The second round of the EXIST Women funding program for women interested in starting their own businesses has come to a successful end. At the closing event in November, the scholarship recipients looked back on what they had achieved. “EXIST Women is the best thing that could have happened to me!” said one participant, summing up the mood of the entire group. EXIST Women is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and implemented by the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn. 

At the Growth Alliance's Idea Camp, the start-up teams from the University of Bonn impressed the judges and took home all three prizes. They had developed their ideas in advance with the help of start-up consultants from the Transfer Center enaCom and in seminars at the University of Bonn's Institute for Entrepreneurship, among others. The Idea Camp promotes innovative solutions for the agriculture and food sectors.

Does your idea have the potential to change our society and, ideally, solve a pressing problem? Then apply to this year's ideas competition organized by the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn! Here you have the chance to present and develop your idea further, with the aim of turning it into reality. On top of that, there is prize money of €1,000 up for grabs. You can submit your idea outline until November 10, 2025.

It all started with an idea: to develop a reliable, standardised, body-like system for producing 3D cell models for use in preclinical studies. Researcher Yaroslav Zaplatnikov was among the winners of the Transfer Centre enaCom's 2024 Ideas Competition with this concept. The project “Cytosphere X” has now successfully secured a Go-Bio Initial grant from the BMFTR to further develop and validate the prototype. In the interview, the initiator explains how the idea came about, what support enaCom provided, and offers tips for participants in the ideas competition.

Learn practical methods and tools that will take you from your initial idea to a successful business model in the exciting workshops and events of the Transfer Center enaCom! As a highlight this winter semester, there will be two events that call on your creativity: the Ideas Competition and the Impact Pitch Night give you the opportunity to present your innovative ideas and win up to €3,000.

Antibody therapies offer new hope for more than 13 million people worldwide with severe asthma – in some cases leading to remission. Since 2016, the number of approved antibodies for asthma treatment has been steadily increasing – but how can we determine which antibody is most effective for each individual? Prof. Dr. Gudrun Ulrich-Merzenich and Bernd Merzenich, together with their clinical colleagues at the University Hospital Bonn and with the support of the University of Bonn, have developed an innovative test procedure to support antibody selection for the treatment of severe asthma. It combines 30 genetic markers with clinical and laboratory diagnostic parameters to create individual asthma profiles using a specific algorithm. This allows asthma subtypes to be differentiated in order to select suitable antibody therapies in a more targeted manner – saving time and money and avoiding suboptimal therapy attempts. In this interview, Prof. Dr. Gudrun Ulrich-Merzenich and Bernd Merzenich explain the progress that the AsthmaPanel diagnostic tool can mean for patients, physicians, and the healthcare system, how the patenting and market launch preparations are progressing, and offer tips for scientists.

The Bonn-based start-up aimed analytics GmbH has successfully closed its first funding round, raising a six-digit investment. At the same time, the company has completed the acquisition of ValueData GmbH, further strengthening its position as a pioneer in AI-driven biomedical data analytics. aimed analytics was founded in 2023 by Dr. Kevin Baßler and Dr. Patrick Günther, who had previously laid the foundation for their product while pursuing their doctorates at the LIMES Institute at the University of Bonn.

University of Bonn alumna Dr. Mariangela Sociale wants to help infants establish a balanced immune system from the very first moments of life and is working on a new method to provide C-section babies with crucial bacteria. She is now developing an “early colonization method” in the co-working labs at the University of Bonn. The labs are offered by the Transfer Center enaCom to support innovative business ideas from research.