On the occasion of the German Biotech Days (DBT) 2026 in Leipzig, the Working Group of the German BioRegions once again awarded its Innovation Prize on April 21, 2026. The Würzburg-based project Vasc-on-Demand impressed the jury with its development of artificial blood vessels.
The BioRegions Innovation Prize recognizes innovative, patented or patent-pending biotechnological ideas that demonstrate strong potential for practical application and significant economic impact.
Platform technology from Würzburg convinces
Among the three equally ranked award winners is the project “Vasc-on-Demand – Platform for Vascularized Tissue Models,” presented by Alexander Radüchel and Katinka Theis (University Hospital Würzburg).
The platform enables the standardized production of vascularized tissue models using ready-to-use artificial blood vessels, allowing for more realistic and reproducible studies of biological processes and drug effects.
The jury particularly highlighted the platform character, its broad range of applications—from drug development to personalized medicine—and its clear path toward practical implementation.
Six finalists, three winners
A total of six finalists from Dresden, Braunschweig, Berlin, Leipzig, Würzburg, and Frankfurt presented their research projects to an international expert audience, including potential investors. An independent jury selected three equal winners, each receiving a prize of EUR 2,000.
The other award winners:
Innovative approach against resistant infections
Another awarded project is “First-in-class small-molecule inhibitor of Staphylococcus aureus α-toxin” by Dr. Aditya Shekhar (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig).
It addresses a key challenge in modern medicine: severe bacterial infections in the context of increasing antimicrobial resistance.
New target in cancer therapy
The project “SpliceTACs: First-in-class spliceosome-targeting degraders” by Dr. Xinlai Cheng (Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt) was also recognized.
This approach targets the selective degradation of the spliceosomal protein USP39, disrupts essential RNA processing mechanisms, and thereby induces tumor cell death.
Audience Award for “MakulaPatch”
In addition, all finalists had the opportunity to win the 2026 Audience Award, which was decided via online voting. The award went to Felix Wagner for the project “MakulaPatch” from the Technical University of Dresden, where mini-retinas are being developed to effectively combat degenerative eye diseases in the future.