The Innovation and Partnering team at the LCSB helps connect academic HealthTech innovators with industry partners to take technology from lab to market. They have successfully supported the creation of seven spin-offs and continue to help bring research into application through industrial partnerships and proof-of-concept projects.
The Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), part of the University of Luxembourg, aims to explore new ways to understand and eventually prevent or cure human diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease by applying an interdisciplinary approach. Its Innovation and Partnering team, led by Dr. Clemens Ostrowicz, is focused on enabling technology transfer: bringing the centre’s research to the market and patients. As Dr. Silvia Colucci, Partnership Development Officer explains, “this could come in different forms. It could be a spin-off, or the licensing of a patented technology to companies or venture builders, who take the technology forward in a more applied way.”
One way they enable this is by helping researchers access public and private funding opportunities. For example, by connecting them with companies. Dr. Léa Delacour, Partnership Development Officer, states: “We are a bit like matchmakers. We try to identify potential industrial partners – both nationally and internationally – that our researchers might not have come across yet and bring them together.” And this can be done at an early stage. “Our doors are open to discuss any kind of innovation or even research finding,” Dr. Ostrowicz explains. “As long as there is potential for an application outside of academia.”
Technology transfer is enabled by the access to public funding such as the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) BRIDGES and JUMP programmes. As Dr. Ostrowicz details: “We work with the involved parties on drafting the proposal that is required to get the funding to ensure they have the best chance of success.” Most recently, their efforts were rewarded when Prof. Rejko Krüger, head of the Translational Neuroscience group at LCSB, received the 2022 FNR Award “Outstanding Scientific Achievement” for the first proof-of-concept for precision medicine in Parkinson’s disease. One of the contributing factors to his win was a JUMP project that the LCSB Innovation and Partnering team supported.
The team also facilitates matching spin-off projects with international private funding, for example through initiatives such as “Healthy Ideas, Healthy Returns”, which is currently chaired by Dr. Ostrowicz. This platform provides networking opportunities for researchers and spin-offs from the Benelux to connect with investors from the region and beyond.
To date, multiple startups have spun off from LCSB, three of which are currently active – ITTM, Organotherapeutics, and NIUM. “We consider the creation of a spin-off the end of the lifecycle of our project and the beginning of their independent entrepreneurial adventure,” concludes Dr. Colucci.
This article was first published in the Silicon Luxembourg magazine. Get your copy.
