As part of this year's German Biotechnology Days 2023 (DBT) in Wiesbaden, the Innovation Award of the BioRegions was once again presented.

With the Innovation Prize, the working group of Germany's BioRegions honors innovative patents from modern biotechnology and life science research, including medical technology. For 16 years now, the prize has successfully supported scientists in making their patented ideas visible and subsequently turning them into marketable products and founding their own companies.  The top 6 finalists presented their research project to an international audience of experts, potential investors and the press on March 28, 2023. The winners, selected by a nine-member jury, were then announced. The three equal prizes, each worth 2,000 euros, went to scientists from Aachen, Göttingen and Wiesbaden.

This year's winners include the BioThrust team led by Dr. Patrick Bongartz from RWTH Aachen University, who received the award for his project “Integral gassing and stirring unit for bioreactors”. The patent describes the invention of a membrane stirrer with which organisms and cell cultures in a bioreactor can be supplied with sufficient gas without bubbles. The associated significant increase in process yield offers potential for pharmaceutical production, the jury explained its decision.

Another 2023 winner is the “Hearing with light” project by Dr. Daniel Keppeler and OptoGenTech from Göttingen. Optogenetics, an emerging field of research, is a biological technology in the neurosciences that makes it possible to control cells using light. Together with his team, he is pursuing the goal of restoring the natural sense of hearing in hearing-impaired and deaf patients as one of the first applications of optogenetics in humans.

The “Lignin biomaterial as agricultural drug carrier” project from LigniLabs led by Prof. Dr. Frederik Wurm from Wiesbaden also received an award. Together with his team, he has developed the first technology to prevent and cure the global fungal disease “Esca,” which causes billions in damage in viticulture every year.

The laudatory speeches for the respective prize winners were once again given by the prize money sponsors. This year, it was Dr. Christine Schreiber from Springer Nature, Dr. Florian Rückerl from Dehmel-Bettenhausen Patentanwälte and Marco Winzer from High-Tech Gründerfonds.

In addition, the finalists once again had the opportunity to win another award - the Audience Award 2023. Following the Innovation Award ceremony, the audience was able to vote for their favorite project via online voting. Dr. Daniel Keppeler's project also emerged as the public winner. The prize was sponsored by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH.

Dr. Michael Täger from BMD GmbH - Life Sciences Saxony-Anhalt and André Hofmann from Biosaxony moderated the award ceremony on Tuesday evening. Both are members of the working group of Germany's BioRegions. “The diversity and extraordinary quality of this year's applications has once again demonstrated the performance of very early translational projects. With such a pool of potential for innovative developments, the industry is very well positioned,” said Dr. Täger. “Over the past 15 years, most of the winners of the Innovation Award have successfully founded companies based on the award-winning ideas - so we can look forward to seeing whether the winners of 2023 will also follow this path,” says Hofmann.