New partnership to develop instrumentation and methods for rapid onsite molecular analyses in food and beverage sector

Endress + Hauser and Hahn-Schickard have joined forces to create Endress + Hauser BioSense. The food and beverage sector faces constant pressures as international legislation demands higher and higher standards to ensure public safety, Endress + Hauser BioSense will focus on instrumentation technology that will bring fast and precise analytical technology for the monitoring of bacterial and viral contaminants in water and beverages, genetically modified food, and contamination in milk.

The new company will be located in Freiburg, in south-western Germany. Hahn Schickard already has a close working relationship with the University of Freiburg’s Dept. of Microsystems Engineering where they have collaborated in the development of portable and rapid diagnostic test instrumentation for the determination of minute concentrations of infectious pathogens. The new partnership with Endress + Hauser will use the same technology for use in lab automation and industrial process monitoring.

Initially, Endress+Hauser BioSense will work from a variety of locations at the University of Freiburg as well as at Hahn-Schickard’s premises. From 2022, the new company will move to the university’s FRIZ Innovation Center which is being built on the Faculty of Engineering’s campus. Endress and Hauser InfoService, the Endress + Hauser Group’s IT partner, and Endress + Hauser Process Solutions (DE) GmbH are already located in Freiburg, so the new partnership further strengthens the company’s presence in this lively university city in the heart of the Black Forest. 

Endress + Hauser BioSense will work in close cooperation with IST Innuscreen GmbH who will bring to the table a wide variety of nucleic acid isolation and molecular diagnostic technology including PCT diagnostic kits and assays. IST Innuscreen is also part of Endress + Hauser’s group of companies.  

The new company, which is 75% owned by Endress and Hauser and 25% by Hahn-Schickard, will be headed up by Dr. Nicolas Krohn, who joins the company with many years of experience in the food analysis sector. Dr. Stefan Burger and Dr Martin Schulz, both of who have many years under their belts of working for Hahn-Schickard will complete the new management team, both achieved their doctorates at the University of Freiburg.