Accelerating medical solutions

SPARK-BIH is very pleased to announce that the SPARK-BIH Call for 2021 project proposals is now open! The application deadline is May 31, 2021 (14:00 CET).

In addition to the regular educational lectures, talks and panel sessions, the SPARK Europe webinar series now features a format dedicated to the Dos and Don’ts of Entrepreneurship. The so-called “Innovator Café” brings together experienced entrepreneurs and young CEOs to share their success stories and failures. The first meeting took place on 3 March 2021 with the Charité Professor Craig Garner, founder of three Biotech companies and initiator of the SPARK program in Berlin. Overall, 80 participants from seven countries followed the live webinar.

To mark the occasion of Rare Disease Day 2021 on February 28, the Berlin Institute of Health spoke to SPARKee Prof. Peter Kühnen in the BIH podcast about hereditary obesity. Prof. Peter Kühnen studied in a clinical trial a new drug targeting a promising target for treatment of hereditary obesity. The SPARK-BIH / Validation Fund program funded the respective project of Prof. Peter Kühnen and Prof. Heike Biebermann.

Dr. Panagiotis Fikatas, Senior Surgeon at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, invented a surgical device using a knot technology for minimally invasive surgery. Early prototyping and development work was significantly supported by the SPARK-BIH program with the Validation Fund and funds from the Stiftung Charité.

The studies of Prof. Peter Kühnen on normalizing body weight were funded by the SPARK-BIH / Validation Fund program. He has now been awarded the Paul-Martini-Prize 2020.