Dear members and partners,
With this newsletter, we would like to give you an overview of past activities and cordially invite you to our upcoming events. In addition, we would like to inform you about the start of the new BioRiver Chairwoman Dr. Bettina Möckel. You will also find winners, finalists and a first summary of the BioRiver Boost! 2024 – Startup competition for life science founders. Last but not least, we would also like to publicize your activities: see the invitations from our members at the end of this newsletter. I wish you an interesting and entertaining read.
Yours sincerely, Dr. Frauke Hangen, BioRiver e.V. In focus:
11th BioRiver Boost! 2024: The winners (from left to right): Sweethoven Biotech (3rd place), ingineeon – advanced immunotherapeutics (1st place), TCBalance Biopharmaceuticals (2nd place). Image rights BioRiver. Photographer Bernd Lauter Dates
30.10. Life Science Innovation, Trends in Single Cell Analysis #10, Düsseldorf
7.11. Gründerinnen im Fokus (GiF): Network meeting, Aachen
21.11. Gründerinnen im Fokus (GiF): Podium, Düsseldorf
29.11. Baesweiler Biotech Meeting: Biotechnology as access to new value creation
9.1.24 Save the Date: Kick-off Life Sciences 2025 with general meeting and board election
For invitations and dates of our members, see industry offers. Our members:
Johnson&Johnson, We are delighted that Johnson&Johnson has agreed to confirm its membership of BioRiver for 2025 after an intensive year in 2024.
You can see all BioRiver members here: www.bioriver.de/mitglieder.
News in the association:
Dr Bettina Möckel elected as new Chairwoman of BioRiver Life Science im Rheinland e.V.
At the board meeting of BioRiver – Life Science im Rheinland e.V. on 1 July 2024 in Düsseldorf, Dr Bettina Möckel was elected as the new Chairwoman by the BioRiver Board of Directors, succeeding Dr Boris Stoffel. Dr Stoffel has successfully led the association in recent years with great passion and commitment. He will remain on the board and the association as deputy chairman. For BioRiver Boost! 2024, Dr Möckel had already advocated an increased presence of investors in the competition. Dr Bettina Möckel is Vice President of Corporate Development at Qiagen. Further information and contact: Dr Frauke Hangen, +49 (0)211 3160160, BioRiver office.
This is coming:
24.10. Leipzig: BioRiver@Finance Days der Going Public
The Finance Day has been dedicated to start-up, growth and capital market financing in the life sciences sector for 18 years.
30.10. Düsseldorf / hybrid: Life Science Innovation, Trends in Single Cell Analysis #10
Detection and isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and the broader field of liquid biopsies. Professor Lisa Wiesmüller from Ulm University: use of mass cytometry to investigate CTCs on the protein level. Doctor Zahra Eslami Samarin from the University Medical Center of Montpellier: CTCs’ biological interactions with platelets & clinical relevance of CTC. Doctor Siegfried Hauch from QIAGEN: multiple liquid biopsy analytes simultaneously to gain “the whole picture” of cancer. Information and registration: https://ditec-dus.de/events/life-science-innovation-trends-in-single-cell-analysis-10/
4.-6.11. Stockholm: BioRiver@BIOEurope
BIO-Europe is Europe’s leading partnering event for life sciences and biotech.
7.11. + 21.11. Aachen + Düsseldorf: Gründerinnen im Fokus (GiF)
With the Female Founders in Focus series, we want to specifically support women from the life sciences who want to start their own business. We offer you a platform for exchange, knowledge transfer and networking. GiF podium (Düsseldorf, 21 November): Feedback on your presentation. Pitch session with feedback from experts. Already on 7 November in Aachen: GiF-Meeting: Your questions about founding a company. Network meeting with experienced female founders and managing directors. Information and registration: https://www.bioriver.de/anmeldung-veranstaltungen/
29.11. its Baesweiler: 22. Baesweiler Biotec Meeting: Biotechnologie als Zugang zu neuer Wertschöpfung
With keynote speeches by Andreas Worberg, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability Integrated Fermentation Platform, Prof. Dr. Lutz Schmitt, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Prof. Dr Tobias Erb, MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology; as well as company presentations by (among others): BRAIN Biotech AG – Dr Martin Langer, LenioBio – Dr Ricarda Finnern, SenseUp Biotechnology – Dr Georg Schaumann. Information and registration: https://www.its-center.de/anmeldung-biotec-meeting/
Reports
Review BioRiver Boost! 2024
Over 100 life science experts came together on September 27 in Neuss at the premises of our host Johnson & Johnson to follow inspiring pitches, tricky questions and interesting discussions. The welcoming remarks by Dr. Bettina Möckel, Chairwoman of BioRiver e.V., and Dr.med.
