International growth market: Flow cytometry
The international market for flow cytometry has grown by more than 10% a year over the last five years. The latest forecasts (e.g. by Acute Market Reports) estimate that market volumes will continue to expand and will reach values of Euro five billion by the year 2020. This growth is being driven by the increasing demand for single-cell analyses – for instance in personalized cancer therapy.

‘Liquid biopsies’ currently represent a promising approach for diagnostics, monitoring and individualized therapy in the field of cancer treatment. This type of biopsy permits cancer-associated biomarkers to be detected in conventional blood samples. These include freely circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and exosomes. The subsequent ‘Next Generation Sequencing’ and sequence analyses of the biomarkers' nucleic acids will then as a consequence permit individualized therapy measures.
It is against this backdrop that the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology – Institute for Micro-technology Mainz (ITC-IMM), which is working within the Ci3 lead cluster, has developed the ‘CTCelect’ device for extracting single tumor cells from full blood and storing them in the wells of mictrotiter plates. The device spans the arc between sampling and single-cell analysis, achieving very high target-cell yields (> 75%) and very high target-cell purities. Automation allows great reproducibility to be achieved, which initially will be ideal for tumor research and then later for use in therapy management within the framework of personalized medicine. In 2014, the ICT-IMM was able to positively validate all the significant components within the 'CTCelect' system so that system integration could then follow in 2015. “The CTCelect system, our platform technology for processing and analyzing samples within the scope of liquid biopsies, will be the highlight among our exhibits at this year's COMPAMED," states Dr. Michael Baßler, who is responsible for the system at the ITC-IMM.

Ultra-short pulse lasers as tools for materials processing
Light as a tool remains an ongoing topic of interest at COMPAMED. Micreon, for instance, is one of the world's most renowned contract manufacturers and technology consultants for microprocessing using ultra-short pulse lasers that operate in the picosecond and femtosecond ranges. Working with these types of laser permits processing qualities to be achieved that are significantly higher than those that can be realized with conventional laser technologies. “Our laser technology has the advantage that it reaches precisions of one micrometre and hardly damages any of the solid materials it is used on at all,” explains Dr. Frank Korte, CEO and Head of Research and Development at Micreon. Ultra-short pulse lasers are characterized by the fact that the energy is concentrated locally in the solid material to such an extent that it is possible to directly ionize it without damaging the surrounding areas. Micreon has focused its laser micro-machining processes on precision cutting, micro grilling and structuring. The quality of the cut edges and insignificant damage to the component material are just two aspects that deliver great benefits to the production of stents made from biopolymers.

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