Innovation Award of the BioRegions: Outstanding projects from the research fields of biotechnology and genetics honoured

With the Innovation Award, the working group of Germany's BioRegions honours innovative patents from modern biotechnology and life science research, including medical technology. For 16 years now, the award 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 trade press on 28 March 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 was honoured for his project "Integral gassing and cleaning unit for bioreactors". The patent describes the invention of a membrane stirrer with which, for the first time in the world, organisms and cell cultures can be supplied with sufficient gas in a bioreactor without bubbles. The associated significant increase in process yield offers particular potential for pharmaceutical production, said the jury, explaining its decision.

Also among the 2023 winners is the project „Hören mit Licht“ by Dr Daniel Keppeler and OptoGenTech from Göttingen. Optogenetics, an emerging field of research, is a biological technology in neuroscience 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 severely hearing-impaired and deaf patients as one of the first applications of optogenetics in humans.

In addition, the project „Lignin biomaterial as agricultural drug carrier“ from LigniLabs led by Prof Dr Frederik Wurm from Wiesbaden was awarded the prize. 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 again held by the prize money sponsors. This year, it was Dr Christine Schreiber from Springer Nature, Dr Florian Rückerl from Dehmel-Bettenhausen Patentanwülte and Marco Winzer from the 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 favourite project via online voting.

Dr Daniel Keppeler's project also emerged as the audience winner. The prize was sponsored by the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH.

Dr Michael Täger from BMD GmbH – Life Sciences Sachsen-Anhalt and André Hofmann from biosaxony hosted the award ceremony on Tuesday evening. Both are members of the working group of Germany's BioRegions. „The diversity and exceptional 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 a delighted Dr Täger. In the past 15 years, most of the winners of the Innovation Award have successfully founded companies based on the winning ideas - so we can look forward to seeing whether the winners of 2023 will also follow this path," says Hofmann.

&p>About the Innovation Award

The Innovation Award of the German BioRegions is an initiative of the BioRegions Working Group. Every year, the working group honours the three most innovative (patented) research ideas in the life sciences. In this way, the Innovation Award of the German BioRegions promotes the transfer between science and industry and strengthens public interest in biotechnological research.

Further information: www.innovationspreis-der-bioregionen.de

&About the BioRegions working group

The Working Group of BioRegions in Germany is a voluntary association of German BioRegions and is based at BIO Deutschland in Berlin. The 31 members deal with topics such as financing, founding and technology transfer as well as the external presentation of the German biotechnology sector. Every year since 2007, AK BioRegio has awarded the Innovation Prize of the German BioRegions, a nationwide competition for application-oriented ideas from universities, and organises the German Biotechnology Days together with BIO Deutschland.

Further information: www.biodeutschland.org/de/ak-bioregio.html

The Innovation Award of the German BioRegions 2023 was sponsored by long-standing partners, Springer-Verlag, the law firm Dehmel & Bettenhausen and the High-Tech Gründerfonds and jointly organised by BMD GmbH – Life Sciences Sachsen-Anhalt and biosaxony. The additional audience award, which is determined and presented during the award ceremony, was sponsored this year by the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH.