Helmholtz validation funding extended, facilitating further projects

Developing pioneering technologies and making them attractive for industry often requires a great deal of patience and perseverance. The Helmholtz Validation Fund (HVF) is therefore providing support to a number of particularly promising projects carried out by research teams in the Helmholtz Association. A total of 21 projects were selected for the first funding period from 2011 to 2015. Following a successful evaluation process, the programme will now continue from 2016 to 2020. The first three projects to be funded in the new programme phase were selected this December by the experts on the decision-making board. These projects could pave the way to discovering new and better ways of diagnosing and treating diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s.

Some of the projects from the first programme phase have already been successfully launched on the market. “That was one of the main reasons behind the success of the Validation Fund evaluation and the decision to extend it,” says Rolf Zettl, Managing Director of the Helmholtz Association. “This also means a significant increase to the HVF budget so that we can translate even more exciting technologies from the 18 Helmholtz Centres into practice.” A total of €7.5 million has been earmarked for each of the validation projects over the next five years.

More flexible conditions are to be introduced in line with the recommendations made during the evaluation. In future, Helmholtz Centres and their partners from industry will be able to choose the amount of co-financing within a three-step system. Following an EU-wide tender, Berlin-based venture capital firm Peppermint VenturePartners was awarded the external fund management role. “I am delighted that the successful partnership we built over the past five years can be continued,” says Klaus Stöckemann, Managing Partner at Peppermint VenturePartners. “Helmholtz really does offer great potential for high-tech innovation that can be put into practice.”

The first three projects to be funded in the new programme phase are:

Next-generation BrainPET scanner
The life expectancies of people in developed countries will increase steadily in the coming decades. This is expected to cause a rise in neurological disorders. Imaging modalities are enormously important for researching dementia, depression and other mental illnesses, and for developing new active substances. However, existing modalities such as CT, MRI and PET are limited in terms of the amount of information they can provide. With that in mind, the team led by N.J. Shah and Christoph Lerche at Forschungszentrum Jülich will develop the Brain-PET 7T – a new brain scanner application that combines positron emission tomography and ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging, enabling a much more detailed analysis of neurological disorders and the underlying metabolic and structural contexts. The funded project, backed with €2 million from the Helmholtz Validation Fund, will develop a prototype and bring it to market.

KID biomarker technology
Diseases such as osteoporosis, kidney failure and cancer affect large sections of the population. Early detection can be vital to effective treatment and increased patient wellbeing – and can also reduce costs in the healthcare industry. A team led by Anton Eisenhauer at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel has developed a new process that can diagnose these diseases accurately, at an early stage and in a way that is safe for patients. The KID biomarker technology uses a calcium isotope analysis that measures disease-related changes in the body’s calcium balance – and is considerably more sensitive than conventional methods. With the new technology, only the urine or blood needs to be tested. This avoids having to expose patients to X-rays, radiation, or contrast media. As well as simplifying the diagnosis, the new method also makes it easier to monitor the progress of a therapy and the effect of medication. The project, which is receiving €600,000 in funding, aims to develop a variety of diagnostic services over the next two years.

Fighting brain tumours with antibodies
Glioblastoma, or brain tumours, are a type of cancer with a very poor prognosis. No other kind of tumour robs patients of so many years of life. What is more, existing therapies are very expensive and very limited in terms of their impact. A team led by Reinhard Zeidler at Helmholtz Zentrum München is now working to advance intracavitary radioimmunotherapy and bring it into a clinical phase. The researchers have developed and patented an antibody for this that offers promising diagnostic and therapeutic potential. The Helmholtz Validation Fund is providing support to help the project reach its first milestone. If these objectives are achieved, the project could receive a subsequent, more substantial round of funding.