The RWTH Aachen has set up a joint professorship between Medicine and Engineering Science as the result of work from the special research area of SFB/Transregio 37.

The medical engineering of the present represents an extremely complex, multidisciplinary research area which offers incredible development opportunities in the intensive combination of medicine, engineering, computer science and natural science. The micro and nanosystem technology is here the key technology. In minimally invasive diagnostics, in the therapy and therapy control, in the development of implants or medication dispensing systems, the micro and nano technology components are essential building blocks of the entire system. In the course of the continually advancing extreme miniaturisation of individual components, the use of the smaller, more active implants for medical applications offers more and more also in ophthalmology. In this special issue, three very innovative projects are presented, from our point of view, in the area of active implants in ophthalmology which work with problems to be solved in a multidisciplinary manner.

Rostock scientists study therapeutic potential of human stem cells from different tissues

Even if they have the same phenotypical characteristics with regard to the therapeutic potential, stem cells from different sources differ significantly from each other. For a stem cell therapy after a heart infarct – that is what researchers from the Rostock University have first systematically determined - stem cells from bone marrow are the most effective, stem cells from umbilical cord blood contribute the least to the healing processes. The study appears in the 11th February edition of the journal "PLoS one".

Prof. Steinhoff und Dr. Kaminski wurden von einem Journalisten der dpa interviewt. Dabei wurde auch die Zusammenarbeit im SFB angesprochen. Die daraus entstandenen Presseartikel sind in der folgenden Form online zu finden (unvollständige Liste):