2017

16.45 million euros for the construction of the Centre for Life Science and Plasma Technology

Minister for Economic Affairs Harry Glawe presented the grant approval for the construction of a Centre for Life Science and Plasma Technology in Greifswald.

Today, Harry Glawe, Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Health, presented the grant notification for €16.45 million for the construction of a specialist centre for life sciences and plasma technology in Greifswald to Mayor Dr Stefan Fassbinder and Senator for Construction Jeannette von Busse. This will enable the Ministry of Economic Affairs to further expand Greifswald's position as a centre for business and science.
The new centre for life science and plasma technology will be built in the immediate vicinity of the university campus in the inner courtyard between the BioTechnikum and the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP). The aim is to provide a workplace for young companies in particular, but also for other firms.
Once completed, the INP Greifswald will have the opportunity to conduct research into the fundamentals of plasma technology and develop prototypes up to industrial scale.
Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Weltmann, Chairman of the Board and Scientific Director of INP Greifswald, is delighted that "this project can be realised thanks to the generous support of the Health Industry Board of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Strategy Group I Life Science)." The centre will create the conditions for expanding expertise in the field of plasma technology and initiating further projects. In addition, the focus will be on forming clusters and interdisciplinary collaborations and strengthening the links between industry and science.

Revolutionary disinfection process and reference material for genetic analysis are UNIQUE winners

For the first time in the history of the UNIQUE ideas competition, there are two winning teams in 2017. In the Researchers/Graduates category, the jury selected the team "Nebula Labs" led by Dr Jörn Winter and Dr Ansgar Schmidt-Bleker from the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology e.V. (INP Greifswald) and the team "RNAREF" led by Prof. Dr. Andreas W. Kuss and Dr. Lars Riff Jensen from the Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genome Research at the University of Greifswald. A total of seven finalists presented their ideas to a jury of experts on 20 June 2017.

The jury selected the most innovative concepts in two categories. These were then awarded cash prizes for start-up financing at the award ceremony. "This year, the concepts were once again an impressive mix of knowledge and ideas developed by the students and researchers themselves in their respective fields," said Dr. Seiberling, Head of the Centre for Research Promotion and Transfer at Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald.

Nebula Labs has set itself the goal of bringing a revolutionary disinfection process to market. Instead of harsh chemicals, they rely on plasma – an ionised gas – which they bring into contact with water. Using their invention, a patent-pending plasma process, they produce a powerful disinfectant. This is generated on site from air, water and electricity using an easy-to-manufacture device. The effective components of the disinfectant liquid produced break down again after a few minutes into

harmless components. The process is suitable for a wide range of applications, from disinfecting assembly lines and food packaging to surface disinfection in hospitals and hygienic hand disinfection.

RNAREF – The team aims to develop reference material for next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based RNA analysis. When using NGS technologies, technical verifiability is particularly important in order to identify method-related influences on the quality of the results obtained and to achieve reliable results. This is made possible by the use of suitable reference or control materials, which are carried through the entire process or introduced directly at various points during the procedure. Standardised reference materials are not yet available, which makes it much more difficult to compare and verify the corresponding results. NGS applications have already been included in the catalogue of billable health services offered by health insurance companies, and efforts are underway to develop solutions for this aspect of quality control. The aim of the planned project is therefore to develop suitable marketable products for NGS analytics.

Third place went to the team led by Elias Beetz, a graduate of the University of Greifswald, with Plain Truth. The PlaTr app is designed to enable people to quickly, entertainingly and anonymously collect statistics on topics that are important to them. This can be done in the PlaTr community among all users, but also in communities provided by companies. There, the topics would be more company-specific, access would be exclusive if necessary, and PlaTr would be paid for providing the app.

In the student category, this year's winners were Daniel Hingst, Niels Gulecke and Xenia Valero Schönhöft won first prize with their idea Law Clinic Greifswald (student pro bono legal advice for refugees and others in need), and Tom Grüneberg and Jennifer Cordes won second prize with their idea superfamilyfood (healthy food for super babies, super kids, super mums and super dads).

The ideas competition was first held in 2006 to support students, researchers and employees at the University of Greifswald in developing their ideas through to the establishment of a company. Since 2013, the project has been funded by ESF funds from the state and carried out in collaboration with INP Greifswald. The ideas range from software and technology solutions to quality seals and services to medical products. The UNIQUE+ business plan competition will follow in November this year.

UNIQUE is supported in a special way by Sparkasse Vorpommern, Denkfabrik Stralsund GmbH and the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald. The prize money for the UNIQUE Ideas Competition 2017 was also sponsored by INCI-experts Hamburg, Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft Vorpommern mbH, MLP Greifswald, BioCon Valley M-V e.V., WITENO GmbH and Hardtke • Svensson & Partner. Other sponsors of the competition are the Neubrandenburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce for eastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Regional Economic Initiative East Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania e.V. and ADVITAX Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH, Greifswald branch.

25 years of excellent research at INP
The Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald) is celebrating its twenty-fifth birthday. Around 200 guests, including friends, sponsors, companions, employees, former employees and partners of the research institute, accepted the invitation to celebrate a quarter of a century of excellent basic research and applied science at the INP.

In his opening speech at the anniversary celebrations of the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald), INP Director Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Weltmann looked back on the past and reflected on the 100-year tradition of plasma physics in Greifswald. "Thanks to the federal and state ministries and the city," the INP has earned itself a top spot in low-temperature plasma research over the last 25 years and has grown into one of the leading international institutions in this field. In his welcoming address, , Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, conveyed the special congratulations of the Federal Chancellor and noted that "… exceptional work is being done here, both nationally and internationally." Ms Birgit Hesse, Minister of Education, Science and Culture in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, emphasised in her speech that she was "impressed by what has been achieved at the INP".

