As part of the German Biotech Days 2026 in Leipzig, the Council of BioRegions in Germany once again presented its prestigious Innovation Award on 21 April. This award recognizes innovative, patented or patent-pending ideas from biotechnology research that promise practical implementation and significant economic potential.
Among the three prize winners, who were selected from six finalists by an independent expert jury and each received prize money of EUR 2,000, is the PROTON project lead by Dr Aditya Shekhar and Dr Dominik Heimann from the HZI. It addresses a key challenge in modern medicine: severe bacterial infections in the face of increasing antimicrobial resistance. The approach does not focus on killing the pathogen, but on neutralizing the α-toxin of Staphylococcus aureus, a key virulence factor responsible for tissue damage.
This award recognizes the team for its ongoing work to bring a first-in-class therapy to the clinic. In 2024, it had already received nearly EUR 900,000 through the IBT Prize and secured additional funding from CARB-X.
At the 6th IBT PRE-SEED Portfolio Conference as part of Transfer X MACHEN on 5 May at Medical Park Hannover, the DeColi project from the HZI was named one of the two winners and secured prize money of EUR 1.045 million. A total of seven innovation projects from leading life-science research institutions in Lower Saxony presented their work. The funding will enable the research findings to be tested clinically as quickly as possible and ensure their commercial success through the establishment of start-ups.
Led by Dr Marie Wende, Prof. Dr Till Strowig and Dr Christian Brandstetter, DeColi tackles the problem of hospital-acquired infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The team is developing a living biotherapeutic product that selectively displaces dangerous bacteria such as Escherichia coli from the gut before serious infections such as sepsis, pneumonia or wound infections develop. This approach to microbiome editing is intended to effectively protect at-risk patients from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
We at Ascenion are delighted and proud to continue supporting the teams in bringing these exciting technologies to fruition!
Further Information: Press Release of HZI for grant for DeColi
