Cytocentrics with new laboratories in Rostock

The unpacking is still going on and things are still hectic in the rooms at the back of the Joachim- Jungiusstraße 9. Yet they have arrived, the new tenants of the Innovations-und Gruenderzentrum (RIGZ), at the latest, after the official starting shot on 24 May with Minister for Economic Affairs Otto

Cytocentrics is another promising company in Rostock which will enrich the technological landscape and is also able to create network connections. The biotechnology company established in 2001 is automating a highly complex analysis method which accelerates the time-consuming search for new active substances. The core of this technology is a patented microchip.

Small valves on the surface of cells are responsible for the functions of nerves and muscle cells. Cells communicate with each other via these openings called ion channels - with every heartbeat, with every one of our thoughts, these channels open and close again. This perfect interaction is overridden in the case of many illnesses. Epilepsy, cardiac arrhythmia, Alzheimer's or depression can occur.

The pharmaceutical industry has been wringing its hands in the search for new medicines which can correct this imbalance. There are plenty of potential, to date untested, substances available. Unfortunately however, they have been kept on the shelf as the only reliable method up to now, the patch clamp technique, was extremely time-intensive.

Cytocentrics has automated this technique and has so far achieved 240 datapoints per day instead of the usual eight per day. And despite the high number of datapoints and the quick assay performance connected with this, the quality is just as high using the CytoPatch™.

Nobel Prize Winner Professor Erwin Neher, co-inventor of manual patch clamping advocates the improvements to his technique and advises the young biotechnology company on all scientific questions.

According to Neher, "chip technology is applied at the critical point in the patch-clamp process and will afford the best opportunities for conducting research into the diversity of the ion channels".

The heart of the machine is a patented microchip with two concentric openings. The two openings which function independently of one another offer an elegant solution for a problem as yet unsolved. The outer openings suck up the cells to be tested and position them on the chip. The inner openings remain uncontaminated throughout this process and are subsequently able to deliver precise datapoints. At the new laboratory on Joachim-Jungius Straße 9 the device prototype is being further developed, due to be introduced onto the market at the end of 2007.