OrganoTherapeutics, a spin-off project from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg, won a BioVaria Startup Award during this year’s virtual BioVaria, an event bringing together leading tech transfer professionals, innovators from academia and startups with investors and representatives of the global biotech and pharma industry. OrganoTherapeutics uses cutting-edge human-specific mini-brains for the discovery and development of effective drug candidates targeting Parkinson’s disease.
On 26-28 April 2021, BioVaria brought together 250 life-science innovators to hear about the most exciting technologies and start-ups to emerge from publicly funded European research, and to initiate partnerships between science and business. With 75 licensable projects and 16 selected start-ups, this was the biggest portfolio ever presented at BioVaria. 70 research institutes, universities and university hospitals from 7 European countries contributed technologies to the portfolio, in close cooperation with the 16 technology transfer partners of this year’s BioVaria.
The Startup Pitch & Partner programme, with its pitching competition and individual speed-dating sessions for entrepreneurs and investors, met with considerable interest. OrganoTherapeutics was the winner of this year’s BioVaria Startup Awards in the ‘Rising’ category. The LCSB spin-off beat six other selected start-ups, convincing a jury of experienced investors with its technology and business model. OrganoTherapeutics is pursuing a new approach to the development of drugs for Parkinson’s disease. The start-up is using patient-specific models, so-called brain organoids, in order to identify therapeutic agents that can reverse brain-damaging processes. “We are delighted to receive this award. It motivates us to improve our organoid model in order to discover new therapies for Parkinson’s disease,” said Prof. Jens Schwamborn, cofounder and CEO of OrganoTherapeutics and head of the Developmental and Cellular Biology group at the LCSB.
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