Innovation Award of the BioRegions: Outstanding projects from the fields of biotechnology and genetics awarded
The award ceremony for the BioRegions' Innovation Prize was held once again as part of this year's German Biotechnology Days 2023 (DBT) in Wiesbaden.
With the Innovation Award, the Working Group of the BioRegions of Germany honours innovative patents from modern biotechnology and life science research, including medical technology.
This year's winners include the BioThrust team led by Dr Patrick Bongartz from RWTH Aachen University, who was awarded for his project "Integral gassing and stirring 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 in a bioreactor can be supplied with sufficient gas without bubbles.
Also among the winners is the project "Hearing with Light" 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 with light. With his team, he is pursuing the goal of restoring the natural sense of hearing in severely deaf and hard of hearing patients as one of the first applications of optogenetics in humans.
In addition, the project "Lignin biomaterial as agricultural drug carrier" by LigniLabs around Prof. Dr. Frederik Wurm from Wiesbaden was awarded. Together with his team, he has for the first time developed a technology that combats the fungal disease "Esca", which occurs worldwide and causes billions in damage to vineyards every year, both preventively and curatively.
Daniel Keppeler's project also won the public's award as well. The prize was sponsored by the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH.
Full Press Release in German: