Trailing illnesses: Fluorescent immunoanalysis by miniature solid state laser technology

This project is supported by VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH and the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology (BMWi) within an ideas competition.

An early diagnosis of illnesses is not only useful to protect patients from secondary damage; it can even help to save lives. An innovative method to detect illness, the so called fluorescent immunoanalysis, counts on laser fluorescence. With that it is possible to find antigens – proteins which can for example stern from pathogens – in the patient’s blood. To use this diagnostic method comprehensively in surgeries, it certainly has to be optimized.

In the project “fluorescent immunoanalysis by miniature solid state laser technology”, a compact laser fluorescence gadget which does not only allow an early detection of allergies or infectious diseases in finding special antigens, but also makes it possible to identify proteins produced by the body because of nascent tumors in time, is developed. Moreover, it fits to an ordinary surgery table. With this method, the medical practitioner is able to find out if a characteristic antigen is in the blood and in what concentration it exists – this shows how long the viruses have already been in the human body and in what stadium the illness is. read more...

Multidimensional proteome analysis system: Innovative coupling of novel electrophoretic enhancement/separation, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and liquid beam desorption mass spectrometry

This project is supported by the German Federal Land Lower Saxony within the bounds of the biophotonic-initiative.

In the past years, the proteome research became more and more important all over the world because of its major importance for pharmaceutical research to identify drug targets, as well as because of its relevance for early diagnoses of illnesses by means of specific detections of biomarkers. But in the moment, none of the used proteome analysis technologies possesses the necessary high throughput, the selectivity and sensitivity and the essential level of automation required to select, identify and quantify hundreds and thousands of different proteins in an acceptable time.

The aim of the project is it to widen the existing 2- or 3-dimensional analysis methods (2D gel electrophoresis coupled with MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry by adding a new criterion of identification based on Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy as well as to adapt a new method of fragment-free sample injection for the species-selective, mass spectrometric detection. read more...