Prof. Olivia Merkel of LMU Munich has received the UNIPRENEURS Award 2026 – Germany’s highest honor for academic entrepreneurship. The pharmaceutical scientist is a co-founder of the LMU spin-off RNhale, which is developing inhalable RNA therapeutics at BioM’s MAxL incubator. As a Daiichi Sankyo Golden Ticket Holder, RNhale benefits from one year of free access to MAxL’s infrastructure as well as targeted support.
Prof. Olivia Merkel, Chair of Drug Delivery at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU), has been honored with the UNIPRENEURS Award 2026. The award recognizes professors who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to entrepreneurship and academic spin-offs at German universities. The award ceremony took place on September 22, 2026, at the Allianz Forum at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
For many years, Merkel has been conducting research on novel, non-viral RNA delivery systems. A key focus of her work is the targeted delivery of RNA-based therapeutics via the lungs, with the aim of enabling new treatment approaches for inflammatory and other severe pulmonary diseases. This research led to the founding of the LMU spin-off RNhale in 2023, which Merkel co-founded. The company is developing inhalable RNA therapeutics in which RNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles are embedded in an inhalable dry-powder formulation.
RNhale is currently advancing this technology at BioM’s MAxL (Munich Accelerator Life Sciences & Medicine) incubator in Martinsried. In 2025, the start-up won the first Golden Ticket for MAxL, sponsored by Daiichi Sankyo. As a Golden Ticket Holder, RNhale can use the incubator’s state-of-the-art laboratory and coworking facilities free of charge for one year. In addition, the team benefits from BioM’s tailored mentoring and networking programs as well as access to Daiichi Sankyo’s global network of experts.
Also in 2025, RNhale received an EIC Transition Grant of EUR 2.5 million to further advance its RNA-based technology for the treatment of pulmonary diseases toward clinical application.