Miniaturised laboratory: Andreas Manz receives European Inventor Award 2015 in the “Lifetime Achievement” category
- European Patent Office (EPO) recognises Swiss scientist Andreas Manz for his invention of lab-on-a-chip technology
- Manz is Professor at Saarland University and a scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST Europe) in Saarbrücken
- Miniaturised medical, biological, and chemical analyses have "shrunk the laboratory", doing away with the need for extensive equipment
- Technological innovation used worldwide in pharmaceutical research, diagnostics, and preventive medicine
- EPO President Battistelli: "Andreas Manz's invention has paved the way for fast, affordable point-of-care diagnostics"
Paris/Munich, 11 June 2015 -- Faster, smaller, and more affordable: Andreas Manz (58) shrank the laboratory to the size of a microchip, an invention that paved the way for point-of-care diagnostics used today around the world. For this accomplishment, the European Patent Office (EPO) honoured the Swiss scientist today in Paris with the European Inventor Award in the "Lifetime Achievement" category. The prestigious award, now in its 10th year, is presented annually by the EPO to recognise outstanding inventors who have made an exceptional contribution to social development, technological progress and economic growth.
"Thanks to Andreas Manz, complex medical, biological and chemical analyses can now be performed quickly and efficiently on tiny millimetre-sized micro-labs," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli at the award ceremony at the Palais Brongniart, the historical Paris stock exchange, in the presence of some 400 prominent guests from the fields of politics, industry and science. "His invention has made possible an increasing number of applications which enable the targeted prevention and treatment of illness."
With this feat of miniaturisation, special test equipment can now measure the sugar levels of diabetes patients in seconds using only a drop of blood. No less ground-breaking is another version of the lab-on-a-chip that enables rapid genetic testing to prevent hereditary diseases. The technology also has the potential to contain pandemic diseases or major common illnesses in regions with limited medical resources.
Micro-invention borrows from chemistry and electronics
"I was one of the first to employ microchip technology in the field of chemistry," says Andreas Manz, Professor at Saarland University and head of the working group for microfluidics at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST Europe) in Saarbrücken, Germany. For his invention of the first Miniaturised Total Analysis System (μTAS) in 1990, Manz, who holds a PhD in chemistry, combined available microchip technology borrowed from microelectronics with chemical separation and detection techniques (electrophoresis, fluorescence). "What was new was that we integrated equipment and hoses and valves from the laboratories into tiny tubules on a chip," says Manz looking back at the development.
From a chemical spill to the lab-on-a-chip
The Swiss inventor, regarded as a pioneer in the field of microfluidics, initially developed the technology as a response to an environmental disaster: after a fire in a Swiss chemical plant released pollutants into the Rhine in 1986, he invented a system that could analyse water samples quickly and without a lab. "After the river catastrophe, we had the idea of developing a new device called a ‘lab-on-a-chip' which could detect various chemicals in river water," Manz explains. "Later on, we discovered that these chips could also be used very well in other areas of pharmaceutical research and clinical diagnosis." The enormous potential of this technology is also reflected in its market volume: some experts predict the market for lab-on-a-chip technology will reach EUR 7.8 billion by 2016. It is currently an inconspicuous element in many applications, from lab instruments in research centres to its use in modern diagnostics.
Visionary with outstanding inventive talent
Manz remains active in this field of research. He is currently leading a project aimed at imitating human cells in the lab. If successful, it could someday help eliminate animal experiments. "In the future, I think lab-on-a-chip technology will be used primarily in the fields of medicine, pharmaceutical research, forensic chemistry, and in many other areas," he says.
The Swiss researcher has clearly left his mark on microchip research - his essay on the concept of "miniaturised total chemical analysis systems" has been cited more than 11 000 times. In addition to nearly 40 patents, all primarily attributed to Manz, he has published over 250 papers in scientific journals, making him one of the most successful chemists worldwide.
No less impressive is Manz's career as a researcher and scientist, which, after his studies in chemistry at the ETH Zurich, included positions at Hitachi's research unit in Japan, Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) in Switzerland, a professorship at Imperial College in London, and the Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS) in Dortmund, Germany.
Media materials for Andreas Manz:
View the patents: EP0653631, EP0544969, EP0497077
Note to editors: availability of AV and photo materials on 11 June |
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More information about all 15 European Inventor Award finalists (including AV, photo and text materials) is available in the EPO Media Centre . |
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