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i&i Bio, the newly estabilished investment fund powered by i&i Prague and EIF It is our pleasure to announce the start of operations of i&i Biotech Fund (i&i Bio ) in September 2021. This is a great success of i&i Prague team and it brings a new quality and a unique opportunity for early-phase deep-tech spin-offs in Czechia and rest of the Europe. i&i Bio focuses on unique technologies in the fields of Medtech, Diagnostics and Drug discovery. i&i Bio manages more than 45 million EUR and the fund is prepared to invest an average of 2 million EUR (more than 50 million CZK) in a specific project, but in exceptional cases the amount may grow to as much as 4.5 million EUR for a single project. The fund will be joined by further investors in near future including CUIP , the daughter company of the Charles University in Prague. Further details and press release could be found here ! About i&i Bio i&i Bio is a Luxembourg-based venture capital firm that invests in innovative European Life Sciences companies focused on drug discoveries, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health. The Fund was created thanks to the cooperation of the biotech incubator i&i Prague and the European Investment Fund (see below). With over €45M under management, i&i Bio plans to invest in about 20 early-stage companies. i&i Bio is led by an experienced team of professionals with backgrounds in private equity, healthcare and venture capital supporting entrepreneurs on their journey to global success. Thanks to the close cooperation with the fund’s sponsor, the biotech academic incubator i&i Prague, i&i Bio is supporting and advancing transformative Central European technology companies. For more information visit www.inibio.eu . About European Investment Fund i&i Bio is supported by an investment from the EIF, with the support of: lnnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing; and the Pan-European Guarantee Fund (EGF), implemented by the EIF with the financial support of the Participating Member States. The objective of EGF is to respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that companies in the Participating Member States have sufficient short-term liquidity available to weather the crisis and are able to continue their growth and development in the medium to long-term.

i&i Prague announces its first exit, DIANA Biotechnologies is bought out by its founders Prague, 21 February 2022 – BTND a.s. has completed the buyout of DIANA Biotechnologies from the portfolio of biotech incubator i&i Prague. For i&i Prague, the transaction opens up new opportunities to support other scientific projects. i&i Prague acquired a stake in DIANA Biotechnologies at its inception, reflecting the important role of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB) in the early development of DIANA technology prior to the company’s establishment. However, DIANA Biotechnologies has gradually become a successful biotechnology company that is independently developing a number of other new technologies. It has also made a positive contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic by developing unique PCR assays, significantly increasing the Czech testing capacity. DIANA Biotechnologies is now facing major investments in further development and it made sense for i&i Prague to make its first exit. BTND a. s., a company backed by DIANA Biotechnologies co-founders Václav Navrátil and Martin Dienstbier, together with the Czech investment group BTCZ, is buying the stake from i&i Prague. „In less than four years DIANA Biotechnologies has moved from a spin-off project to a broad-based and independent company. We are now facing heavy investment in building a state-of-the-art scientific facility and in developing projects in drug development and monoclonal antibody development. Our goal is to build an innovative biopharmaceutical company that will work closely with Czech academia. I am pleased that our success will also help other promising scientific projects,“ said Václav Navrátil, co-founder and director of DIANA Biotechnologies. The transaction is also considered a great success by the incubator i&i Prague, where it is the first purchase of a share of the company from their portfolio. “We were honored to be at the birth of this project. It is the first swallow, which completes several years of efforts of our entire team and which also confirms the sense and correctness of our steps and vision. We will use the funds raised through this transaction to support other interesting startups and spin-off companies from the academic sphere in the Czech Republic and Europe,“ explained Jaromír Zahrádka, founder and director of i&i Prague. About i&i Prague The i&i Prague biotech incubator was founded in 2017 and has become part of a unique ecosystem that has formed around the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB). Since its establishment, this incubator has been dedicated to investing in academia and supporting the transition of scientific discoveries into practice. Currently, i&i Prague has in its portfolio the shares of 10 spin-off companies, promising projects from all over Europe or the USA, in which it has invested a total of approximately EUR 3 million. In addition, it has helped these early stage companies to raise another approximately EUR 75 million from investors not only from Europe but from all over the world. About DIANA Biotechnologies The i&i Prague biotech incubator was founded in 2017 and has become part of a unique ecosystem that has formed around the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB). Since its establishment, this incubator has been dedicated to investing in academia and supporting the transition of scientific discoveries into practice. Currently, i&i Prague has in its portfolio the shares of 10 spin-off companies, promising projects from all over Europe or the USA, in which it has invested a total of approximately EUR 3 million. In addition, it has helped these early stage companies to raise another approximately EUR 75 million from investors not only from Europe but from all over the world.