Stefanie Walther, Commercial Director Specialty Care and Member of the Management Board of Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine Germany, Johnson&Johnson, were followed by a precise and open report by the winner of the year 2023 Dr. Oliver Grünvogel for Akribion Genomics. The challenges of attracting capital for a startup and the necessary adjustments in the young company were shared by him in a gripping presentation. Moderated by Anna-Lena Kümpel, pitch presentation followed question and answer session after pitch presentation, etc., so that by the time the coffee break came around, four start-ups had already passed their acid test on the BioRiver Boost! stage by the coffee break. The second pitch session followed until lunch, with presentations that were as entertaining as they were high-caliber. While the jury around Dr. Bettina Möckel and Dr. Ralf Peist, Qiagen, Dr. Ralf Angermund and Dr. Sebastian Winsel, Johnson&Johnson, Dr. Karl-Heinz Schneider and Dr. Karl Collins, Bayer, Dr. Volker Vogel, Lonza, Dr. Mariette Mohaupt, Miltenyi Biotec, Dr. Anna Lisa Picciolo-Lehrke UCB, Thomas Raueiser, NRW.Bank and Dr. Caroline Fichtner, High-Tech Gründerfonds withdrew to make the difficult choice of the best teams, startups and the audience heard reverse pitches by Peppermint Ventures, b-value, Henkel and Miltenyi Biotec. The speakers presented investment strategies and areas of cooperation between investors and companies. A discussion round moderated by BioRiver Managing Director Dr. Frauke Hangen with BioRiver Boost! alumni Dr. Slim Chiha (ProSion), Dr. Ewald Fernbach (Phagestack), Dr. Oliver Grünvogel (Akribion Genomics) and Dr. Ernesto Llamas (Plantman). This was followed by time for a direct exchange between the jury, start-ups and the audience. The festive award ceremony crowned the day. Special thanks go to the host Johnson&Johnson, the platinum sponsors Wirtschaftsförderung Düsseldorf and Köln Business Wirtschaftsförderung as well as the gold sponsor NRW.Bank. The closing event BioRiver Boost! was funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (#DWNRW).
Award winners: 1st place ingineeon – advanced immunotherapeutics, Munich, https://www.linkedin.com/company/ingineeon/, 2nd place TCBalance Biopharmaceuticals GmbH, Berlin https://tcbalance-biopharma.com/, 3rd place Sweethoven Biotech, Bonn https://sweethoven-biotech.com/, Wildcard for 2025: TumiKo, Essen c.dobersalske (ad) dkfz.de
To the press release BioRiver Boost! 2024 Winner Review of our events in summer 2024
The summer of 2024 was characterized by several outstanding dates and events. First and foremost, the election of the new Chairwoman Dr. Bettina Möckel and the associated change in the Board of Directors as part of the Board meeting to mark the 20th anniversary of BioRiver-Life Science im Rheinland e.V. on June 30, 2024.
