Award-winning High-Tech Business Concepts

Teams from Actome GmbH, working with Dr. Peter Koltay of the university’s Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), and YCOR, working with Associate Professor Dr. Wolfgang Bothe of the Section for Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Heart Center – Bad Krozingen have won two of ten awards in the concept phase of the business plan competition known as the Science4Life Venture Cup. Eighty-four start-up teams were vying for the honors, each of which offers a two-day intensive workshop and a one thousand euro cash award.

The Actome team’s vision is to decode all proteins and their interactions within the human body. To achieve this, the team has developed an analytical process in which protein molecules are individually packaged in millions of tiny microdroplets. The start-up says the method will enable users to analyse proteins precisely and in large numbers as well as their interactions. Actome’s  mission is to help its customers in developing new medicines and diagnostic procedures to allow patients to be treated with improved, individualized, personalized therapies in future.

Patients who suffer from terminal heart failure have such weak hearts that they are no longer able to supply their bodies with enough blood and oxygen. Among the promising alternative therapies are artificial systems that support the heart known as Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD). Yet surgically implanting such systems poses significant and technically complex risks. Doctors in Freiburg have developed the YCOR blood channeling system which has the potential to reduce clearly the stresses and risks of VAD implantation for patients while reducing the costs of the procedure. In future, it will also be possible to use YCOR to treat patients with other diseases.

The Science4Life Venture Cup honors innovative start-up projects in the life sciences, chemistry, and energy. The competition has three phases: The idea, the concept, and the business plan. After completion of the concept phase, the start-ups and future business founders have time until April 12^th  2019 to submit entries for the business plan phase.

For more information on the competition