i&i Prague and ÚHKT Join Forces to Bring an Innovative Sample Preparation Technology to Market Prague, March 18, 2025 – i&i Prague, a leading Czech biotech incubator, has announced a collaboration with the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (ÚHKT) to commercialize an innovative liquid microextraction technology. Developed by Dr. Matyáš Krijt and Associate Professor Daniel Vyoral, this technology enables fast and efficient separation of two immiscible liquids without the loss of analytes, even in a parallel setup suitable for robotics and automation. The further development and production of the final commercial product will be handled by Medirekt Partner. By combining cutting-edge academic research, expert technology transfer, and industrial know-how, this project paves the way for successful commercialization. It serves as another example of how collaboration between the public and private sectors can bring scientific discoveries closer to real-world applications and improve the efficiency of laboratory processes. Faster, More Cost-Effective, and Eco-Friendly Liquid Separation “The new patented technology represents a major breakthrough in sample preparation for analytical laboratories. Unlike traditional methods, it utilizes a unique principle based on a hydrophobic or hydrophilic surface treatment of a capillary opening. The absence of a frit or membrane prevents analyte retention and enables parallel processing of samples using liquid microseparation techniques,” explain the technology's inventors, Matyáš Krijt and Daniel Vyoral. A Technology with Significant Market Potential The Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion plays a crucial role in this project, actively supporting the commercialization of the technology. “ÚHKT recognizes this technology, developed within the TAČR Gama project, as a significant innovation with real market potential. It can be used in virtually any laboratory involved in analytical sample preparation, offering a faster, more precise and cost-efficient alternative to current technologies,” says Petr Lesný, Head of Technology Transfer at ÚHKT. i&i Prague as a Key Accelerator of Technology Transfer i&i Prague specializes in supporting innovations in biotechnology, including the development of laboratory diagnostics and new therapeutics. “We see great potential in this technology and are excited to help bring another innovation from a Czech research institution to life,” says Jiří Moos, CEO of i&i Prague. “We have acquired the intellectual property rights from ÚHKT, and together with our project partners, we believe this innovation can be transformed into a successful commercial product.” Collaboration with Medirekt Partner for Market Entry Industrial partnerships are essential for successfully bringing this technology to market. Medirekt Partner is responsible for product development, manufacturing, and ensuring that the final product meets customer needs. “The technology has successfully undergone laboratory testing and is now being refined for commercial use. We aim to create a product that meets the highest demands of analytical laboratories while offering a more economical (up to ten times more cost-effective) and environmentally friendly (up to a tenfold reduction in the volumes of solvents currently used) solution for sample preparation,” says Jiří Sopuch from Medirekt Partner. Press Contacts Martin Kovalčík – kovalcik@iniprague.com , +420 777 472 863 Jiří Sopuch – jiri.sopuch@medirektpartner.cz, +420 605 826 081 About i&i Prague i&i Prague is a biotech incubator and venture builder founded in 2017 at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The company focuses on innovations in drug development, diagnostics, and medical technologies, specializing in supporting early-stage startups and spin-offs. i&i Prague provides expert guidance on scientific, legal, business, and strategic issues essential for successful company growth. It has built a unique network of startups, investors, industry partners, and biotech experts, fostering efficient collaboration and knowledge-sharing. In 2021, i&i Prague co-founded the investment fund i&i Biotech Fund (i&i Bio). www.iniprague.com About the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (ÚHKT) The Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (ÚHKT) in Prague is a renowned institution specializing in diagnostics, treatment, and research in hematology, blood transfusion, and stem cell therapy. As a center of excellence, ÚHKT focuses on caring for patients with blood disorders, oncological diseases, and immune-related conditions while ensuring high-quality transfusion medicine. With a long-standing tradition and modern infrastructure, ÚHKT contributes significantly to innovative research and the implementation of new therapeutic methods, making a profound impact on medical advancements in the Czech Republic. www.uhkt.cz About Medirekt Partner Medirekt Partner has been engaged in the production and development of medical devices since 2013. The company has collaborated on various medical applications with renowned organizations such as IOCB Prague and universities. Medirekt Partner also provides expert consulting services for product manufacturing, lean production optimization (Lean Six Sigma principles), and automation. The company strives to be part of unique projects with high added value and is a member of the Prague.bio cluster. www.medirektpartner.cz

