The LMU Center for NanoScience (CeNS) and four LMU spin-off companies, including ibidi, have joined forces to reward the best innovative theses on nanotechnology with the Nano Innovation Award 2021.

Three doctoral students from Munich received this year's Nano Innovation Award from the Center for NanoScience. The award for innovative research in application-oriented nanoscience, co-sponsored by ibidi, is endowed with 9,000 €. An expert jury from industry and science, which included Dr. Roman Zantl, CEO and co-founder of ibidi, selected the winners from applicants from all over Bavaria.

The first prize went to Christian Sigl from the Technical University of Munich, who developed the molecular basis for an unconventional antiviral concept. His work is based on the idea of enclosing whole viruses in macromolecular shells that block the molecular interactions between virus and host cell. The DNA origami platform he developed for this purpose offers a promising approach for combating different viruses using the same concept. The shells developed by Christian provide the technical basis for the interdisciplinary EU consortium VIROFIGHT, which will further test and develop the new therapeutic concept.

The jury awarded the second place to Jan Felber from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. In his work, he succeeded for the first time in creating cell-selective redox sensors for disease-relevant reductases (a specific group of enzymes). His work opens up a broad spectrum of potential applications in biomedicine, ranging from basic research and applications in drug development to clinical diagnostics and therapeutics. Jan Felber has already started several transfer projects (e.g., a start-up for the development of therapeutics and a collaboration with Tubulis GmbH for a novel and powerful linker for antibody-drug conjugates).

Jun Zhang from Munich University of Applied Sciences secured the third place with a novel bioprinting technology that can transfer cells from a reservoir to a target substrate with very high precision using ultra-short laser pulses. By integrating the setup into an inverted optical microscope, it becomes possible to preselect individual cells from complex cell mixtures. The potential applications are manifold - from fundamental questions in cell biology, to single-cell analysis methods, to the production of organs-on-a-chip and tissue engineering. A BMBF-funded project is now developing a user-friendly, fully automated system based on Jun Zhang's findings.