Hanover

Hanover. First classical music, then Suzanne Vega. Music of very different genres is played during the visit of Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan. But the sounds that resound in the laboratories at Medical Park are not part of the entertainment program. Hearing researchers at the Medical School (MHH) led by Prof. Thomas Lenarz demonstrate to the minister on the computer how deaf people with a cochlear implant perceive sounds. With the latest generation of these inner ear implants, which can distinguish up to 120 pitches, it is possible for the first time to recognize music as such, explains private lecturer Andreas Büchner. A healthy human ear can differentiate between more than 5,000 pitches.

Lenarz and his colleagues are working to constantly optimize implants for the hearing impaired. To this end, they have founded the "Vianna" research network in cooperation with industry. This, in turn, is part of the Lower Saxony Center for Biomedical Engineering (NIFE), an extensive network in which around 400 scientists from 36 working groups at the MHH, Leibniz University, the University of Veterinary Medicine (TiHo) and the Hanover Laser Center work together. They are all researching innovative medical and bioimplants of various kinds - the aim being to make them better tolerated and more durable. The spectrum ranges from heart valves grown in the laboratory from the patient's own tissue to bone screws made of metals that dissolve in the body to dental prostheses that are supposed to be resistant to inflammation.

Because the scientists are finally getting a joint 7,000-square-meter research building for their cooperation network, which was established a decade ago, Schavan was a guest at the Medical Park Campus for the first time on Friday. That's because her ministry is paying half of the 54 million euro construction costs (the other half is being borne by the state), and Schavan wanted to see in person whether the money was being well spent. MHH President Dieter Bitter-Suermann, his colleagues from the university and TiHo, Erich Barke and Gerhard Greif, as well as a good dozen professors answered the minister's questions in detail. She also wanted to know details in detail. "What does kyropreservation mean?" she inquired - and learned that it is a special cooling process for biomaterials using liquid nitrogen. At the end of her tour, the research minister gave a thoroughly positive verdict. "You have established a particularly successful and sustainable example of scientific interdisciplinarity here in Hannover," Schavan praised. And she already assured that she would return to the Medical Park in spring 2013 for the opening of the new NIFE building. After all, the next federal election is not until the fall of this year.