German Federal Minister Svenja Schulze with representatives of African countries in front of the so-called BioNTainer.

Mobile containers for local COVID-19 vaccine production in Africa

Expanding production capacities for vaccines is an important instrument to prevent and fight global pandemics. New approaches aimed toward finding solutions for local vaccine production are being provided by BioNTech through modular containers called “BioNTainer”. With this invention – the name being a cross between container and the company name BioNTech – COVID-19 vaccines will…

View of the display of a camera showing a woman in a laboratory.

Virtuality training of trainers to pilot virtual hands-on laboratory training

Through what virtual formats can hands-on laboratory training be conducted when the on-site presence of all participants and the trainer is not possible? This question was already addressed by the PTB Capacity Development working group at an exchange of experience in February 2021. As a fruitful outcome of this event, the Virtual Hands-on Laboratory Training…

A woman in a white lab coat looks at the tablet in her hand. She is standing in front of a shelf with numerous medications.

Ghanaian delegation visits PTB virtually to discuss local vaccine production in Ghana

The promotion of drug and vaccine manufacturing, strengthening the regulatory framework or the harmonization of standards and their implementation — the intervention areas of quality infrastructure in the pharmaceutical sector in Africa are manifold. The need for efforts in these areas is greater than ever, especially in the current situation: The COVID-19 pandemic has shown…

Christmas tree in front of the PTB site in Braunschweig

2021: Another extraordinary year comes to an end

The increasing availability of Covid-19 vaccines was an encouraging breakthrough in 2021 that turned a lot of things around. However, the pandemic is not over, and many of the challenges we encountered in 2020 remained. With a few exceptions, most of PTB’s International Cooperation activities therefore still took place in a virtual setting, and working…

Two Online Workshops on Measurement Challenges

Thursday, 4 November 2021 | 10:00 – 15:45 hrs | SARS-CoV-2 and Future Pandemics Lecturers: Stakeholders and Representatives from NMIs / DIs Institute: European Metrology Network on Traceability in Laboratory Medicine | Technical Committee for Metrology in Chemistry Place: MS Teams, link after registration: https://www.euramet.org/european-metrology-networks/laboratory-medicine/registration-tlm-mc/?L=0 The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 posed significant challenges for healthcare systems around…

Photo of a flow-through cuvette in a laser flow cytometer. The cells flow vertically through the cuvette and the laser shines horizontally and is focused in the centre of the flow channel. On the left is part of the detection lens aligned with the laser focus point.

Nanoparticle measuring system for coronavirus vaccine research

New type of measuring system determines nanoparticle concentration – successful transfer of technology from PTB to industry Nanoparticles are real allrounders. In the field of medicine, for example, one interesting application involves using nanoparticles to deliver drugs or vaccines deep into the body to precisely where they are needed. For such purposes, it is essential…

Western Balkan: Wrap-up and Outputs of Five-Month Business Resilience Standards Training of Trainers

For over a year, the Covid-19 pandemic has harmed not only people’s health but also the economy. Similarly to other sectors, businesses have been hit hard by the risks and economic consequences from the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the virus. Business as usual has become the most desired state which companies and…

PTB supports partner countries by sharing auxiliary ventilator design

In view of the dramatic developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, PTB recently sent a description as well as technical drawings of an auxiliary ventilator to several partner countries, including India and Nepal. At the initiative of Sebastian Raupach, the “TaBea” semi-automatic resuscitator was developed using a prototype in early 2020 by Frank…

Hands-on | Virtually!

Guidelines on virtual hands-on laboratory training Can hands-on laboratory training be conducted remotely? What are some methods to virtually demonstrate how to handle laboratory equipment or remotely direct trainees to perform technical measurements? How can misunderstandings of instructions be avoided? What software applications can support virtual hands-on laboratory training? It became obvious that these questions…