The judges at Transfera Technology Day 2021 awarded the cream of the crop This year at the 2nd Transfera Technology Day, the first place went to the Tablets for the Treatment of Contaminated Water. The second place was taken by the Microemulsions and Gels for Cleaning Surfaces of Historical Materials and the bronze went to the project aimed at detecting bacteria in amniotic fluid. The jury consisting of representatives of the business community, investors and organisers assessed the commercial potential of research projects of Czech universities and other research institutions. This year, they also awarded the Sympathy Prize for the first time – it went to the special oxygenation liners for fishing beads. The event aims at connecting science and business in order to get valuable feedback regarding the commercial potential of projects and secure future funding for promising research projects. “Czech science and research has many talented people to offer. However, they need to be supported and motivated. That’s why we’re glad we can keep connecting the world of business with the great ideas of our scientists. Especially at its start, no project can survive without support,” says Eva Janouškovcová, chairwoman of the Transfera.cz association, the co-organizer of the event. Battle of Universities, Research Institutes and Hospitals 13 scientific research projects were selected as finalists (aside from the first three projects, there were e.g. the Electrostatic Separation of Plastics to Improve Wate Separation, the Pad for Sensing the Load and Position of the Patient or the Device for Coating Wires in Implant Surgery). There were teams of scientists from the Czech Technical University in Prague, the National Institute of Mental Health, J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, the University of West Bohemia, Palacký University Olomouc, The University of Hradec Králové, Brno University of Technology, University Hospital Hradec Králové, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, Masaryk University, the Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics CAS, the Institute of Geonics CAS and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. The jury chose the best three out of these teams. The winning project of the Palacký University Olomouc is meant to be used mainly in case of natural disasters or industrial accidents. The new effervescent tablets for the treatment of contaminated water are easy to store and use – you simply put them in the contaminated water. Thanks to being “fizzy”, they take effect very quickly. The tablet dissolves completely in just 30 seconds allowing the active ingredient to perform its function. Moreover, they do not contain any toxic substances and are environmentally friendly. The second place went to the Microemulsions and Gels for Cleaning Surfaces of Historical Materials developed by the team of J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry CAS. These extremely gentle yet effective microemulsion cleaning systems are designed to remove unwanted substances from various valuable historical artefacts. The main component here is water – the content of the active ingredients is very low, yet they are highly effective. The third place went to the University Hospital Hradec Králové and their project Detection of Bacteria in Amniotic Fluid in Patients with Preterm Prelabour Rupture of Membranes. This new method helps detect the presence of specific bacteria in amniotic water in just a couple of hours. Thanks to this, it will be possible to initiate effective antibiotic treatment in time and reduce the adverse effects on the fetus. Sympathy Prize Will Help Fish The Sympathy prize was won by the Aeration and Oxygenation Liner in Fishing Beads from the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovic. This liner should improve the conditions of the fish stored in beads e.g. when fishing out ponds or during pre-Christmas sales. The new liner will provide sufficient oxygenation of water without the necessity of weighting down the aeration hoses, which complicates catching the fish and often results in injuring them. Winners Got Both Money and Well-deserved Attention The projects that made it to the finals can use the title Finalist of TRANSFERA TECHNOLOGY DAY 2021. The winning project was awarded the title Winner of TRANSFERA TECHNOLOGY DAY 2021. The certificate is a mark of quality and can help secure not only financial support. The finalists will also receive an invitation to the Technological Incubation project of the CzechInvest agency who can allocate funding of up to CZK 5 million to each project. The jury that evaluated both the presentations and the commercial potential of the projects consisted of the representatives of investors and other experts – Petra Gordan (Nation1), Jaromír Zahrádka and Barbora Šumová (i&i Biotech Fund), Jakub Domitra (Busyman), Eva Janouškovcová and Petr Kubečka (Transfera.cz), Jiří Krechl (CzechInvest), Robert Reich (Lighthouse Ventures) and Václav Novák and Jaroslav Řasa (NEURON Endowment Fund). The competition has been organized by Transfera.cz together with its general partner CzechInvest and other partners (e.g. Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, NEURON Endowment Fund, vedavyzkum.cz and others). A record of the event can be found at www.transfera.cz .

Back Anchor 1 Nanofibers from Technical University of Liberec brings new hope in fight against Covid-19 Technical University of Liberec has a long and renowned history of research of nanomaterials and nonwoven cloth for various applications. The nanofibrous materials not only have unique filtration and acoustic properties, but they also have a huge potential in bio-medical purposes. Lately they´ve developed a new device which can produce advanced nanofibres using the method of AC electrospinning. The amount of produced nanofibers can be used for almost 6000 face masks per day. Moreover, it seems that efficacy of such face mask can be similar to FFP2 respirators. During current Covid-19 crisis where every possible safety device counts, this technology may be a new hope for all the first responders. Method itself was modified for the purpose directly on the TUL as a result of work of some of the biggest experts in the field. Although capacities of this temporary „manufacture“ can´t meet present demand, it shows a great dedication and willingness of briliant Czech researchers and Academia in times of need. https://youtu.be/I2UaQxR5AOM i&i Prague is very proud to be one the companies which support this technology, it´s production and distribution and we will search for more opportunities to scale up even more. https://www.rouskystulkou.org/ Anchor 2 LAM-X – light-activated nanomaterials for face-masks and respirators LAM-X a.s. is the newest company established in cooperation with i&i Prague. It develops light-activated nanomaterials which provide protection from bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. The lead product is a nanomembrane that generates singlet oxygen upon activation by visible light. LAM-X a.s. was once again great example of cooperation between academia and private sector. Its technology comes from Charles University in Prague and was established in cooperation with i&i Prague and Charles University Innovations Prague, s.r.o. after many months of incubation on 20th January 2020. LAM-X a.s. biggest advantage is that the technology doesn´t use silver ions, antibiotics nor any kind of special light. Its ability to self-sterilize also allows reuse of the membrane which decreases the amount of produced waste. The LAM-X platform technology can be used in the fight against infections that are caused by surface-transmitted pathogens found in hospitals, sanitation facilities, food and water production factories. Unlike antibiotics, which target specific cell parts, the singlet oxygen approach is quick and rather nonspecific, making it impossible for microbes to develop resistance mechanism. In response to the current #covid19 situation, the LAM-X adapted its R&D strategy and began developing self-sterilizing filters usable as “active layers” of face masks and respirators. To increase production capacity, LAM-X a.s. started cooperation with the Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation of the Technical University of Liberec. To learn more, contact their website: https://lam-x.tech/ . Anchor 3 Prague startup RIOCATH had recently entered market with its world-unique catheter RIOCATH Global, a company established in collaboration with IOCB Tech, has developed a revolutionary type of catheter based on world-unique technology applicable for all tubular medical devices. Since its birth in 2014, the Riocath team has been cooperating with the IOCB Prague Development Center (http://dc.uochb.cz/ ). The company is financed by private investors who already invested more multiple millions EUR in the invention development. i&i Prague is among shareholders and supports the Riocath team in its business development activities, IPR protection and partnering. One of the first clinically significant applications of the RIOCATH technology is Rectal tube RIOCATH (https://www.nabolavebrisko.cz/en/home-page/ ) for babies which entered a market in late 2019. Furthermore, the new urinary catheter based on the RIOCATH design and principle should enter market soon. The RIOCATH design can greatly reduce the risk of introducing infection into the body as well as the trauma of sensitive tissues, mainly faced by patients who use these devices repeatedly. The double-skinned RIOCATH catheters application ensure, that the casing of the catheter does not move through the inside (such as the urethra) as is common with all other catheters, but the outer casing of the catheter is unpacked at the top of the catheter and gradually lengthens the wall around the perimeter. This principle prevents damages and insertion of infection in the patient body. To learn more about this company: Riocath website. Anchor 4 Enantis – first biotechnology spin-off from Masaryk University in Brno Enantis s.r.o. was founded in 2006 as the first biotechnology spin-off from Masaryk University in Brno , Czech Republic. Project went through long development and its expertise is now based on vast experience in protein science and state-of-the-art software tools. A combination which enables Enantis to provide protein engineering and production. Enantis s.r.o. now located at INBIT, biotechnology centre operated by JIC and located on Masaryk University’s campus and closely collaborate with Loschmidt Laboratories and other research institutions. They are predominantly focused on improving the poor stability eg. of fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) for research and therapeutic use. Enantis offers contract research services and licensing of their original products and the company already collaborate on the B2B level with multiple international companies. Under current difficult circumstances Enantis are one of the key suppliers of research products. They also became a member of FASTCURE (https://fastcure.net/ ) consortium recently. i&i Prague and Enantis started a collaboration in 2017 and it is based on consultations and business development support of the Enantis team. To learn more about this company: Enantis s.r.o. webpage. Anchor 5 Elphogene: non-invasive screening of patients in advanced stages of cancer Elphogene s.r.o. is a Czech spin-off company that succeeds decades of intensive research performed at Genomac research centre as well as thanks to collaborations with leading oncology centres. Using their technology oncoMonitor™ – a diagnostic tool based on so-called liquid biopsy – Elphogene brings a non-invasive screening of patients in advanced stages colorectal cancer. Biggest advantages of oncoMonitor™ technology are its speed and accuracy in diagnosing possible relaps of the tumor growth after a successful surgery. Elphogene s.r.o. has received an initial investment from i&i Prague in order to implement its oncoMonitor™ for a diagnostic monitoring screening of ctDNA in peripheral blood of patients in advanced stages of cancer. The company has been founded at the beginning of 2019 as a spin-off from the Genomac Research Institute , a leading Czech private research center widely recognized for its strong record of scientific projects in clinical cancer genomics. The purpose of the oncoMonitor™ test is a follow-up of patients in advanced stages of cancer for early detection of newly arising metastatic lesions. The technology is capable of capturing ctDNA in up to 88% of patients with advanced colorectal cancer with the presence of liver metastases which is more accurate and lacking the negative impact on health (such as radioactive doses) than current approaches (ultrasonography, magnetic resonance, and especially X-ray examination and computed tomography – CT). To learn more about this technology: elphogene.cz . Anchor 6 Czech anti-covid19 #hackathon won by two i&i Prague accelerated projects Virtual #hackathon was a national challenge for all Czech