The 2nd Startup Market Biotech&Life Sciences with a diverse exhibition and lecture program as a cooperation project in Düsseldorf and with BIO.NRW was honored by the welcoming speeches of Andreas Zaum, Head of the Department of Economic Affairs in Düsseldorf, and Dr. Andreas Feiler, Head of the Biotechnology Division in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Two invitations from member companies, Lonza Cologne and Carpus&Partner, provided an insight into the nature and dynamics of the Rhineland as a life science location. The annual event on biotechnology organized by the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce, this year on the topic of “Biotechnology and sustainable construction” – speakers: Thomas Habscheid-Führer, Carpus&Partner, Dr. Michael Seidel, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Prof. Dr.-Martin Trautz, RWTH Aachen, Peter Welters, Phytowelt GreenTechnologies, Martin Meyer, Miltenyi Biotec B.V. & Co. KG and Kambiz Hajizadeh-Zaker, VOLLACK GmbH & Co. KG, and
the concept meeting of the project “Gründerinnen im Fokus” together with MedLife Aachen, initiated by Prof. Dr. Veronika Kneip, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, brought new topics, speakers and networks to the discussions. The partnership with Gesundheitsregion Köln-Bonn e.V. was reaffirmed with the re-election of Dr. Frauke Hangen to the board. The presentation of the EY Biotech Report by Andreas Weigel at BioCampus Cologne generated a great deal of interest and exciting discussions. The topic of “Artificial intelligence in medicine and life sciences” attracted “the masses”. Andreas Weigel was joined by Dr. Dario Antweiler, Fraunhofer IAIS, Dr. Vinay Suryaprakash, Qiagen and Dr. Patrick Günther, Aimed Analytics.
The workshop series “Ohne Moos nichts los” together with BioIndustry and presentations by Clustermarket (Tobias Wingbergmühle), Einkaufskooperation Laborkampagne (Stephan Binder), Zenit GmbH and NRW.Bank, started in Dortmund with good success, but proved to be difficult to market in the Rhineland, so the workshops will be postponed here for the time being.
For the BioRiver Boost! pitch training by Uwe Wäckers, Deputy Managing Director of VCI NRW and Treasurer of BioRiver e.V., startup teams traveled from all over Germany. Experienced founders Dr. Kristina Bartmann, DNTOX, and Dr. Johannes Heuckmann, DISCO Pharmaceuticals, supported the training. The founding teams were very well prepared
and successfully presented themselves at the BioRiver Boost! final event and successfully presented themselves to the extensive jury. For more on the BioRiver Boost! see above.
The variety of events would not have been possible without numerous cooperation partners. Special thanks go to KölnBusiness Wirtschaftsförderung, BioCampus Cologne, Life Science Center /Ditec, Wirtschaftsförderung Düsseldorf and IHK Düsseldorf. To BIO.NRW Home of Biotech. As well as to the members of the Executive Board, in particular Dr. Bettina Möckel, Dr. Boris Stoffel, Dr. Barbara Maertens, Prof. Jörg Pietruszka, Dr. Jürgen Schumacher, Uwe Wäckers.
If you have any questions or ideas about the 2025 program, please contact the BioRiver office at +49 211 3160610.
Invitations and industry offers from members & partners
Invitation: October 28, 2024 Patents & Pizza, Cologne, seminar
With “Too expensive or cheap? How do I find the optimal price for my product?” Ref: Silke Beaucamp, and “Patent protection of inventions” Ref: Dr. A. Meyers. October 28, 2024 : Patents & Pizza II – dompatent – Patent Attorney in Cologne Industry offer: October 24/25, 2024 VIP3000 Experts Dialog Pharmabau Hamburg
Topics: AI and digitalization in pharmaceutical construction, AI for efficient project management strategies, supply chain management and quality assurance. Contact: J. Schumacher, Carpus&Partner jochen.schumacher@carpus.de Industry offer: February 12, 2025: European Chemical Partnering, Frankfurt
Contact: https://www.ecp-event.com/ Special conditions for start-ups. Industry offer:
Industry partners wanted for third-party funding from the BMBF: “AI-supported precision surgery in oncology (KI-On)”(https://www.interaktive-technologien.de/foerderung/bekanntmachungen/kion). A consortium consisting of Forschungszentrum Jülich, Charité in Berlin and Düsseldorf University Hospital is planning to develop an AI that can predict tumor boundaries from structural cMRI data sets (focus on brain tumors).
Contact: Michael.Sabel@med.uni-duesseldorf.de Contact the office and unsubscribe from the mailing list by sending an e-mail to bioriver@bioriver.de. BioRiver – Life Science im Rheinland e.V., Merowingerplatz 1, 40225 Düsseldorf. Responsible for the content of the newsletter: Dr. Frauke Hangen, Managing Director.