UniFounder Award 2012

Nano technology in medical imaging - 10.000 euro for four ambitious founder personalities with an innovative business idea

The Uni Founder Award of the Sparkasse zu Lübeck 2012 is awarded to the spin-off project Fork Labs. The prize for attractive founding concepts from the University and University Clinic in Lübeck was ceremoniously awarded on June 28. The new Minister for Education and Science, Prof. Dr. Waltraud Wende, conveyed greetings from the federal government

For Fork Labs, the future company founders Timo Sattel, Marlitt Erbe, Niclas Apitz and Martin Henning received the prize, awarded with 10.000 euro from Wolfgang Pötschke, chairman of the Sparkasse zu Lübeck, in the townhall of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck.

The vicepresident of the City, Lienhard Böhning, held the keynote, while Prof. Dr. Winfried Stöcker, chairman of Euroimmun AG, gave the ceremonial address.

Fork Labs emerges out of the Institute for Medical Technology of the University of Lübeck. Core area of the future company is the development, construction and sales of highly technological measurement technique in the area of the new medical imaging modality "Magnetic Particle Imaging". Nano Technologies are seen as key technologies of our time. This development concerns above all areas in which magnetic nano particle (MNP) are deployed.

A significant expansion of the application areas has in recent years contributed to the fact that requirements of the quality of the MNP have risen significantly. Thus, their optimal size, form and magnetisation properties are often decisive for the result of the respective application in medical imaging (e.g. MPI 3D-Angiography), in hyperthermal cancer therapy as well as in environmental technique. The company will present its first product on the market at the beginnings of 2013: the magnetic-particle-spectrometer, a new measuring device for the characterization of magnetic nanoparticles.

For the third time, founder teams from science were asked to hand in concepts for their potential founding projects. Since 2008, the prize is awarded every two years. Dipl.-Ing Lukas Ramrath with pro medTec Ltd was the prize-winner in 2008, Dr. Eva Lankenau with OptoMedical Technologies Ltd was the prize-winner in 2012.