BERLIN: GERMANY'S MOST prestigious innovation award has gone to biotech company Immatics which develops cancer treatments that activate the body's own defence mechanisms.
The company's innovative product was chosen by a panel from over 350 entries including a fitness machines that generate electricity to a self-oiling bicycle chain.
The Immatics therapy originated when doctoral students Niels Emmerich and Harpreet Singh identified a rare protein during their work at the University of Tübingen.
They began investigating the protein with the aim of developing a vaccine to prevent cancer relapses.
Like cold and flu jabs, the Immatics vaccine works by drawing the body's immune system to the threat of cancerous cells it is unable to detect itself.
Starting with renal cancer cells, researchers identified the ten most common peptides - linked amino acids - produced by them. Then they created a vaccine mixing together the 11 most common cancer cell antigens, the substances that trigger an immune response from the body.
The vaccine, when administered, travels to the lymph nodes where it alerts the infection-killing T-cells of the deadly intruder.
Now in phase II testing, the renal cancer vaccine has been joined by a colon cancer vaccine in the phase I stage; a brain tumour vaccine is ready to enter testing.
They were not the only medical contestants; Bavaria's Lifebridge Medical Technology attracted huge attention for its new mobile heart-lung machines to keep heart-attack victims supplied with oxygen-rich blood on the way to hospital.