scientists, companies, students and science-enthusiasts with a simple goal: gather the best Czech bio-technologies to fight COVID-19 crisis. Finally, the top 15 projects were chosen from the wide group of participants and presented as part of yesterday’s final. Winners were chosen by a jury of experts and the first three split a prize of almost 400 000 euro donated by Hyundai Motor Czech s.r.o. and Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech s.r.o. i&i Prague can proudly announce that the first and third places were won by startups we helped to establish – DIANA Biotechnologies and LAM-X a.s. It once again shows the quality and applicability of Czech science and the need of full acceleration and technology transfer. To learn more about this competition and it´s winners, search: CzechInvest Hack The Crisis Český rozhlas Věda Výzkum iDnes The first place was won by Diana Biotechnologies ,platform technology for faster and more precise detection of the virus( https://lnkd.in/dXRi4rF ), second place was won by the project CoroVent developing ICU ventilators, and third place active sel-sterilizing nanofilters from LAM-X a.s. (https://lam-x.tech/ ). The joint fourth place was won by projects GREYCORTEX , Oxygenerator, Kaleido, Flying Kale , FreMEn and Hunter Games, s.r.o. . Anchor 7 DIANA Biotechnologies – technology that raised EUR 3M in 3 years DIANA Biotechnologies started as a project of a PhD. student at IOCB. After less than 3 years of pre-seed incubation it developed into an independent biotech company, with their own laboratories, impressive portfolio of projects and products and stable venture capital funding. The technology originated from IOCB lab and its incubation has been supported by IOCB Tech, the Technology transfer office. The company has been established in summer of 2018 thanks to raising of EUR 3 m from BPD Partners investorsand it is further supported by i&i Prague team. DIANA is a multi-well plate assay, where target protein is selectively captured to the solid carrier and then bound by a unique detection probe consisting of a small-molecule ligand linked to a DNA-oligonucleotide. Subsequently, the probe is detected and quantified by qPCR. For drug discovery, the assay utilizes competition between the probe and the test compounds to measure their binding affinity. DIANA is a platform technology and its applications are effectively developed and used for both, super-sensitive Diagnostics (both for research use and clinical applications) and effective Drug discovery (high throughput screening , affinity measurements and selectivity profiling , assay development , lead compound optimization, ADME pharmacology ). To learn more about this technology: dianabiotech.com . Anchor 8 DRACEN Pharmaceuticals – Novel glutamine antagonist as anticancer therapies One of the first project i&i Prague participated in is Dracen Pharmaceuticals. Dracen itself started as an international science team at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB Prague) and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA). The scientific team prepared and tested new substances for cancer treatment that are effective through stopping the metabolism of glutamine. i&i Prague joined in this spin-off company early summer of 2017 as a co-investor. This investment opportunity and quality of the technology itself attracted investors supporting the development of these new drugs in the amount of more than $40 millions including the leading investor Deerfield. Dracen is a now a private pharmaceutical company focused on treating cancers by directly shrinking tumors and remodeling the tumor microenvironment to make it more conducive to immuno-oncology approaches, to gain greater disease control, increase anti-tumor responses and extend patient survival in areas of unmet need. “Our new substances, glutamine antagonist, bypass these limitations. In order to be effective, they need to be activated first and this activation occurs primarily in cancer cells. Thus in healthy tissue these substances remain largely only in an inactive form,” explains Dr. Pavel Majer from IOCB Prague, whose team prepared the substances in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery team. “Together with our colleagues from Johns Hopkins, we have demonstrated that this mechanism works in a number of types of tumors implanted in mice. Since the metabolism of rodents differs significantly from human metabolism, we also had to perform a number of metabolic studies in larger mammalian species,” adds Pavel Majer. Dracen Pharmaceuticals is a great example of how an academic cooperation between renowned research facilities led to a functional spin-off which attracted major investors. Right now the Dracen Pharmaceuticals develops the lead candidate, DRP-104 on its way through the pre-clinical to clinical testing. Similarly to many patients, we believe they will reach another milestone soon.To learn more about this technology: www.dracenpharma.com . Anchor 9 LAM-X a.s. is collaborating with TUL to develop active nanofilters against COVID-19 During COVID-19 crisis we embrace our startups to answer current questions and solve present problems. Our the most recently established startup – LAM-X, a.s. – is not an exception. LAM-X a.s., a technological spin-off of the Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences, joined forces with the Technical University of Liberec (TUL) in the fight against COVID-19. Their common goal is to develop active nanofilters that not only capture but also actively remove viral particles. The nanofilters will be useful as part of face masks and respirators. In response to the current situation, the LAM-X adapted its R&D strategy and began developing self-sterilizing filters usable as “active layers” of face masks and respirators. To increase production capacity, LAM-X, an academic spin-off, started cooperation with the Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation of the Technical University of Liberec. This institute is known for its excellent expertise in the production of nanomaterials. “Cooperation with the academic environment is and will undoubtedly be very important for our company. After all, the LAM-X proprietary technology is based on many years of research by the academic group of Associate Professor Jiří Mosinger from the Faculty of Science of the Charles University,” said Dr. Chaloupka, the CEO of the company.