The planar patch clamp technology used in a family of
automated electrophysiology products developed and marketed by Nanion
Technologies GmbH in Munich , Germany , is among four
technological and scientific innovations that have been nominated for
this year's Deutscher Zukunftspreis (German Future Award).
The nomination of the project "Small Holes – Big
Effects: Cell Physiology in a Chip Format" represented by Nanion's CEO,
Niels Fertig as well as CSO Andrea Brüggemann and Chairman of
the Board Jan C. Behrends (University of Freiburg) was today announced
in a press conference by Dr. Gert Haller, Secretary of State in the
Office of the Federal President in Berlin. With the Deutscher
Zukunftspreis, awarded once a year, the German Federal President
honours outstanding achievements in Science and Technology. In their
nominations for Germany's most prestigious research award along with
the Leibniz Prize, the Jury also appraises the commercial and
employment-creation potential of scientific innovations. The prize will
be bestowed on one of the four nominated teams by Federal President
Horst Köhler on December 6.
Nanion Technologies is a start-up company founded in 2002 by a
team of researchers (Dr. Niels Fertig, Dr. Robert H. Blick and Dr. Jan
C. Behrends) from the Center for Nanoscience of the University of
Munich and the company is run by the management team consisting of Dr.
Niels Fertig (CEO), Dr. Andrea Brüggemann (CSO) and Michael
George (CTO). Nanion has developed and successfully marketed the
Port-a-Patch, a miniaturized patch clamp device, and, since 2006, the
Patchliner, a fully automated higher throughput patch-clamp robot. Both
devices use the NPC- patch clamp chips which are based on the research
which has now been nominated for the award. They replace the
traditional glass pipette used in the technique of patch clamping (E.
Neher, B. Sakmann, Nobel Prize 1991) and enable automated and
higher-throughput testing of potentially ion-channel active substances.
15th October 2007