Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering

The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT) is working in close collaboration with industry since 1987. IBMT offers solutions in the areas of biomedical and medical engineering, biotechnology, environmental control systems, material testing, home systems, air quality control in homes and cars, security systems as well as industrial process automation and in-line/on-line process control, in particular for food, chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The institute promotes the technology transfer to medicine and various areas of industry. IBMT applies its potential on subjects, such as non- or minimal-invasivity, microsystems engineering, implant technology (interfaces between technical and biological microsystems), molecular and cellular biotechnology, biohybrid systems, biocompatibility, robot-supported surgery, ultrasound technology, sensor manufacturing technology, magnetic resonance, computer aided simulations, monitoring systems, telemetric data and energy transfer, health telematics and multilocal sensor systems connected by communication technologies. It focuses on applications in the areas of medical diagnosis, therapy and therapy control as well as on equivalent needs in various industries. Technology transfer starting from basic research spans the whole innovation chain ranging from scientific-technical consulting, feasibility studies, prototype development, field tests, engineering and support to low- and medium-volume manufacturing in separate project phases. The institute is financed by R&D contracts of public and private (industrial) customers. The integration of medical/biomedical, microsystems engineering and biotechnology at IBMT is leading in Europe. IBMT belongs to the network of the 58 independent institutes of the Fraunhofer Society and has gained unique experience in the field Cryobiotechnology and Experimental Cryobanking. IBMT is managing the Research and Demonstration Cryobank of the Fraunhofer Society.

Heiko Zimmermann

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Heiko Zimmermann is working as a physicist since 1997 in the field of cell biophysics (especially in the field interaction of cells and surfaces). He was the winner of the national BMBF-Young Scientist Competition in “Nanotechnology” in 2003 and got a five-year grant for the workgroup “Cryonanobiotechnology”. He is additionally head of the department “Cryobiophysics and Cryotechnology” at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT) working on national and industry funded both basic and applied research projects in the field of low temperature biophysics and physics. Since 2004 he has the first joined “Juniorprofessor”-Ship (Assistant professor) for “Cryobiophysics & Cryobioinformatics” of the Fraunhofer Society (together with University of Saarland).

Günter R. Fuhr

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Günter R. Fuhr is head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT) in St. Ingbert with branches in Shenzhen (Guandong, China), Sulzbach (Saarland), Potsdam and Berlin. Since 2001 he is full professor at the Medical Faculty of the Universität des Saarlandes, from 1993 to 2001 he was full professor of the Humboldt-University to Berlin. From 1991 to 1995 he was member of the development group of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to reorganise the Humboldt-University and the Museum of Natural History, Berlin. He has received the “Innovation Award” (State of Berlin), the Philip-Morris-Preis 2002, he was nominated 2003 for the “Deutscher Zukunftspreis des Bundespräsidenten” and is since 2004 Special ambassador for the Saarland. The biophysicist Günter Fuhr has published more than 200 original publications in the filed of cell handling and numerous articles in scientific books. He has more than 70 patents in the field of biotechnology.

Alisa D. Katsen

Dr. rer. nat. Alisa D. Katsen, born in the Ukraine and working in Germany since more than ten years, has worked in the field of cell biology and cell preservation since her PhD thesis. She has done research at the worldwide largest cryobiological institute in Kharkov (Ukraine). Alisa Katsen is founding member of the Department for “Cryobiophysics & Cryotechnology” at IBMT.

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