BioInnovation Institute (BII), an enterprise foundation with a non-profit objective incubating and accelerating world-class life science and deep tech research, today announces that three new company creation projects have entered its Bio Studio program.
The Bio Studio program supports a world-leading entrepreneurial Principal Investigator (PI) in translating their innovative research ideas into new products and solutions to benefit people and society. The program is specifically designed to support projects primarily from universities and hospitals. The PI will remain at the home institution, and the PI’s home institution maintains rights to all intellectual property (IP) generated during the project period.
The Bio Studio program runs for maximum three years and each project will receive an in-kind grant of up to EUR 1M per year.
The three new projects accepted into the Bio Studio program are:
Nano-X: Based on scientific research from the Principal Investigator, Sine Hadrup who is a Professor and Head of Section at the Department of Health Technology at Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the project has the ambition to create a novel solution for in-vivo engineering of T cells. The Nano-X solution can deliver any gene, mRNA or protein, and combinations hereof to T cells. Thereby offering a versatile and flexible platform to solve future challenges for in-vivo drug delivery and in vivo engineering of immune cells.
To drive the project toward a successful spin-out company, Kåre Engkilde has joined as Entrepreneur in Residence. Kåre brings extensive experience from across the life science arena in R&D, clinical, commercial roles and capital raises. The deep industry expertise positions will be essential in transforming research to commercialization, ensuring Nano-X reaches its full potential.
African Amplified Foods (AAF): Based on the scientific discoveries of Justin Siegel, Professor and Faculty Director of the Innovation Institute for Food and Health at UC Davis, the project will address the enormous challenge of the prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age in Africa through developing a first-in-class and data-driven precision nutrition platform. By leveraging transformative technologies, including food omics and artificial intelligence (AI), the project can amplify protein bioavailability and accessibility, unlocking the creation of healthier and more nutritious African diets while embracing cultural heritage and tradition.
Jan Dideriksen has been hired as an Entrepreneur in Residence and brings plenty of experience from being a CEO in a food tech startup and working in prominent positions for large pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk and Xellia Pharmaceuticals.
SeeQ: The SeeQ project is based on scientific research from Professor Mads Albertsen group at the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience at Aalborg University. The project aims to develop an agnostic platform for rapid pathogen identification directly from a blood sample. Firstly, SeeQ will focus on the development of its first product that will enable identification of the causative pathogen in patients suspected of sepsis, bringing the recently published results to market. Infectious sepsis is an area with high medical needs, due to growing antimicrobial resistance in hospitals worldwide, projected to result in >2 mio deaths in 2030, surpassing cancer mortality.
Anders Bundgård Sørensen brings relevant scientific, startup and industrial experience from various positions to the role as Entrepreneur in Residence. Anders will function as the CEO of the project to drive it towards clinical performance evaluation, commercialization and creating a spin-out.