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Revolution in biotech: Germany's first gene therapy program is restarting!
In 2025, the GeneNovate program will support young talent in the field of gene and cell therapies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Revolution in biotech: Germany's first gene therapy program is restarting!
On July 1, 2025, the GeneNovate program, Germany's first national entrepreneurship program for gene and cell therapies, was successfully completed. This innovative program aims to promote entrepreneurship and technology transfer in the biotech sector. This year the final event took place in Berlin, where 23 research projects were presented. The jury, consisting of business angels, venture capital investors and experienced entrepreneurs, evaluated the teams and their ideas.
The focus of GeneNovate is on young scientists and doctors who are to be trained in the areas of entrepreneurship. The training program, which took place for the second time after a pilot project in the summer of 2024, extended across six locations in Germany: Berlin, Heidelberg, Hanover, Munich, Mainz and Dresden/Leipzig. Promoting young talent is a central aspect of the program, which is to be expanded in 2026 to the North Rhine-Westphalia and South-West regions as well as at the European level.
The winners and their projects
The 2025 winning teams come from different cities. The projects that received awards are groundbreaking and address current health challenges:
- iGuard (Hannover): Entwicklung eines RNA-Inhalationssprays zur Behandlung von Lungenfibrose.
- Heat Therapeutics (Heidelberg): Immunmolekül zur Bekämpfung von Tumoren.
- EliaCell (Dresden/Leipzig): Skalierbare makrophagen-basierte Zelltherapie für solide Tumore.
- cure4ME (Berlin): Niedermolekulare Substanz zur Hemmung von Stufe-4-Metastasen.
The winning teams not only receive individual coaching, but also an invitation to the GeneNovate Investors' Day 2026. The jury members passed on valuable feedback to the participants, thereby supporting the transfer of research results into marketable therapies.
GeneNovate and the National Network for Gene and Cell Therapies
GeneNovate is part of the National Strategy for Gene and Cell Therapies (GCT). This comprehensive network is coordinated at the Berlin Institute of Health in the Charité (BIH). Partners in this initiative are leading institutions such as the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the H3 Health Hub, bioRN and the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim. This collaboration strengthens Germany as a location for innovation and creates quick access to innovative therapies.
The program promotes knowledge transfer through interdisciplinary workshops, individual mentoring and direct connection to clinical and industrial partners. It is aimed at a broad target group, including master's students, doctoral students, postdocs as well as experienced scientists and doctors. It is particularly important that participants have the opportunity to join a team without a specific business idea.
The six-part workshop series covers central topics such as business models, legal principles and financing. These workshops, which take place once a month from January to June, are intended to help participants turn their ideas into marketable products. The next application process will open in autumn 2025.
GeneNovate has established itself as a central platform for promoting gene and cell therapies in Germany. The goal remains clear: to position Germany as a leading location for innovative therapies and thus actively shape the health care of the future. This initiative shows how important the exchange between research and industry is in order to make new therapies available to patients as quickly as possible.