Technology Offerings

Carotenoids are widely used, i.e. in the food and cosmetics industries for coloring and as scavengers. They can be extracted from plant material or produced chemically. The trend is to establish biotechnological processes but so far the yields are often too low. The application of a novel process for the cultivation Blakeslea trispora results in high yields of carotenoids.

Subject of this innovation is a silver-free paste for establishing contacts in solar cells with nickel, nickel compounds or titanium instead of silver.
The process involves the local opening of the dielectric layer at moderate temperatures, thereby allowing the nickel particles in the paste to form nickel silicide with the surface of the silicon substrate. The high-energy-step of firing the silver contacts with glass frit can be dispensed with.
Furthermore, it is possible to strengthen the nickel layer with copper or tin to increase the electrical conductivity of the contacts still further.

The invention provides a novel predictive biomarker to help identify the patient population with the most
favorable clinical outcome to angiogenesis-targeted treatment in mCRC patients. Experiments revealed that patients with low pretherapeutic Ang-2 serum levels
receiving a bevacizumab-containing treatment were associated with a better Response rate compared to patients with high pretherapeutic Ang-2 levels. Additionally to a reduced risk of death (>90%) patients with low pretherapeutic Ang-2 levels showed a
significant increase in progression-free survival (up to five months).

Alexander Disease (AxD) is a rare fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is attributed to mutations in glial fubrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Clinically, AxD is considered a type of leukoencephalopathy sometimes characterized by demyelination of the central nervous system (CNS) and the formation of GFAP-containing Rosenthal fibers in astrocytes.

While it has been shown that GFAP mutations cause AxD, the exact pathomechanism is still unknown and there is still no accepted line of treatment.

The present invention provides a new approach for AxD therapy based on the newly indentified role of GFAP in the unconventional secretory pathway (USP).

Raman marker as a novel labeling reagent for the selective detection of biomolecules. Their use provides three key benefits: simultaneous detection of many different target molecules, high sensitivity and quantification of the detected biomolecules

A newly developed kite system allows to alter the line length while kite surfing by around 80% of the line length. This enables new kitesurf scenarios. Due to limited shore space kitesurfer may start with short lines and bring them full length later on the water. Furthermore, while surfing, the line length can be adjusted to wind conditions. After landing, the lines can be drawn in directly avoiding winding in and tangling of leashes.