The German nanobiotech company Nanion Technologies GmbH was recently awarded the Bavarian Innovation Award 2005 and is Bavarias' company of the year in the small and medium enterprise segment.

Nanion received the award for its chip-based patch clamp technique, which allows performing sophisticated electrophysiological measurements from cells in an automated and parallel manner. Nanions entry level device, the Port-a-Patch, supersedes the common pipette based patch clamp technique in ease of use and throughput and does not require a microscope, vibration isolation or a micromanipulator. The Port-a-Patch uses an all electrical read-out for automatically positioning and electrically contacting cells on the chip. With the Port-a-Patch, Nanion offers the world's smallest patch-clamp workstation. This innovative drug discovery technology makes patch clamp available also to non-electrophysiologists, claims a company release.

This innovation and its successful market introduction has been award the prestigious prize, which clearly is an important step and great commendation for Nanion.

Nanion Technologies GmbH is a spin-off from the Center for Nanoscience (CeNS) of the University of Munich (LMU). Nanion combines bio- and nanotechnology in a company serving the life sciences industry by offering instrumentation for increasing the speed and efficiency of the drug discovery process in ion channel drug discovery. Nanion develops, produces and markets instrumentation and chip consumables for automated patch clamping.