Innovation Prize of the AK BioRegio
Berlin, Hamburg, May 9, 2022
The award ceremony for the Innovation Prize of the German BioRegions took place on May 4, 2022 as part of the German Biotechnology Days in Hamburg. With this year's Innovation Award, the Working Group of Germany's BioRegions (AK-BioRegio for short) is recognizing outstanding ideas and patents with high innovation and economic potential, as well as outstanding research results in the field of modern biotechnology and converging technologies, for the 15th time. This year, the three equal prizes, each worth €2,000, went to scientists from Dresden, Munich and Würzburg. In addition, a total of six finalists had the opportunity to present their invention to an international audience of experts, investors and the trade press, and thus the chance to win this year's audience award, which was selected on site.
Among the 2022 prizewinners, selected by a six-member jury, was Dr. Stefanie Hartmann and her team from the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) in Dresden, who were honored for their project “Automated collection of blood plasma for liquid biopsy”. The patent-protected technology enables the continuous separation and purification of liquid blood components (plasma with biomarkers) from solid components (blood cells). “Winning the BioRegions Innovation Award for our CleanPlasma technology was a great honor for me and my team. The fact that we were able to convince the jury with our idea shows the relevance and potential of our development for the automated processing of blood plasma samples for liquid biopsy in the biotech market. As a team, the award encourages us to take the next steps towards the planned start-up,” explains Dr. Hartmann.
Another of the winners selected by the jury in 2022 is a project in the field of RNA-based drug development. The project “Inhaled antimiR against COVID-19-induced lung damage” by Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Engelhardt of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is concerned with the development of an inhalable RNA-based active ingredient to combat inflammatory lung damage resulting from severe COVID-19 infections. The active ingredient is selectively taken up into lung macrophages through a novel sugar coupling, where it inhibits a specific microRNA. In the jury's opinion, the technology is an innovative approach for the therapeutic application and has a high chance of success for the market launch of a novel RNA therapeutic agent – and not only for COVID-19. Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Engelhardt was represented by Dr. Johannes Schmidt (Chief Operating Officer of the spin-off rnatics GmbH, which is developing the technology of macrophage targeting of RNA active ingredients for clinical application) on site.
In addition, the project “AIM Biologicals: Precision Therapeutics for Autoimmune Diseases Inspired by Pregnancy” (short title: targeted immunosuppression using peptides and MHC Ib proteins) by Dr. Valentin Bruttel from the University of Würzburg and Prof. Dr. Jörg Wischhusen from the University Hospital of Würzburg and their team was recognized by the jury. The research group has identified a mechanism that enables the selective induction of immune tolerance and has developed a new class of biologics, known as AutoImmunity Modifying (AIM) Biologicals, based on this. These AIM Biologicals enable the induction of tolerance against freely selectable antigens.
The audience award also went to the project of Dr. Valentin Bruttel and the team of Prof. Dr. Jörg Wischhusen. The audience voted for this prize via an online voting tool (tedme.com) after the project presentations.
Also nominated for this year's innovation prize were
Dr. Oskar Staufer from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg with the submission “Fully-synthetic exosomes for biomedicine”,
Prof. Dr. Michael Hippler from the Westphalian Wilhelm University of Münster with the application “Photosynthetic algae and use thereof for hydrogen production”, and
Prof. Dr. Nico Lachmann from the Hannover Medical School with the project “Immune-Cell-Farming for Future Medicine”.
We congratulate all winners and nominees of the 2022 Innovation Award of the German BioRegions.
“Once again this year, we received numerous qualified applications and it was a challenging task for the jury to select the finalists and winners from all the high-quality submissions. We are pleased that the Innovation Award and the idea behind it, to draw attention to pioneering inventions with innovative strength and market potential in the life sciences and bioeconomy, has been so well received. The award ceremony could finally take place again in full attendance, so that the applicants could be offered the appropriate stage of the German Biotechnology Days,” said Dr. Nils Schrader (BIO.NRW) and Dr. Gerhard Frank (IGZ Würzburg), members of the AK-BioRegio and this year's organizers of the Innovation Award.
A photo for this press release can be downloaded below: back row from left: Prof. Lachmann, Dr. Schrader, Dr. Frank, Dr. Rückerl, Dr. Staufer.
Front row from left: Prof. Hippler, Dr. Vlachou, Dr. Hartmann, Dr. Schmidt, Dr. Bruttel. © Zöhre Kurc
About the Innovation Award
The German BioRegions Innovation Award is an initiative of the Working Group of the German BioRegions. Every year, the Working Group awards a prize for the three most innovative (patented) research ideas in the life sciences. In this way, the German BioRegions Innovation Award promotes the transfer between science and industry and strengthens public interest in biotechnological research.
Further information: www.innovationspreis-der-bioregionen.de
About the German BioRegions Working Group
The German BioRegions Working Group is a voluntary association of Germany's bioregions and has its office at BIO Deutschland e.V. in Berlin. The 30 current members deal with topics such as financing, start-ups and technology transfer, as well as with the public image of the German biotechnology industry. Since 2007, the AK BioRegio has been awarding the annual Innovation Award of the German BioRegions, a nationwide competition for application-oriented ideas from universities and non-university research institutions, and, together with BIO Deutschland, organizes the German Biotechnology Days.
Further information: www.biodeutschland.org/de/ak-bioregio.html
The 2022 German BioRegions Innovation Award was sponsored by long-standing partners, the trade journal BIOspektrum, the law firm Dehmel & Bettenhausen and the High-Tech Gründerfonds, and organized jointly by BIO.NRW – The Home of Biotech (North Rhine-Westphalia) and the Innovations- und Gründerzentrum (IGZ) Würzburg. In addition, this year's audience award was sponsored by the organizing team BIO.NRW and IGZ Würzburg.
Press contact for the German BioRegions Working Group:
German BioRegions Working Group
c/o BIO Deutschland e. V.
Schützenstraße 6a
10117 Berlin
Email: info@ak-bioregio.org
Web: www.ak-bioregio.org