Recording of Talks - Video on Demand

A tiny virus makes the world breathless and causes unprecedented activities to develop a protective vaccine. This talk gives a brief background on infection and immune responses and explains how vaccines work. In principle, the vaccine shall anticipate a viral infection to train the immune system to defend the body against a real infection. This can be achieved by different types of vaccines – and all of them involve nanotechnology at some point. It then looks into different vaccination strategies and formulations including own work in the field of mucosal vaccination. Finally, the talk will look into current Corona vaccines in late stage clinical development and gives an insight into results and open questions.

Despite the recent progress in developing potent vaccines for the treatment of COVID-19 still alternative treatment options will be required to combat the pandemic, especially for unvaccinated individuals or individuals who respond poorly to vaccination. One promising approach involves the development of anti-viral therapeutic antibodies. A variety of strategies have been pursued to generate potent neutralizing antibodies, but the effector mechanisms triggered by monoclonal antibodies are complex and different parameters have to be considered to design effective and safe anti-viral antibodies. Selected strategies in clinical development will be discussed.

CAMPTON Diagnostics develops in cooperation with the Fraunhofer ISIT a silicon based biochip platform that is applicable for a wide range of immunological and molecular-biological based tests. Therewith it is possible to run a multi-parametric analysis of infectious diseases by detecting the immune response and/or the detection of viral load. For example, this can be used in the diagnosis of the “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona-Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
The point of care system of CAMPTON Diagnostics consists essentially of disposable biochip cartridges, reagent containers with stable liquids and a device for processing fully automated assays. After easy sample collection, immunological and molecular-biological assays on gold microelectrodes and electrochemical detection take place.
Overall, the biochip platform combines micro system technology and modern methods of molecular biology resulting in multi-parametric point-of-care tests.

The pandemic of Covid-19 changed not only our daily life, but also biopharmaceutical manufacturing worldwide. Richter-Helm BioLogics is a biopharmaceutical company located in Germany with multiple sites. During this talk we will present options for vaccination and treatment of Covid-19 related to microbial manufacturing capacities and challenges resulting from the current situation.

The presentation will provide a brief overview of recent developments in magnetic particle imaging (MPI), a novel imaging method. Using various static and oscillating magnetic fields and tracer materials made of iron oxide nanoparticles, MPI can perform background free measurements of the local concentration of the particles. The method takes advantage of the nonlinear remagnetization behavior of the particles and has the potential to outperform current methods for the detection of iron oxide in terms of sensitivity and spatio-temporal resolution. Starting with an introduction to the relevant physics of nanoparticle magnetization, the design of an imaging device, the evaluation of image quality, the force effect of the magnetic fields and first preclinical results are discussed.

Nasschemisch hergestellte Nanopartikel haben ein großes Potenzial für die medizinische Bildgebung und gezielte Wirkstoffdarreichung. Der Vortrag gibt einen Überblick über Vor- und Nachteile magnetischer, plasmonischer und fluoreszenter Partikel. Ein Schwerpunkt ist die biokompatible Oberflächenbeschichtung, mit der Größe, Zeta-Potenzial, Konjugation mit biologischen Erkennungsmolekülen, Zellaufnahme und Bluthalbwertszeit gezielt eingestellt werden kann. Ein weiterer Teil des Vortrages behandelt die Verwendung der Partikel zur gezielten Wirkstoffdarreichung. Am Beispiel von Autoimmunkrankheiten wird gezeigt, wie funktionalisierte SPIONs die Produktion von autoregulatorischen T-Zellen stimulieren und so zur Behandlung von Multiple Sklerose eingesetzt werden können. 

Nanoparticles in Cardiovascular Medicine

nanoPET Pharma GmbH is a biopharmaceutical company based in Berlin, specializing in the R&D, production and marketing&sales of innovative agents for diagnostic imaging. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of preclinical imaging agents under the brand name ViscoverTM covering the principal diagnostic modalities (MRI, CT, US, OI). With more than 20 years of experience in diagnostic imaging, we strive to meet customer demand for sophisticated imaging agents and offer custom solutions including agent development, pharmaceutical manufacturing as well as experimental design. 

Our agents differ not only in their chemical composition but also in their morphologies (nanoparticles, emulsions, polymers, small molecules). Different types of morphologies potentially enable varying in vivo pharmacokinetics, resulting in different biodistribution patterns and, thus, improved visualization of various anatomical structures. Hereby, nanoparticles offer exciting opportunities and thus, have been under research and development at our company for a variety of applications ranging from personalized molecular diagnostic imaging to the field of standards and norms.

Advanced X-ray fluorescence Imaging provides new insights for preclinical R&D-Teams in Biotech and Pharma-Industry with in-vivo tracking of several compounds, drug carriers and nanoparticles without depth or time limitation. So, it is possible to use new analytical studies that can help to reduce the costs of R&D departments, shorten the time required for preclinical research, reduce the number of animal experiments, and increase the chances of obtaining approval by Regulatory Authorities. The studies with focus around distribution-, efficacy- and safety are customized according to the requirements of the questions being asked.