Technology Offerings

Photodynamic tumour therapy (PDT) is a promising minimal-invasive method in the treatment of cancer. PDT is based on a method for the treatment of cancer with light in combination with a so-called  photosensitizer.

In contrast to traditional photosensitisers, the chlorine compounds developed at and patented by the University of Bremen show amphiphilic (both hydrophilic and lipophilic) properties. The combination of lipophilic and non-ionic hydrophilic structure parts enables both good transport properties via the bloodstream and increased accumulation in the tumour tissue.

Due to the synthesis of the novel photosenitisers, exceedingly suitable candidates as active substances have been formed with the potential to improve the photodynamic therapy and its effectiveness. Moreover, the chemical process for the production of these compounds has been improved, enabling for the first time the clinical use of the structurally challenging photosensitisers in an economic way.

Initial experiments to verify the effectiveness have been carried out in vitro. The next step will be the verification in the animal model. We are looking for partner companies interested in the further development of the active substance using the patent.

University of Bremen developed a ceramic coating which comprises a special microstructure based on chemically inert oxide nanoparticles. Furthermore, the ceramic surface has a biofunctional effect due to a lysozyme which adheres to it. This results in a high grade of strength and resistance and has an extremely effective antimicrobial effect.

The new material provides effective surface protection from an environmental and health perspective against abrasion, corrosion and bacterial deposition. It is therefore suitable for use in processes involving the handling and processing of foodstuffs. It offers an alternative to the use of biocides and antibiotics in combating biofilms, and even prevents their formation altogether.
In addition to the antimicrobial effect, the surface provides all the advantages of a ceramic coating: strength, mechanical resilience and chemical inertia. By protecting the surface, this ultimately prolongs the service life of the systems, reduces the amount of cleaning required, and leads to cost-savings. Furthermore, the use of the body’s own lysozymes means that the surface is also suitable for coating implants for preventing contamination during operation.

Laboratory tests were carried out successfully to check the activity of the lysozymes immobilized on the ceramic surface. For that purpose, a continuous flow system was developed in which harsh ambient conditions were simulated using a supply of model microorganisms and aggressive ingredients. The micro-moulding method is universally applicable on a diverse range of surfaces and geometries. The surface must be adjusted and further developed for the relevant application.

RedVersIn provides an expression system that was specifically developed to match the high demands in the production of protein-based biopharmaceuticals in mammalian cells and is perfectly adapted to batch production systems. RedVersIn is also very useful in manufacturing proteins that are otherwise difficult to produce, especially for unstable and sensitive proteins as well as proteins that have cytotoxic or cytostatic properties. RedVersIn excels itself by a proven functionality in several of the industrially established mammalian cell lines and by being tunable and reversible with very fast reaction kinetics. RedVersIn is a reversible optically controlled gene expression system for mammalian cell systems based on the redlight-controlled Phytochrome. It allows an easy and powerful spatiotemporally induction of gene expression in cells, tissues and organisms.

This development allows for wet-chemical production of non-agglomerating nanoparticles (e.g. titanium oxide, zinc oxide) from metal salts. To do so, metal salts are mixed with a reaction and stability reagent. Amorphous or crystalline metal oxide nanoparticles can then be produced depending on the reaction calibration. These can be further processed during dispersion or separated from the solvent. The metal oxide nanoparticles obtained from this can be used in this form or dispersed in another solvent, e.g. water.

Der Schwingungssensor arbeitet mit zwei optischen Sensoren mit Fiber-Bragg-Gittern in Kombination mit einem Biegebalken und einer breitbandigen Lichtquelle. Beim Durchlauf durch die beiden FBG-Sensoren wird die Intensität des optischen Signals in Abhängigkeit der Biegung geändert. Die Intensität des Lichts kann einfach mit einem optischen Detektor gemessen werden. Eine aufwändige Analyse mittels eines
Spektrumanalysators entfällt. Aufgrund der hier gewählten Technologie ist es möglich, Schwingungen bis zu einer Frequenz von 100 kHz zu messen.
Die zur Herstellung notwendigen Technologien gehen nicht über die konventionellen Technologien hinaus,
so dass bei der Produktion des Sensors auf die bekannten Prozesse zurück gegriffen werden kann.

Entwickelt wurde die Technologie des
Schwingungssensors in erster Linie zur
Überwachung von Pipelines. Sie kann
aber in allen Gebieten eingesetzt
werden, in denen mechanische
Schwingungen bis zu 100 kHz detektiert
werden sollen.

An increasing portion of digital devices nowadays is based on multi-core CPUs. Besides consumer gear like smart phones, tablet PCs, game consoles, (smart) TVs etc. multi-core CPU comprising devices are the groundwork in particular for modern automotive,
aerospace and industrial control applications.

To provide high data access rates each core of a typical CPU is equipped with a fast private (L1) cache. All cores commonly share the comparably slow main memory (and L2 cache). To avoid data inconsistencies due to multiple write accesses the cache controllers
implement cache coherence protocols. However, the communication Overhead increases with the number of CPU cores.

This leads to an increase of the necessary chip area as well as to an increase of power consumption.

Furthermore automotive, aerospace and industrial control applications demand hard real-time abilities. But the known cache coherence arrangements hardly provide this hard real-time functionality.

All in all permanently increasing demands
concerning processing speed, battery operation time, chip miniaturization level and particularly hard real-time constraints challenge the developers to offer a simple and reliable solution.

The novel approach to meet this market demand is the On-demand Coherent Cache (ODC²) recently developed at the Robotics Research Institute of the TU Dortmund University.