NewsCharité BIH Innovation
Five Charité projects qualify (again) for GO-Bio initial program
A total of five projects supervised by Charité BIH Innovation — the joint technology transfer of Charité and BIH — have successfully qualified for the GO-Bio initial program of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR). While NEUROLITH will begin the two-year feasibility phase (Machbarkeitsphase) in December 2025, our newcomers ZELF, G-CESE, ReTree-Therapeutics, and Bolly started the one-year conceptual phase (Sondierungsphase) of the program in October 2025.
NEUROLITH was one of nine teams across Germany to qualify for the feasibility phase of the GO-Bio initial program. The joint project between Charité (project manager Jacob Spinnen, MD/PhD), Fraunhofer ISC in Würzburg (project manager Dr. Bastian Christ), and Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon (project manager Dr. Katarzyna Polak-Krásna) is being funded with a total of €1,000,000, €500,000 of which will go to Charité. Their new tissue implant is intended to be used in the future for the causal treatment of traumatic spinal cord injuries, making it the first targeted therapeutic approach for spinal cord injuries. After completion of the one-year conceptual phase in October 2025, the project will enter the feasibility phase in December 2025. During this two-year funding phase, the aim is to achieve a proof of principle for the tissue implant and to test its function and handling.
The interdisciplinary NEUROLITH team consists of Jacob Spinnen, MD/PhD and Lennard Shopperly (laboratory managers at BioReconstruction Lab), with specialist expertise in the field of spinal cord injuries provided by senior physician Dr. med. Vanessa Hubertus and Laurens Roolfs. The team works at the Clinic for Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery (with the support of Director Univ. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Ertel) and the Clinic for Neurosurgery with a focus on pediatric neurosurgery (with the support of Prof. Dr. med. Peter Vajkoczy).
The following four teams began the conceptual phase in October 2025:
ZELF – Highly functional cell therapy: The next generation of precision medicine (project leader Dania Hamo). The project is based on adaptive T-cell therapy, in which regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) are specifically used to treat autoimmune diseases and transplant medicine, and contributes to the development of highly functional cell therapy.
Growth-Coupled Enzyme Selection and Evolution (G-CESE) (project leader Jan Krüsemann, PhD) uses genetically modified bacterial strains to develop more efficient enzymes in high throughput. By making the fitness of the bacterial strains dependent on the functionality of individual enzymes, natural selection can be used in a targeted manner: improved enzyme activity gives the bacteria an evolutionary advantage and enables the development of more efficient enzymes.
ReTree Therapeutics (project leader Dr. med. Milad Rezvani) develops a drug discovery platform for liver diseases in children, primarily biliary atresia, the most common reason for liver transplantation in children and adolescents. This involves setting up a patient omics database and using patient organoids for therapeutic target identification.
Bolly (project leaders PD Dr. Boris Schmitt, Elisabeth Krenkler) develops a novel treatment option for extremely premature infants using a portable system that mimics the female uterus. Extremely premature babies in incubators (the current gold standard of treatment) lack important stimuli that are necessary for their physical and psychological development. By mimicking the uterine environment with physical contact, these stimuli can be specifically provided to enable the most undisturbed development possible.
The GO-Bio initial program promotes the identification and development of early-stage life science research approaches with recognizable innovation potential in two different funding phases: The GO-Bio initial exploratory phase supports selected projects for one year with €100,000 and expert advice. The aim is to further develop ideas, particularly in the areas of “therapeutics,” “diagnostics,” “platform technologies,” and “research tools,” from conceptual design and feasibility testing to exploring possible exploitation options.
Successful exploratory projects will have the opportunity to move on to the two-year feasibility phase in a second selection process to provide technical proof of principle. Researchers can involve companies as associated partners in this phase. The BMFTR grants up to €500,000 for individual projects and up to €1,000,000 for joint projects. Scientists who can imagine a career outside the traditional scientific system, e.g., in a spin-off or in industry, are eligible to apply.
Our start-up consultant Dr. Bettina Otto supported the teams in their preparations and will continue to advise them throughout the duration of the program. Interested scientists can contact bettina.otto@bih-charite.de with any questions and/or reapply for admission to the funding program by February 15, 2026.