Accelerating medical solutions

SPARK Europe was represented at the BIONNALE 2021 by five SPARK project teams from Finland, Norway, Israel & Germany. The SPARK Europe teams pitched their translational projects & business ideas on the virtual stage in front of representatives of the healthcare and life sciences industry. Charité and DHZB pediatric cardiologist PD. Dr. Boris Schmitt and program manager Dr. Tanja Rosenmund represented SPARK-BIH at this year's BIONNALE.

Scientists and clinicians of all career stages at Charité including BIH are invited to apply for the SPARK-BIH program with proposals for translational projects in the area of drug development, medical device technology and diagnostics in all medical fields. Project submission will be accepted until 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.