Before Prof. Dr. Kurt Becker, Vice Dean for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at NYU Tandon School of Engineering in New York, gave a guest lecture vividly describing the transfer of scientific findings into industry, Prof. Dr. Weltmann looked back on important milestones in the company's history.
In recent years, the Centre for Innovation Competence (ZIK) plasmatis at the INP, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2008, has developed into an international and exemplary leader in the field of plasma medicine with a focus on wound healing. In cooperation with neoplas tools GmbH, the atmospheric pressure plasma pen called kINPen® MED was developed at the PlasmaMed campus and approved in 2013 as the world's first plasma jet as a medical device. After years of research, plasma medicine has thus successfully made the step into clinical practice. This plasma device is currently used primarily for the treatment of chronic wounds and infectious skin diseases.
In February 2016, the state-of-the-art Kompetenzzentrum Diabetes Karlsburg (Karlsburg Diabetes Competence Centre), financed by the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Dr. Guth Clinic Group, was officially opened. The centre integrates clinical treatment and application-oriented research in the field of plasma medicine under one roof.
In June 2015, the "arc laboratory", built at a cost of €2.45 million, was officially opened. Scientists at the INP are thus responding to the current challenges of the energy transition.
In addition to joint professorships with the universities of Greifswald and Rostock, the INP is also well positioned internationally with visiting professorships (two in the USA and one in Russia). A special milestone in international cooperation was reached with the opening ceremony on 6 February 2017 in the presence of the German ambassador in Seoul, Korea, when the transnational "Applied Plasma Medicine Centre" (APMC) was inaugurated. In future, the cooperation between the INP and its Korean partner will focus on research, development and diagnostics of physical plasmas for medical applications and their technology transfer in Asia.
Such successes contributed to the INP's excellent results in its latest evaluation by the Leibniz Association. The external evaluation committee visited the institute in 2014 and stated in its final report: "Since the last evaluation, the INP has been remarkably successful in continuing its strategic development. There is great potential for further significant progress in the coming years."
About the institute:
Plasma, a (partially) ionised gas, is a natural phenomenon found in the sun, stars and lightning, for example. The Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald), Europe's largest non-university research institute for low-temperature plasmas, focuses its research on application-oriented fundamental research and the optimisation and development of plasma-based processes and products for the " " (cleaning, coating, processing, energy, health, safety and security). The institute conducts research and development from the initial idea to the prototype. The topics are geared to the requirements of the market. In addition to customer-specific solutions in the field of plasma technology, the INP also offers services such as feasibility studies and consulting. Currently, plasmas for materials and energy as well as the environment and health are the focus of interest. Innovative product ideas from INP research are explored directly with industry or transferred into marketable products and services through the institute's spin-offs. INP also actively promotes the training and further education of young scientists and engineers in the field of low-temperature plasma physics in cooperation with universities, research institutions and industry. The institute is organised as a non-profit association and has been a member of the Leibniz Association since its foundation.

Plasma technology for high-performance optical fibres

The Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) in Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP) in Greifswald will be working together on a Leibniz research project over the next three years to develop a new process for manufacturing high-performance fibre lasers.
Modern fibre-based high-power lasers are used for large-scale, computer-controlled manufacturing and processing tasks such as welding, cutting and drilling, as well as for surgical procedures in medicine. These lasers are based on optical fibres made of quartz glass mixed with small amounts of different chemical elements. This doping significantly determines the properties and quality of the fibres. Only quartz glasses with exceptionally uniform doping and high purity can achieve the high laser powers and beam qualities required. Until now, the production of such materials has been a challenge. As existing processes are reaching their limits, researchers from Jena and Greifswald are pursuing a new technological approach. Dr Kay Schuster, working group leader for optical fibre technologies at Leibniz IPHT, describes the project goal: "In order to create a new material basis for high-quality optical fibres, we are researching and developing an innovative microwave plasma process as part of the PlasFaser research project. It offers the unique opportunity to adjust many different parameters in the production of doped glasses, thereby creating fibres of a quality that has not yet been achieved."
Plasma, another state of matter besides solid, liquid and gaseous, exists in nature in the form of polar lights, lightning or under extremely high temperatures in our sun. In the laboratories of INP Greifswald, technical plasmas with lower temperatures are generated and used for applications in the fields of materials, energy, environment and health. During the project, Europe's largest non-university research institution for low-temperature plasmas is investigating the processes that take place during the production of quartz glass and its doping. "Since we are entering completely new territory here, it is essential to understand the chemical and physical processes taking place in plasma in detail . To this end, we are using innovative diagnostic methods at the INP and further deepening our theoretical knowledge using modern modelling methods," explains Dr. Maik Fröhlich, Head of the Plasma Surface Technology Department at INP Greifswald. The partners at Leibniz IPHT transfer the optimal process conditions determined in this way to a process plant where they produce the new glass materials. In the institute's own fibre drawing tower in Jena, the glass body is turned into an optical fibre, whose optical properties and laser efficiency are then investigated.
The project "Development of plasma-based synthesis of novel multicomponent glasses for high-performance optical fibres – PlasFaser", selected by external experts in the Leibniz competition, combines the expertise of two Leibniz institutes in a unique way: over 30 years of research and development work by the Leibniz IPHT on optical glass fibres and the unique scientific expertise of the INP Greifswald in the field of Plasma Science and Technology. The official start of the "PlasFaser" project, which is funded with around 1.2 million euros, was on 1 April 2017.