Fraunhofer

Fraunhofer

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e. V., Fraunhofer-Institut für Biomedizinische Technik, Germany

www.ibmt.fraunhofer.de

Lead: Dr. Yvonne KOHL

The Fraunhofer-Society is Europe’s largest non-profit research organization for applied research. As one of 72 institutes and independent research units, the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT is offering solutions for individual tasks in the areas of e.g. biomedical engineering, cellular biotechnology as well as (nano)toxicology. The institute promotes the technology transfer to medicine and various areas of industry..

A strategic research focus of the Division “Medical Biotechnology” involves the development of advanced cell-based assays and in vitro models to meet future needs in the field of nanotechnology. Main expertise includes technologies, tools test strategies and standardized processes for investigation and assessment of toxicology/biocompatibility of devices.
In December 2017, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft was awarded the Logo »HR Excellence in Research« from the European Commission in recognition of its outstanding Integrated Human Resources Management. The Logo »HR Excellence in Research« is based on the 40 principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (»EU-Charta & Code«). As Europe’s leading organization for applied research and as project partner in many EU-projects, Fraunhofer fulfils these principles. Fraunhofer is one of the first organizations for applied research in Germany to receive the Logo.

Role in the project:

FHG will be primarily responsible for performing nanotoxicity and -safety testing during the whole technology process (from development to demonstration), ensuring that the developed system and processes meet relevant Health and Safety Regulations. FHG will mainly support activities in the scientific WPs 2-7 as well as support dissemination in WP8..

Relevant Publications:

  1. Hesler et al. (2019). Multi-endpoint toxicological assessment of polystyrene nano- and microparticles in different biological models in vitro. Toxicology in vitro 61 (2019) 104610. doi: 10.1016/j.tiv.2019.104610
  2. Elje et al. (2019) The comet assay applied to HepG2 liver spheroids. Mutation research. Genetic toxicology and environmental mutagenesis. doi: 10.1016/j.mrgentox.2019.03.006
  3. Tran et al. (2019) Assessment of iron oxide nanoparticle ecotoxicity on regeneration and homeostasis in the replacement model system Schmidtea mediterranea. ALTEX – Alternatives to animal experimentation. doi: 10.14573/altex.1902061
  4. Awet et al. (2018) Effects of polystyrene nanoparticles on the microbiota and functional diversity of enzymes in soil. Environ Sci Eur. 30(1):11. doi: 10.1186/s12302-018-0140-6
  5. Kohl Y et al. (2011) Biocompatible micro-sized cell culture chamber for the detection of nanoparticle-induced IL8 promoter activity on a small cell population. Nanoscale Rec Lett., 23(6):505. doi: 10.1186/1556-276X-6-505

Relevant Projects:

  1. HISENTS – High level integrated Sensor for NanoToxicity Screening (H2020, GA-No. 685817)
  2. Sabydoma – Safe by design of nanomaterials – From lab manufacture to governance and communication: Progressing up the TRL ladder (H2020, GA-No. 862296)
  3. DIPNA – Development of an integrated platform for nanoparticle analysis to verify their possible toxicity and the eco-toxicity (FP6-NMP, GA-No. 32131)
  4. ITN NanoTOES: Nanotechnology: Training of Experts in Safety (FP7-PEOPLE, GA-No. 264506)
  5. VISION (H2020, GA-No. 857381)

Infrastructure & Equipment

Fraunhofer IBMT operates an in-house QM system unit with long-term experience in GCLP, GLP and ISO9001. IBMT is fully equipped with all necessary instrumentation for advanced cell culture (2D, 3D, lab-on-chip), immunology and molecular biology methods, in special with different flow cytometers and several microscopy techniques. For investigations on biological barriers different technological systems and setups are available (CellZscope®, Franz Cell, Ussing chamber and Aerosol-Exposition-System VITROCELL® Cloud). IBMT is further equipped with several characterization techniques, as zeta sizer, field flow fractionation, HPLC, MS, as well as with robots for cell culture and standard toxicity screening.
IBMT has all engineering facilities and techniques available for designing and fabricating microfluidic devices with biochip interfaces and microsensors as bioanalytical systems for integration in in-vitro culture technologies and detection systems. Clean rooms for chip production as well as biological laboratories with safety levels 1, 2 and 3 are available. Furthermore, workshops and laboratories are available for CNC precision engineering and fabrication of microfluidic components and for the integration of biochips and microfluidic components in functional biohybrid systems.
Measurement technologies include scanning electron microscope (SEM, with EDX), atomic force microscope (SPM, AFM), 3D confocal microscope and impedance measuring stations with Solartron SI 1260, SI 1287, SI 1294.