“We believe that by starting cooperation with the Technical University of Liberec, the technology will be prepared faster for the industrial production”, mentioned Dr. Barbora Šumová, the board member representing company’s financial investor i&i Prague s.r.o She added: “Currently, there are almost no nanotechnologies that would offer active elimination of viral particles and those existing differ greatly in their effectiveness. To ensure high quality and smooth certification process, we therefore want to first thoroughly test our material in cooperation with the academic and private sectors.” The use of LAM-X nanofilters offers additional added value. The amount of healthcare waste produced during this crisis will represent a significant economic and environmental burden on society. LAM-X self-sterilizing nanomaterials, that are intended for reuse, could at least partially alleviate this undesirable situation. To learn more about this interesting project, contact barbora.sumova@lam-x.tech . Anchor 10 License for use of iBodies® bought by Immunotech, a member of the Beckman Coulter group! The Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague), the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IMC), and Charles University have signed a licensing agreement with the company Immunotech, a member of the Beckman Coulter group, for the use of iBodies®, a joint technology for measuring free testosterone in blood. The new iBodies provide an alternative to the radioactive tracer method, thus simplifying the measurement of free testosterone in clinical laboratories. Measuring free testosterone is important in determining the correct therapy for a number of health problems and serious diseases. In women, for example, it is measured in cases of menstrual disorders and conception problems. In men, it can help identify the causes of obesity, erectile dysfunction, depression, sleep disorders, and osteoporosis. The actual measuring, however, is complicated: the amount of free testosterone is either inaccurately derived from overall levels of testosterone in the blood, or it is measured using radioactive tracers, which provide accurate results but also present a variety of complications arising from the use of radioactive material, among them its relatively low stability.Typically used as synthetic antibody substitutes, iBodies are complex molecules that enable imaging of specific proteins on the surface of cells. “The iBodies molecules constitute a fully synthetic system based on a water-soluble polymer that forms a basic backbone. Other components are added to this polymer backbone, such as a fluorescent label, an affinity tag, and the specific ligand responsible for detecting free testosterone. Choosing the right individual components lets us prepare iBodies with great variability for a wide range of biochemical applications,” says Vladimír Šubr of IMC. In this case, iBodies are being used for the very first time as so-called tracers, i.e. nonradioactively labelled molecules that can be detected with a high degree of accuracy, making it possible to derive free testosterone levels. Therefore, iBodies represent a key component that facilitates sensitive detection of free testosterone. “The license is evidence of the broad scope of applications that our iBodies technology offers, and in areas we hadn’t originally considered and where application hadn’t occurred to us,” says Jan Konvalinka of IOCB Prague in discussing the new use for iBodies. “This is only the beginning – we’re working toward the application of our technology in other fields, too." The results of the new iBodies, their sensitivity, and their long-term stability caught the attention of the Beckman Coulter group, which, with the license, will use them as an important component for its new nonradioactive (ELISA) kit for determination of free testosterone and will add them to its standard in vitro kits for clinical laboratory diagnostics. What are iBodies? iBodies® (www.ibodies.eu ) were developed by Pavel Šácha, Tomáš Knedlík, and others in the laboratory of Jan Konvalinka at IOCB Prague and Charles University in collaboration with the team of Vladimír Šubr of the Department of Biomedical Polymers, headed by Tomáš Etrych, at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. iBodies comprise a polymer backbone with a small organic molecule bound to it that can bind to the target receptor of tested cells. A component of the complex is a molecule that serves as an anchor for use in various separation techniques and, in some cases, also a fluorescent label facilitating imaging of iBodies with various laboratory methods. All this together gives the technology considerable potential for use in clinical laboratories, either as substitutes for nonsynthetic antibodies that are otherwise not readily available, or as tracers for measurement. Development of a free testosterone determination kit Development of a kit for the determination of free testosterone began in 2017 with collaboration between the company Immunotech and the Department of Advanced Materials and Organic Synthesis at the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the Czech Academy of Sciences as part of grant project of the Ministry of Industry and Trade FV20061. To improve the characteristics of the proposed kit, work was undertaken in 2018 between the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Vladimír Šubr, Libor Kostka), the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Pavel Šácha, Natan Sidej), and the companies IOCB Tech and i&i Prague (Jiří Moos, Jan Plicka) on development of a technology for measuring free testosterone using iBodies, which was completed at the beginning of 2020. Correlational studies and tests of several hundred samples have demonstrated that ELISA technology using iBodies is more sensitive than commercially available kits with radioactive testosterone. Another significant advantage of the new