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The the Bayerische Patentallianz GmbH will present the very latest inventions from life science research to representatives of the pharma, biotech, and VC sectors on May 15th in Munich. The patented and licensable inventions include, for example, a new marker for detecting bladder cancer and a process for the reactivation of epigenetically-silenced genes.
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Invention from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg for Pharmaceutics & Medicine:
Dendritic cells (DC) are considered to be the organizers of the immune system. In principle they can induce two reactions. On the one hand, they organize the immune defense for the control and elimination of microbes and foreign structures/cells, such as cancer cells. On the other hand, DCs prevent this very immune-defence from attacking endogenous cells and structures. The latter is also referred to as induction or maintenance of tolerance or briefly tolerization. When tolerance is broken, the results are graft rejections, allergies or autoimmune diseases with progressive tissue destruction as seen for example in rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Unfortunately, hardly any therapies or therapy regimens have been developed to date to induce tolerance. In the presented new invention it is demonstrated that the i.v. application of Ontak results in a profound tolerization of dendritic cells (DC).
© flashpics
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The European Patent Office has recently issued an EP Patent covering an antibody-technology directed against Toll-like Receptor TLR2, which was developed at the Technische Universität München (TUM) and Amgen. The issuance of the patent, which has been licensed exclusively to the drug development company Opsona Therapeutics, has triggered a milestone payment for the university, Amgen and the inventors. This is the 3rd payment generated by the technology, which is aimed at treating inflammatory diseases. The Bayerische Patentallianz GmbH, the patent and marketing agency for 28 Bavarian universities, represented TUM in the licensing negotiations.
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With about 1400 participants the Bayreuther economy congress is one of the biggest of its kind in Europe. The motto of the congress is "enterprises 3.0 - strategies for the world of tomorrow".
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Times Higher Education World Reputation Ranking 2012: In the latest edition of the World Reputation Ranking compiled by the Times Higher Education magazine, the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) has once again come out very well, improving its position by no less than six places in comparison with last year's showing. Now ranked in 42nd position, LMU is the leading German university in the table and number two among continental European institutions (after ETH in Zurich). The Reputation Ranking assesses universities on the basis of their perceived stature as teaching and research institutions, and is based on a survey of the considered opinions of eminent and experienced experts from all over the world.
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Simulator computes evacuation scenarios for major events: Predicting how large numbers of visitors to major events will behave is difficult, even using evidence based on past experience. To prevent disasters, however, the police, rescue services and event organizers have to be able to identify dangerous bottlenecks, hidden obstacles and unexpected escape routes in advance. A research group with engineers and computer scientists at Technische Universität München (TUM) has developed a simulator that can be used to compute different scenarios at specific venues. The program can simulate the behavior of tens of thousands of people, making emergency management significantly easier.
Picture: The simulation represents every individual in a ten-thousand crowd. (Photo: REPKA / TUM)
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Strokes and other vascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in Germany. Researchers from the Maximilians-University in Munich (LMU) have developed a novel treatment for stroke, based on nitric oxide. They have shown that administration of the toxic gas reduces brain damage in an animal model. Tests on humans are already underway. 
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Positively charged star polymers containing a magnetic core are particularly suitable as DNA-delivery vectors. They show extremely high gene transfer efficiency and afterwards enable the quick and simple separation of the transfected cells from the transfection pool. A research team from the University of Bayreuth reports this result in the current edition of “Biomacro-molecules”.
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Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor: The notion of a pain switch is an alluring idea, but is it realistic? Well, chemists at LMU Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-University), in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have now shown in laboratory experiments that it is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch. For the LMU researchers, the method primarily represents a valuable tool for probing the neurobiology of pain. (Nature Methods, 19.02.2012)
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The Bayerische Patentallianz GmbH, the central patent and marketing agency for 28 Bavarian universities and universities of applied sciences, has licensed a number of inventions from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU) to ethris GmbH, an up-and-coming biotechnology company. The inventions provide a basis for the development of innovative nucleic acid pharmaceuticals and for magnetic field-driven active substance transport.
