Nanotechnology is a relatively recent research discipline but is offering new opportunities in all kinds of sectors. Examples include helping to diagnose diseases at an earlier stage, getting drugs faster to the desired location in the body and improving compatibility between implants and recipients. At the moment, however, hardly any appropriate automation technologies are available for the complex production processes. With this in mind, the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC is at LABVOLUTION 2019 in Hannover to exhibit APRONA - a joint project that was initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is being coordinated by BioRegio STERN Management GmbH.

The Translational Center Regenerative Therapies in Würzburg, which forms part of the ISC, is one of four partners involved in this project. The other three are Goldfuss engineering GmbH in Balingen, Biametrics GmbH in Tübingen and BioTeSys GmbH in Esslingen. The four partners are looking to automate the manufacture of nanoparticles for diagnostic and therapeutic applications by developing a "flexible robot-based platform for the automated production of nanoparticles" - APRONA for short. Visitors to the ISC's stand can see the current status of this work for themselves. Among the exhibits is an initial robot-based system that is required for implementation.