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Finance and Investment, Industrial application

Nicky Deasy: how agrifood startups can help us tackle climate change

Nicky Deasy is Co-Founder and former Managing Partner at The Yield Lab Europe, one of the largest early-stage venture capital funds in the EU focused on the intersection of sustainability and agtech. Since stepping back from the day-to-day running of the fund, she is an Investment Committee Member at biotope by VIB, as well as advising a number of startups and investment funds focused on improving the environmental and carbon footprint of the agrifood industry. She shares her thoughts on how innovative ag- and food-tech startups can help us tackle climate change.

eureKARE stimulates synthetic biology start-ups with studio in Belgium

With its network of thematic SynBio Studios, investment company eureKARE is boosting the creation of new European start-ups in synthetic biology. Its first EU studio is located in Brussels and focuses on biomedical applications. Things are moving fast, and the studio has already welcomed two companies onboard.

Dosing flash radiation for the future of cancer treatment

Flash radiation has the potential to become a revolution in radiation therapy. An incredibly promising cancer treatment that limits the damage to surrounding tissue, it is currently in the pre-clinical stage. MEDVIA-funded project eFlash2D is working to assure that dosing is ready when flash radiation enters clinical trials.

MEDVIA: paving the way for health innovation

There is a lot of money being invested in health innovation in Flanders, yet companies consistently run into the same roadblocks on their path to market. MEDVIA’s mission is to bring people together to address these barriers, and to facilitate the creation of complex collaborations between different members of the ecosystem for truly innovative patient solutions.

Power to the patient: Conference tackles challenges of medtech innovation

V-Bio Ventures portfolio company Confo Therapeutics Announces Global Licensing Agreement with Lilly for Peripheral Pain Candidate, CFTX-1554

CMT Research Foundation (USA) collaborates with Augustine Therapeutics on new therapy against Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

How to integrate patient perspectives in innovation

After recovering from metastatic colon cancer, Stefan Gijssels became a patient advocate dedicated to improving the healthcare system that saved his life. As Chair of the Belgian Patient Expert Center (PEC), he has helped to establish a training program turning patients into patient experts who can provide stakeholders like hospitals and companies with valuable insights during the innovation process.

Femtech: Breaking barriers in women’s health through innovation and investment

Femtech is a growing field that has rapidly expanded from niche market to global ecosystem. From period-tracking apps and smart pelvic floor trainers to wearable breast pumps – both start-ups and well-established multinationals are prioritizing tech innovation in women’s health. But are investors keeping up with this trend, or is the strong gender skew in venture capital hampering the femtech field?

Data science – taking clinical drug development to the next level

Clinical drug development is a challenging endeavor, but help is at hand! From trial site selection, to patient recruitment, to endpoint characterization – data science integration can help to overcome bottlenecks and improve efficiency in clinical development by generating unique insights to help guide study design and operations. For this strategy to be used to its full potential in Belgium, local partners should optimize data governance and quality, and improve collaboration. This would help the country maintain its status as a leading location for clinical trials.

Coave Therapeutics: redecorating viral vectors for improved gene therapies

Coave Therapeutics is a French biotech developing gene therapies for neurodegenerative and ocular diseases. The company has developed a technology platform that can be used to redecorate the outer surface of viruses, creating gene therapy vectors that are better at accurately delivering healthy genes to the right target cells, including neurons in the deep brain tissue. By combining this vector technology with transgenes restoring natural cell cleaning pathways, the company has created a pipeline of therapies for both genetically and non-genetically defined neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Brewing up a new business: AB InBev surprises with ambitions for animal-free proteins

Belgian-American AB InBev, the world's largest brewer, has set up a separate R&D division called BioBrew to develop animal-free proteins using precision fermentation. Quite a number of companies are already focused on producing alternative proteins, which don’t cause harm to animals and are more sustainable, but they generally lack the capacity to produce them on a commercial level. This is one of the things that sets BioBrew apart, thanks to AB InBev’s knowhow of using yeast fermentation on a large scale to make beer.

Energizing the transition: ACROBAT consortium devises smart and sustainable ways to recycle LFP batteries

Batteries are a crucial component of the energy transition away from fossil fuels, but the technology currently faces issues with sustainable recycling methods, which are vital for recuperating the rare raw materials inside the power cells. The European ACROBAT consortium, led by Flemish research center VITO, is tackling this issue specifically for LFP batteries – a type of lithium-ion batteries that are steadily growing in importance, including for electric cars.

Great at small things: BCCM stores microorganisms, plasmids, hybridomas, and more!

BCCM is a Belgian non-profit consortium of seven biological resource centers preserving and distributing microbial and genetic resources, offering storage and scientific services for both academia and industry. These world-class collections are exceptional in terms of the number and variety of specimens and excellent quality control. BCCM’s confidential deposit services are a great way for companies to store genetic material and microorganisms for safety or patent purposes, including hybridomas and other cell lines.

Why diversity matters in management teams, and how to achieve it

The biotech industry is suffering from a serious talent shortage, with start-ups in particular having an increasingly hard time filling C-level positions. Yet despite this difficulty, many job searches are failing to look beyond the industry’s stereotypical candidate, throwing their hands up in despair when the typical white middle-aged man can’t be found to fill the role. In broadening the search to include more diverse candidates – including women and people with different ethnic backgrounds – we will not only help to address the talent shortage but also strengthen the start-ups themselves. So how can a company build and maintain a more diverse management team?