Award for rap.ID particle identification system?

rap.ID, a specialist in particle identification based in Berlin, Germany, has received a nomination in the Start-Up category of the Innovation Awards of the German Economy for its Particle Explorer.

The measurement system has, by abandoning one duplication step, reduced the time for particle identification and individual microbe distinction from between four and 12 hours to around three minutes. It includes all the information necessary for exact identification of the microbe to the level of strain, and laboratory tests of E. coli DSM 423 and 498 show correct identification rates of 95%. Ever since prototype development in 1999, the basic concept of the Particle Explorer – fully automated identification of microparticles using image recognition combined with micro-Raman spectroscopy – has been refined further, and in 2003 the company began marketing for its Liquid Particle Explorer. It has now sold 10 particle minimisation and quality assurance systems to the pharmaceutical and medical industries and according to Dr Oliver K. Valet, head of marketing and distribution: "The fact that, shortly before the beginning of the year, we had already received the third order for a Liquid Particle Explorer from the US surely indicates a global breakthrough for our still young basic technology." Developed as part of the BMBF/VDI-sponsored research focus Biophotonics, the technology is the result of the combined efforts of the universities of Jena (Institute of Physical Chemistry, working group Popp) and Freiburg (Technical Informatics), the Stuttgart Fraunhofer Institute (Department for Cleanroom and Micro Production), and the companies Kayser Threde, Schering and rap.ID.