COMBINE THE ADVANTAGES OF TWO WORLDS

MAKE DRINKING WATER AND FOOD SAFER WITH PHOTONICS AND MICROBIOLOGY

DETECT MICROBES COST­EFFECTIVELY, DECENTRALIZED, IN­LINE CAPABLE AND WITHOUT LABORATORIES

Sprind And Spheroscan

Why We Are Committed

It is the first procedure that can detect pathogens such as legionella or salmonella in an incredibly short time. Even if the approach is only used in the food industry, this is an extremely useful tool. Since SpheroScan enables direct detection of pollutants by combining its Whispering Gallery mode with functionalized and fluorescent microbeads, the time for direct action is greatly reduced. When recall campaigns by food manufacturers are eliminated and thus health-endangering consumption is significantly reduced, everyone has profited from this.

What We Do

Give the FluIDect team the security it needs in the first few months. With the validation study, we want to promote FluIDect as a recognized technology demonstrator. Our order enables the team to focus clearly on the further development of the technology rather than on complicated funding requests.

The Potential We See

We see the commissioning of SpheroScan as an important investment in a key technology that comes from Germany and whose application should also be created in Germany. The European market for health and food production alone is huge and not yet fully cultivated.

Take Commercial Ideas A Step Further

The team already has a rough view of business development, and we would also like to provide the necessary support in future collaboration and support the start-up’s development in a helpful way.

SpheroScan and the team behind it have one thing in common: They are incredibly fast. While SpheroScan can detect pathogens such as legionella or salmonella in liquids within seconds and thus make our drinking water and food safer, it took the management trio only one year from getting to know each other to found a joint company – and only another four months to convince SPRIND of its innovation.

This is all happening so fast because Dr. Michael Himmelhaus , the tinkerer in the team, has been intensively researching the underlying technology for 18 years and has only waited for this one chance. In 2004, he discovered that not only larger plastic beads, but also tiny ones, provide information about their surface coating —whether molecules accumulate there— and the surface physicist had his most successful research results in the further development of corresponding biosensors in Japan from 2005 to 2009. At least until now: He founded FluIDect for the investigation of liquids for germs in August 2021 together with Dr. Tobias Schröter and Klaus Schindlbeck , who met via various jobs and companies.

“I found Michael ’ s research exciting and wondered why he should limit it to the small area of laboratory analysis. His sensor has potential for the large market, for huge industrial plants,” mechanical engineer and X-ray optics specialist Tobias Schröter explained. Many companies see this in the same way. “We are welcomed with open arms everywhere, because we are tackling a massive problem.” This is the pollution of drinking water and food, and it causes 18 billion dollars in damage per year in the USA alone and costs hundreds of lives.

Reacting To Processes During Production

But what exactly does SpheroScan, the only shoebox-sized device that can completely revolutionize pathogen analysis, do? It can detect microbes in production facilities cost-effectively, decentralized, in-line capable and without laboratories. It can do it so fast during the production process, for example, of milk or milk substitutes, that it is possible to react immediately and not only when entire tanks are already contaminated.

In the long term, it would even be conceivable to examine the milk of cows at a milking parlor and use antibiotics accordingly as well as for pig fattening or on poultry farms. This creates completely new opportunities for safeguarding public health and sustainability. Including for drinking water: “There are regular flushing processes in apartment buildings or hospitals, i.e., thermal disinfection by large amounts of hot water,” Dr. Schröter explained. “SpheroScan makes it possible to proceed in a more targeted manner and to act only if the germ load is too high. This saves valuable resources.”

The whole thing works via a novel combination of two disciplines: “We combine advantages from two worlds, microbiology and photonics,” Klaus Schindlbeck said, who, as a graduate merchant and mastermind of organization and administration, takes the load off those on the technical side. “Based on a microbiological process, we examine the fluids for biological and chemical substances and then obtain information about the process through the emitted light. This is a brilliant idea,” Schindlbeck emphasized, who has been working for medical technology companies in Germany and the USA for 30 years.

For example, the FluIDect team places beads, ten-micrometer-sized, small fluorescent-labeled plastic balls made of polystyrene, into the analyzer, which draws small samples during production. The beads are bombarded with light, which causes them to glow via fluorescence. The fluorescent light conceals the exact geometry of the beads. If pathogens then attach themselves to the beads, the wavelength emitted by the beads shifts. As a result, the emitted color changes, which is easily measurable. Until now, most analytical methods required extensive sample preparation before the measurement could begin. It takes above all a lot of time. “On the other hand, we can put our beads directly into the sample, which then go in search of the microbes, and then optically read information about their nature and presence,” Michael Himmelhaus explained one of the enormous advantages.

The product vision, the prototype, is to be tested in three years. And already today, the highly motivated trio already dreams of next big steps. “The second generation should be able to examine for several targets, up to 32,” Tobias Schröter stated enthusiastically. “In the distant future, we are thinking of a handheld device that only needs to be sprinkled with a sample using a pipette and could detect even more pathogens.” The three of them are in just the right place both at SPRIND and at the optics location in Jena. “The feedback as well as the scientific and financial support are worth their weight in gold for us,” Dr. Himmelhaus stated, who is able to deepen his knowledge of SpheroScan optimization with full creative power as a result. For example, microbiologist Dr. Sarah Hofbrucker MacKenzie was added to the team as a valuable addition, and the company was able to move into new premises in the Jena Technology and Innovation Park. “The companies in Jena provide exactly what we need to develop, build and distribute the sensor in collaboration. And the people here speak exactly our language.”