iBodies is their long-term functional stability as compared with radioactive or protein-based tracers. Anchor 11 iBodies – synthetic antibodies from Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS iBodies is a project originated at IMC , IOCB and Charles University, which is currently under a pre-seed incubation. The iBodies team focuses on development of the novel macromolecules designed to substitute antibodies in common biochemical methods. Use of such substitutes was successfully tested for wide range of laboratory methods: ELISA, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, Western Blotting, protein immobilization and immunoprecipitation methods. i&i Prague team supports iBodies in business development activities, including a search for potential business partners, co-developers, or iBodies-technology applications with strong market potential. During the last three years, i&i Prague helped iBodies to start multiple collaborative projects and finalized several out-licensing deals. These synthetic antibody mimetics consist of N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymer backbone decorated with low-molecular-weight functional groups: a targeting ligand, an affinity anchor and an imaging probe. In theory, iBodies can be custom designed towards any protein of interest (provided a ligand is known) and tailored based on the intended applications. Moreover, iBodies are highly stable, easy to prepare and modify, can target via an active site which allows them to target groups of homologous proteins and many more advantages. To discover actual products and possibilities, search https://www.ibodies.eu/ . Anchor 12 iBodies established cooperation with Ximbio, a TTO within the UK’s largest charity, Cancer Research UK Project iBodies , supported by IOCB Tech and i&i Prague, is focused on developing novel macromolecules designed to fully substitute antibodies in common biochemical methods. Recently, iBodies established a cooperation with the world´s largest non-profit organization focused on life-science research tools of all kinds – Ximbio . Ximbio is a UK based technology-transfer company within the charity Cancer Research UK , which is the largest charitable funder of cancer research in the world. Ximbio’s goal is to make life science research tools widely and easily available all around the world (such as small molecule tool compounds, antibodies, cell lines, proteins, animal models). Ximbio can manage the whole commercialisation of these research tools on behalf of its partner research institutes (providing storage, production, quality control and execution of licence/sales agreements and transfer of material to its global network of both industry and academic scientists). Any revenue Ximbio generates is shared back to the iBodies inventors and their respective research institutes. Including iBodies in their portfolio shows not only the quality of the technology, but again makes this unique, flexible platform available for even more laboratory applications all around the world. In theory, iBodies synthetic antibodies can be custom designed towards any protein of interest (provided a ligand is known), tailored based on the intended applications and used in various methods such as ELISA, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, Western Blotting, protein immobilization and immunoprecipitation methods. In general, these iBodies can target a specific protein such as neuraminidase, GCPII, HIV-1, FAP, CA-IX or can be used for broader spectra of proteins such as His-tagged or GST-tagged proteins. Specifically, anti-neuraminidase iBody , anti-glutamate carboxypeptidase (GCPII) iBody , anti-HIV-1 protease iBody , anti-fibroblast activation protein (FAP) iBody , anti-carbonic anhydrase IX (CA-IX) iBody , anti-HIS tag iBody , anti-GST tag iBody and a negative control iBody are all available online now – HERE. Anchor 13 LAM-X: revolutionary wound-treating nanomaterials Story of LAM-X technology is a perfect example of our work in i&i Prague. For the last year our expert Investment manager Barbora Šumová entered project called LAM-X: light activated nanomaterials providing protection from bacteria, viruses and other patogenes. In cooperation with the university of origin (Charles University, Prague and CUIP) and the inventor doc. RNDr. Jiří Mosinger, PhD., Barbora helped LAM-X reach all milestones, build a proper business plan, set up a functional team and, finally, launched this advanced technology as a Start-up. Company itself was established on 20th February 2020. LAM-X is now a fully functional biotechnology company, it´s lead product is a nanomembrane that generates singlet oxygen upon activation by visible light. The clinical study on patients suffering from ulcers proved the efficacy of the LAM-X membrane. This platform technology can be used in the fight against infections that are caused by surface-transmitted pathogens found in hospitals, sanitation facilities, food and water production factories. Unlike antibiotics, which target specific cell parts, the singlet oxygen approach is quick and rather nonspecific, making it impossible for microbes to develop resistance mechanism. It can provide solution in countries, where sanitary conditions complicate even the simpliest medical interventions as well as it answers the general demand for non-antibiotic treatment, too. Anchor 14 Elphogene in World Journal of Gastroenterology Another great achievement for one of our projects! Prague-based biotechnological start-up Elphogene is a progressive, young company focused on monitoring of patients in advanced stages colorectal cancer. With an initial investment from i&i Prague, Elphogene was able to implement its oncoMonitor™, a liquid biopsy technology into a commercial assay for non-invasive diagnostic monitoring of patients. The company has been founded at the beginning of 2019 as a spin-off from the Genomac Research Institute. Since then, oncoMonitor™ technology was widely mentioned in major Czech Scientific and Public media and now it´s methods and results were published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. Congratulations! We believe it will introduce this