Berlin Future Fund grants €16m to medical engineering projects
6 December 2007 The board of trustees of the Technologiestiftung Berlin
(TSB) has approved a project to develop a new marker for use in diagnosing
strokes, the eighth medical engineering project supported by the Berlin
Future Fund. The project will receive a subsidy of €2.2 million.
That means that about €16 million of the Future Fund's total budget of
€47.7 million will go towards significant innovative medical engineering
projects. The aim of the project is to develop tools to detect processes
that occur after a stroke, such as cell death, inflammation, angiogenesis,
and blood-brain barrier disorders. The research will be carried out on
small animals using the new high-resolution single photon emission computed
tomography (SPECT) device. The SPECT can accurately pinpoint diagnostic
marker substances within the body. By combining the SPECT with other
procedures already employed on animals at the Charité teaching hospital in
Berlin, the Charité has become one of Germany's leading preclinical research
establishments in the field of molecular imaging.
The diagnostic procedures using substances developed as part of the
project as well as new imaging-related services have a significant economic
potential. The project is being carried out jointly by the Charité and two
Berlin-based companies. The Future Fund is the State of Berlin's central
innovation promotion tool, and is used to sponsor work conducted in Berlin
in the fields of biotechnology, medical engineering, information and
communication technology (ICT), optics, and transport systems technology as
well as areas of activity that have already been developed and offer
particularly good prospects in Berlin.
In the medical engineering sector these are imaging processes and devices
for use in diagnosing and treating oncological and cardiovascular diseases,
and telemedicine.
Most of the other Future Fund medical engineering projects also fall into
one or more of the above categories.
With 200 medical engineering companies and a combined annual turnover of
more than €1 billion, Berlin is one of the most important medical
engineering locations in Germany, and one that is growing by an average 8% a
year. The entire local health industry cluster provides jobs for more than
180,000 people in Berlin and generates turnover of more than €17 billion a
year.
Further information on the Berlin Future Fund, which is co-financed by the
European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD), can be found at
www.zukunftsfonds-berlin.de
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