Johannes Kepler Universität Linz

JUPITER, Fla.--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- DoseMe , a leading provider of precision dosing software for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and creators of DoseMeRx and DoseMe Analytics, today announced the appointment of Siegfried Bräuer to Director, International Sales. In this role, he will lead the expansion of DoseMe’s Model Informed Precision Dosing (MIPD) platform through channel partners and direct sales across multiple continents. Siegfried Bräuer brings a wealth of experience in pharma with a long tenure at Merck. Additional roles at Swiss Alpinopharma, Amarin GmbH, Interim Management/Consulting and Canpharma, added to Siegfried ‘Sigi’ vast experience building teams across the emerging markets of the Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. Bräuer, an alumnus of Johannes Kepler University Linz and the MBA program at Emory University, joins DoseMe with more than 20 years of experience leading high-performance teams across pharmaceutical, commercialization and technology spanning multiple geographies including US, UK, Brazil and India. "The healthcare industry is on a digital transformation journey and EMEA, MEA, Latin America and Asia are fast growing markets with the adoption of precision medicine on an upward trajectory," said Paul Edwards, CEO of DoseMe. "I am confident that Sigi has the knowledge, skills, proven experience and passion to drive our vision forward and continue to make DoseMe the preferred choice for healthcare organizations.” In the past year, the company has expanded its distribution network with exclusive resellers across 29 countries. DoseMe continues to focus on product innovation and go-to-market expansion to build new drug models to broaden the MTDM platform. Under Bräuer’s leadership, diversify the channels and adding new partners will enable the company to offer a wide range of AI-powered systems for real-time patient care. "DoseMe is at an inflection point as the advent of AI in precision dosing takes shape and is driving the increasing demand around the globe. I am excited to work with these exceptionally talented individuals to achieve our next phase of growth,” said Bräuer. About DoseMe DoseMe combines smart technology with science, leveraging clinically-validated PK/PD models, patient characteristics, drug concentrations, and genotype to accurately individualize a dose in seconds. The platform is HIPAA, ISO & FDA compliant and the only Bayesian dosing platform to be HITRUST CSF certified. For more information on successful applications of its products, DoseMeRx and DoseMe Analytics, visit https://doseme-rx.com/success-stories .

Scientists across Germany, Austria and the U.S. say their biodegradable artificial muscles could improve the field of soft robotics. Researchers from Stuttgart, Germany; Linz Austria; and Boulder, Colorado, said artificial muscles could one day enable robots to function like living organisms. These muscles may create new possibilities for the way in which robots shape the world. However, their focus revolves around the environmental impact of these muscles for these robots. The team includes researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart, the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz and the University of Colorado, Boulder. They collaborated to design a fully biodegradable, high-performance artificial muscle, based on gelatin, oil and bioplastics. Used to animate a robotic gripper, this muscle demonstrates usefulness in single-use deployments. After use, they can be disposed of in municipal compost bins. Under monitored conditions, they fully biodegrade within six months, the researchers say. The researchers published their findings in a paper titled “Biodegradable electrohydraulic actuators for sustainable soft robots.” Ellen Rumley, a visiting scientist from CU Boulder (working in robotic materials at MPI-IS) served as co-first author. “We see an urgent need for sustainable materials in the accelerating field of soft robotics,” Rumley said. “Biodegradable parts could offer a sustainable solution especially for single-use applications, like for medical operations, search-and-rescue missions, and manipulation of hazardous substances. Instead of accumulating in landfills at the end of product life, the robots of the future could become compost for future plant growth.” About the HASEL artificial muscle The researchers call their electrically driven artificial muscle “HASEL.” These oil-filled plastic pouches are partially covered by a pair of electrodes. Applying a high voltage across the electrode pair causes opposing charges to build on them. This generates a force between them that pushes the oil to an electrode-free region of the pouch. According to the team, the oil migration causes the pouch to contract like a real muscle. The requirement for HASELs to deform is that the materials are electrical insulators and can sustain the high electrical stresses generated by charged electrodes. To create a conductive, soft and fully biodegradable electrode, the team built its recipe on biopolymer gelatin and salts for direct casting onto HASEL actuators. David Preninger, co-first author for this project and a scientist at the Soft Matter Physics Division at JKU, said readily available components and accessible fabrication represented an important aspect of their research. Plus, it “serves as a building block for future biodegradable applications.” Next, the team needed to find suitable biodegradable plastics. HASELs made from one specific material combination withstood 100,000 actuation cycles at several thousand volts, They achieved this without signs of electrical failure or loss in performance. The team aims to continue developing these to move toward a “paradigm shift in soft robotics.” “By showing the outstanding performance of this new materials system, we are giving an incentive for the robotics community to consider biodegradable materials as a viable material option for building robots”, Rumley said. “The fact that we achieved such great results with bio-plastics hopefully also motivates other material scientists to create new materials with optimized electrical performance in mind.”

V Frames injection molding tool for bike components. Photo Credit: V Frames Isoco Bikes (Saalfeld, Germany), an E-bike manufacture producing high-performance injection-molded carbon fiber bike frames, and plastic fabrication company V Frames (Schmiedefeld) have signed an exclusivity agreement with Lehvoss Group (Hamburg) to introduce high-performance fiber-reinforced compounds, including long carbon fiber and biopolymer carbon fiber composite materials, into bike frame and component production. Per the agreement, V Frames expects to enter mass production of injection-molded carbon fiber composite frames, forks, cockpits and other components for several OEMs by 2027, targeting volumes of 1 million components produced at the Isoco plant in Schmiedefeld, Thuringia. After this, the primary focus is to increase the performance of raw materials to achieve future frames that are more lightweight, impact resistant and feature an increased elastic modulus of up to 50,000 MPa long term (compared to the current 32,000 MPa), further increasing stiffness. V Frames claims that it already produces some of the most sustainable bike frames on the market, reducing the carbon footprint by 64% compared to traditional aluminum frame production according a life cycle analysis (LCA) performed by the University of Linz, Austria. V Frames and Lehvoss focus on compounds containing recycled fibers from different industries for new frames, and then recycle its products 100% at the end of their lifetime into new bike component products, providing complete circularity. Production is located in Germany. Isoco’s current production capacility is around three million frames per year. “Lehvoss is an excellent partner for the development, production and testing of high-performance materials,” Managing Director Michael Müller explains. “With these steps we could push the limits of our technology to new levels. As an example, the Buddy Electric/Isoco X1 frame passed the falling mass test with 23 kilograms at a drop height of 1,120 millimeters, a level far beyond the maximum test requirements of any institute and unreachable by most aluminum and traditional carbon [fiber] frames.” He says the material used for these high-performance frames is now available for third parties. Additional materials are now being developed and in testing, such as what is contended to be the world’s first bio-based long carbon fiber material for water injection technology [WIT] assisted injection molding. “Together, we now also push the limits of environmental sustainability with introducing bio-based polyamides reinforced with carbon fibers,” Müller continues. “We are excited to show the results of the new materials in the performance of our frames and components in the next months and years. The approach of V Frames is to provide the perfect material for any frame geometry, any component developed by V Frames, tailor made.” The new materials introduced in the market under this cooperation consist of: Bio-based long carbon fiber materials for WIT injection molding. Bio-based polyamides (PA) reinforced with short carbon fibers. Economical-, ecological- and performance-optimized materials based on PA, carbon fiber and glass fiber compounds. All materials developed and tested in the cooperation are available for purchase. For details please contact V Frames and Lehvoss. Material data sheets are available on request. For additional resources on this topic, make sure to read