Technological watch

FILK RESEARCH ASSOCIATION FOUNDING MEMBERUnder the umbrella of the "Federation of Industrial Research Associations" (AiF), a total of 100 AiF research associations regularly work on industrial collaborative research projects in a wide variety of technological, industry and application fields, many of which are related to the medical technology sector. For example, research is conducted on topics such as biosensors and actuators, bioinformatics, diagnostics, digital health, material development for medical therapy and tissue engineering.

Often enough, these research activities, which have been developed in recent years due to diversification strategies, cannot be identified by the name of the research associations.This circumstancemakes it difficult for companies to identify and benefit from interesting medical technology topics and research associations in the working community.

For this reason, seven AiF research associations that are particularly active in medical technology research founded the "AiF Research Alliance Medical Technology" (FAM) in September 2018, with the active participation of FILK-Förderverein as AiF Research Association Leather and Plastic Sheeting.

Other founding members are the AiF itself and research associations DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie, Forschungskuratorium Textil, Forschungsvereinigung Feinmechanik, Optik und Medizintechnik (F.O.M.), Forschungsvereinigung Kunststoff-Zentrum FSKZ, Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft für angewandte Forschung and the Vereinigung zur Förderung des Instituts für Kunststoffverarbeitung in Industrie und Handwerk an der RWTH Aachen.

ObjectivesThe purpose of establishing the alliance is to optimize the most effective utilization of IGF funding allocated to medical technology and the health care industry by exploiting synergies between the FAM sponsoring associations. To this end, FAM pursues the following objectives:

• High visibility of all IGF-funded AiF research in the field of medical technology,
  
  
• High visibility of the IGF-applicant research associations active in the field of medical technology, including their research priorities,
  
  
• Information about planned IGF projects and ongoing IGF projects as well as transfer of research results of IGF projects of the FAM supporting associations,
  
  
• Organization of joint events of the FAM sponsoring associations for open professional exchange among each other and with external experts from industry, science and clinics,
  
  
• Concerted research policy activities for the development of additional funding for the IGF, for pre-competitive research in the sense of the IGF in the field of medical technology as well as for transfer activities of the FAM sponsoring associations, for example joint conferences or workshops,
  
  
• Establishment and maintenance of a joint network consisting of scientific institutions conducting research in the field of medical technology and companies from relevant branches of industry.
  
  

EXPANDING RESEARCH TOPICS - AN OFFER FOR INNOVATIVE MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES!"With the help of FAM," says Dr Michael Meyer, scientific director at FILK Freiberg, "we will be able to present the medical technology industry with an even greater number and more diverse, innovation-relevant research projects in which companies are invited to participate and benefit from direct technology transfer."

About Applied Collagen Research at FILKCollagen is used in many industries such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and for the production of medical devices. It can be processed into films, threads, tubes or 3D shapes to produce hemostyptics, implants, drug delivery systems and cell carriers. At the institute, new materials made from collagen and their manufacturing processes are researched and developed. The work is accompanied by specific analytical methods.

Main topics are:

• Molecular biological diagnostics of raw materials for collagen products
  
  
• Collagen-based materials for lab-on-a-chip systems
  
  
• Additive manufacturing of medical devices and biomaterials
  
  
• Hybrid biopolymer and composite materials for medical devices
  
  
• Functionalization of biobased materials
  
  

To this end, the institute has also built up specific expertise in the field of cell cultivation in recent years. The research focus here is the processing of collagen preparations into three-dimensional polymer matrices for a wide variety of applications in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Techniques such as 3D printing, extrusion or freeze-drying are used to create complex, porous, filamentous or tubular structures, which are then cultivated in the presence of tissue cells. Furthermore, research activities focus on the interaction of cells with material surfaces (synthetic, biogenic).

Changes in cellular behavior after modification of a surface with plasma technology or after alteration of mechanical properties are of particular interest. In the cell culture laboratory, collagen materials and other medical products are also tested for cytotoxicity and their endotoxin content is determined.