Friday, 07 December, 2007

German Federal President's Future Award Ceremony in Berlin

Nanion's founders and management team honoured

 

 

© Deutscher Zukunftspreis, Fotos: Ansgar Pudenz

On Dec 6, Nanion's founders and management team (Niels Fertig, Co-founder and CEO, Andrea Brüggeman, CSO, Jan Behrends (Co-founder and Chairman), Michael George (CTO) and Robert Blick (Co-founder) attended the official award ceremony and presidential dinner at the Berlin Congress Center. Niels Fertig, as spokesman of the team, joined German Federal President Horst Köhler and representatives of the other three nominated teams for a panel televised nationwideon the prospects of technology innovations in Germany, before the final decision on the awards, which is given in a way similar to the american film academy's "Oscar" was announced by Federal President Köhler.

Nanion's CEO Niels Fertig noted: "Despite the fact that the Jury's final decision was not in our favour, being among the four nominees together with german "blue chips" such as Osram, Zeiss and Evonik (incorporating the former Degussa) is an incredible success for Nanion and augurs well for a bright future." Chairman Jan Behrends said: "Our innovative patch clamp technology has made it to the very top nationwide. The nomination in itself is a great signal that Academia in Germany is able to produce sucessful technology out of basic research in very little time." Nanion Technologies GmbH was founded as a spin-off of the Center of Nanoscience of the University of Munich in 2002 by Niels Fertig, Jan C. Behrends and Robert H. Blick. Behrends is currently Professor of Physiology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, while Blick is the Lynn H. Matthias Professor II in Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Nanion has 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.

Source: Nanion Press Release