Evorion in the news: WDR reports on ‘our’ start-up in cancer research

Last week in “Lokalzeit Münsterland”, WDR broadcasted a video report on Evorion Biotechnologies, the highly successful start-up company of Hans Kleine-Brüggeney, Robert Weingarten und Dr. Sebastian Bühren. It very nicely describes (in German language) what the company is doing and what the founders are aiming for: developing lab-on-a-chip technologies for the high-throughput serial analysis of individual cells, e.g. from a patient’s tumour. Instead of analysing a ‘cell smoothie’ containing thousands of cells, the new technology allows analysing single cells. Instead of obtaining average values for all cells in a population, the chip technology can detect differences between individual cells in heterogeneous samples. As the company produces its own custom-made chips, these also allow to investigate the interactions between individual cells, such as a tumour cell and an immune cell attacking it. This may allow to test whether any cells in a tumour are capable of escaping a cytostatic anti-cancer drug which might lead to a relapse of the tumour, or to identify the one immune cell that is capable of successfully attacking a specific tumour cell. Encouraging prospects for cancer patients! And also splendid opportunities for our students to pursue exciting and relevant research projects in a professional environment close to university. The company was founded only two years ago and already, eleven people are working there. And if all goes well, the first market launch - for research purposes - might be in 2020!