon nanotubes for heart muscle support or energy harvesting in the body. Some of the new developments presented could potentially enable a quantum leap in the manufacture of implants, such as high-resolution 3D printing in scaffold production, supported by technical developments at bioprinter manufacturers and intelligent engineering innovations. The research team at NIFE came into close contact with other researchers from LUH and MHH as well as TU Dresden and with representatives of smaller and larger companies. In an exciting panel discussion, they discussed how results from TE research activities in Germany and Europe can be quickly transferred to industry and clinical applications and what hurdles, including financial ones, need to be overcome. Finally, the invited panelists were asked to summarize their motivation for the transfer of new TE products to industry and clinics for the R&D community. The following quote from Dr. Teepe, CellTro, (spin-off, Dresden) was a good example of this "Think big - and never give up!".
We are looking forward to the next event in this series, which is planned for fall 2024.
Man receives customized 3D-printed implant that also delivers medication
For the first time, the ENT clinic The team at Hannover Medical School (MHH) provided an adult patient with a customized implant for the external auditory canal. The implant is manufactured using 3D printing and is also designed to continuously and locally release an active ingredient to accelerate healing. "We have thus opened the door to innovative and pioneering patient care," explains ENT Clinic Director Professor Dr. Thomas Lenarz. The MHH is the first clinic in the world to produce an implant adapted to the patient's individual anatomy using the Desktop Health 3D bioplotter and to functionalize it by adding active ingredients.
The patient now fitted with the implant suffered from a recurring narrowing of the ear canal, which had been surgically treated several times without the desired success. The specially manufactured implant now enables both a stent function and drug delivery. "The first follow-up has already been very promising," reports PD Dr. Verena Scheper, whose team at the ENT Clinic's Pharmacology of the Inner Ear department designed the implant and manufactured it using the 3D bioplotter Manufacturer Series.
This treatment is an individual treatment attempt, as the patient has not been treated with conventional options. Funding is provided by the motivated ENT clinic.
The ENT Clinic at the MHH is internationally renowned for the world's largest cochlear implant program for the care of patients with hearing loss. The first CI operation was performed here in 1984. The German Hearing Center Hannover was opened in 2003. To date, the clinic has provided more than 11,111 patients with cochlear implants. The clinic also specializes in the provision and further development of hearing aids, the early detection of childhood hearing loss and the diagnosis and treatment of sensorineural hearing loss, including tinnitus.
Text: Daniela Beyer
Published under: https://www.mhh.de/presse-news/mhh-setzt-weltweit-erstes-innovatives-implantat-in-gehoergang-ein
As part of this year's Knowember der Wissenschaft, NIFE and the SIIRI Collaborative Research Center organized an interesting journey through the fascinating world of biomedical engineering and implant research. Visitors experienced insightful insights, immersed themselves in innovative research projects and learned more about the latest developments in the field. The event was extremely successful and the positive feedback from participants reflects the enthusiasm for the groundbreaking work of the researchers at NIFE.
We are looking forward to the Knowember of Science 2025, NIFE and SIIRI will be there again!
