What makes Hannover such a special health location?
As well as prestigious hospitals, research institutions and high-tech health companies, it is above all local Hannover networks which make the development of new medical products so successful.
These create the potential for local and international companies with an interest in moving to Hannover and working with other players here.

Cardiovascular diseases, like heart attacks and strokes, rank among the most common fatal diseases world-wide and in Germany, where cardiovascular problems account for 40% of all deaths.

For some time now, the close connection between heart attacks and infections has been a well-known fact. But the question remained as to how they were connected. Based on his many years of professional experience, heart surgeon Axel Haverich has developed a theory that sheds a new light on arteriosclerosis.

When muscle cells die in a heart attack, MHH physicians can remove the damaged tissue and replace it with artificial tissue. But only on the right ventricle. On the left, the pressure in the heart is too high, and the patch would stretch or tear. The idea is to fix the patch with a strong but flexible material which dissolves by itself once new tissue has grown into it. Materials engineers at Leibniz Universität make it possible.

Why do I have trouble breathing? About 5 percent of all Germans suffer from asthma. No wonder that scientists are searching for new drugs to alleviate their suffering. Unfortunately, animal testing is currently the only means to find out if a chemical causes allergies. Fraunhofer ITEM is now working on an animal-friendly alternative.