Skip to main content
Sandra Zeidler and Dr. Christine Wuebben (from left to right) from Bonn at the Pitch4Med Contest at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Honors & Funding

ImmunoSensation entrepreneurs successfully pitch an innovative approach to fight respiratory viruses with an immunostimulatory nasal spray

A team of researchers in the group of Gunther Hartmann at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital Bonn, and the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 successfully pitched their start-up idea of Coldex, a nasal spray that provides protection from viral infections, at the Pitch4Med Contest at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the 2nd Medical Pitch Contest of the Medical Faculty, University of Bonn. 

At the Pitch4Med Contest in Düsseldorf in October 2023, Dr. Christine Wuebben and her co-entrepreneurs first presented their innovative idea in a ten-minute pitch in front of a top-class jury consisting of Dr. Jan Engels, Investment Manager High-Tech Gründerfonds, Rolf Fellmann, Chairman of the business angel network Angel Engine and Lars Gussen, Investment Manager TechVision Fond, who gave the young researchers valuable feedback.

The Coldex team then entered the 2nd Medical Pitch Contest during the MIB Future Panel at the Medical Faculty Bonn with a refined five-minutes pitch. The distinguished jury, consisting of Dr. Laura Pedroza (Investment Manager, Hightech Gründerfonds), Dr. Christopher Jahn (Investment Manager, TechVision Fonds), Maximilian Erb (VC Department, NRW.Bank) and Dr. Alexander Zink (Head of Technology & Innovation, Xlife Sciences) was convinced by the innovative concept and awarded Coldex the shared first place in the competition.

Thanks to its promising approach, the Coldex team recently received prototyping grants from the transfer center enacom of the University of Bonn.

Related news

Bone2Gene Funding Peter Krawitz

Honors & Funding

“Bone2Gene” Secures €1 Million Grant

—The “Bone2Gene” project of researchers from the University of Bonn and University Hospital Bonn has been awarded funding worth €1,000,000 as part of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s GO-Bio initial program. The money is now enabling the team arround ImmunoSensation Member Prof. Peter Krawitz, to progress to the feasibility phase and get its product ready for market launch. “Bone2Gene“ is using artificial intelligence (AI) to make genetic bone conditions known as skeletal dysplasia easier to spot and diagnose.
View entry
W1 female immunity

Honors & Funding

New junior professorship for female immunity in Bonn

—Anchoring gender perspectives in research: with this aim in mind, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is promoting gender denomination for professorships. The University of Excellence Bonn is now receiving a new junior professorship for female immunity at the Faculty of Medicine from the programme. The junior professorship is intended to expand the research focus on immunology at the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) to include important issues relating to gender and gender-specific aspects in immunology and women's health.
View entry
Elvira Mass MagNet: Macrophage Niche Network Dynamics

Honors & Funding

The ‘choreographers’ of tissue development and function

—The German Research Foundation (DFG) is setting up a new research group at the University of Bonn. ‘MagNet: Macrophage Niche Network Dynamics’ is dedicated to the systematic study of macrophages, specialised immune cells that play a central role in tissue development and function. The spokesperson of the research group is ImmunoSensation member Prof Dr Elvira Mass from the University of Bonn, supported by co-spokesperson Prof Dr Falk Nimmerjahn from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU).
View entry

Back to the news overview