SIGNATOPE, a spin-off of the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen (NMI), has been awarded the Baden-Württemberg Innovation Prize for the development of a new biomarker test method.

The new method not only enables the detection but also the quantification of biomarkers. This allows conclusions on the extent of the expected side effects. In addition, the method not only works in humans, but also in animals across species. This is due to the special antibodies developed by SIGNATOPE. They reliably detect a very small area of biomarkers, which is the same in all investigated species. The novel analytical method significantly reduces the development time and costs for biomarker test systems and minimizes the number of animal experiments required.

In order to facilitate and accelerate biomarker test development and measurement, scientists at the NMI have combined an antibody-based method with mass spectrometry methods. The innovative step for this analytical method is the targeted enrichment of the biomarker molecules. The idea was born in 2005 as part of the doctoral thesis of Oliver Poetz, one of the future founders of SIGNATOPE.

SIGNATOPE has been supported since 2013 by the GO-Bio-Initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with millions of euros in funding (read more).