At the beginning of the month, the Munich Residence was the m4 Award. Among the winners is "KNOWING – Turning Big Data into Personalized Therapies," a project led by Dr. Nikola Müller and the team at the Institute of Computational Biology at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. The researchers are developing software that combines and analyzes very large and heterogeneous data sets across multiple projects, such as data from genome, metabolic, and tissue studies. This allows for the discovery of connections and the identification of opportunities for innovative biomarkers or active ingredients.
KNOWING will receive €500,000 in funding over the next two years. The prize money will ideally enable the team to develop the software to the point of company formation and seed funding.
Of the 40 submitted projects – all of which were excellent according to the jury – five ultimately emerged as winners.4 The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs honors innovative biomedical research projects with the award, which have particular potential to lead to the founding of companies in the field of personalized medicine. The m4 Award in the "Munich Excellence Cluster," a program jointly funded by the federal and state governments in the greater Munich area to promote "personalized medicine." Upon its inception, this competition was expanded to the entire Free State with funding from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs.
"For Bavaria as a high-tech location, research and development are of central importance. But it is also about the transfer into innovative products and technologies. This is the basis for being able to compete globally,"
explains State Secretary Franz Josef Pschierer,
"The m4-Award is a tailor-made tool that takes into account the challenging conditions in the medical field. We use it to reward the best ideas and support them on their journey from research to application. This way, we create real benefits for patients, and do so much faster."
The KNOWING team was supported by the TUM start-up advice supports.