idea to even more patients and doctors worldwide. The article can be found under the title: Significance of postoperative follow-up of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer using circulating tumor DNA. As a short disclaimer; short abstract of this article mentioned: One of the most notable applications for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection in peripheral blood of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is a long-term postoperative follow-up. Sometimes referred to as a “liquid (re)biopsy” it is a minimally invasive procedure and can be performed repeatedly at relatively short intervals (months or even weeks). The presence of the disease and the actual extent of the tumor burden (tumor mass) within the patient’s body can be monitored. This is of particular importance, especially when evaluating radicality of surgical treatment as well as for early detection of disease progression or recurrence. Aim is to confirm the radicality of surgery using ctDNA and compare available methods for detection of recurrence in metastatic colorectal cancer. Among the monitored patients, the R0 (curative) resection correlated with postoperative ctDNA negativity in 26 out of 28 cases of surgical procedures (26/28, 93%). In the remaining cases of R0 surgeries that displayed ctDNA, both patients were diagnosed with a recurrence of the disease after 6 months. In 7 patients who underwent an R1 resection, 4 ctDNA positivities (4/7, 57%) were detected after surgery and associated with the confirmation of early disease recurrence (after 3 to 7 months). All 15 patients (15/15, 100%) undergoing R2 resection remained constantly ctDNA positive during the entire follow-up period. In 22 cases of recurrence, ctDNA positivity was detected 22 times (22/22, 100%) compared to 16 positives (16/22, 73%) by imaging methods and 15 cases (15/22, 68%) of elevated tumor markers. CONCLUSION ctDNA detection in patients with mCRC is a viable tool for early detection of disease recurrence as well as for confirmation of the radicality of surgical treatment. Anchor 15 LAM-X: the spin-off accelerated by i&i Prague in Media One of the first project i&i Prague participated in is Dracen Pharmaceuticals. Dracen itself started as an international science team at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB Prague) and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA). The scientific team prepared and tested new substances for cancer treatment that are effective through stopping the metabolism of glutamine. Founding of LAM-X, a.s. , the newest company accelerated by i&i Prague and Charles University Innovations Prague, s.r.o. was met with both interest and positive feedback from Czech national media. Company was established on 20th January 2020 and since then 17 articles in the best and most read Czech media were published about it. The LAM-X platform technology can be used in the fight against infections that are caused by surface–transmitted pathogens found in hospitals, sanitation facilities, food and water production factories. The lead product is a nanomembrane that generates singlet oxygen upon activation by visible light. This membrane can have a wide usage as preventive wound dressing which can help reduce amount of antibiotic resistence. The clinical study on patients suffering from ulcers proved the efficacy of the LAM-X membrane. The list of media, where LAM-X was mentioned, is rather wide (dispclaimer: articles are mostly in Czech): Věda a Výzkum Česká věda do světa Lidové noviny iRozhlas Česká rozhlas Charles University in Prague Charles University in Prague – the Tarantula Blesk Muzeum CUNI Týden.cz ČtiDoma.cz iDnes.cz TV iDnes České Novinky MF Dnes We are very proud that this technology was met with such and interest and we believe it will once again inform public about quality of Czech Science. More about LAM-X technology and their products on: https://lam-x.tech/ or https://www.linkedin.com/company/lam-x/about/ Anchor 16 Elphogene – liquid biopsy assay for non-invasive monitoring of patients with colorectal cancer Another one of successful projects supported by i&i Prague is the Prague-based biotechnological start-up Elphogene, Inc. Its oncoMonitor™, a liquid biopsy technology, was recently turned into a commercial assay for non-invasive diagnostic monitoring of patients in advanced stages colorectal cancer. Elphogene, Inc. has been founded at the beginning of 2019 as a spin-off from the Genomac Research Institute , and it´s launch was widely covered by media alike the most recent launch: LAM-X . Prague, 13th June 2019 – A team of Czech scientists from the Elphogene company presents a unique diagnostic method called oncoMonitor™, which offers cancer survivors an improvement in regular control screening aimed at the verification of their treatment’s success or timely detection of the disease’s reoccurrence. The Prague-based biotechnological start-up Elphogene has received an initial investment from i&i Prague in order to implement its oncoMonitor™, a liquid biopsy technology into a commercial assay for non-invasive diagnostic monitoring of patients in advanced stages colorectal cancer. This method brings a key benefit of personalized testing to detect potential new metastases and the timely option to select further treatment. “We have completed pilot studies demonstrating the analytical sensitivity of the oncoMonitor™ assay, and the data were presented at the annual conference of American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Atlanta, USA, in April. We are very happy with the results of this test, which can be applied universally to various forms of solid tumours, and currently we are initiating clinical validation in cooperation with leading domestic oncological centres,” says Dr. Marek Minárik, Co-Founder and General Manager of Elphogene. The company has been founded earlier this year as a spin-off from the Genomac research institute, a leading Czech private research center widely recognized for its strong record of scientific projects in clinical cancer genomics. Originally developed at Genomac and now exclusively owned by Elphogene, the oncoMonitor™ liquid biopsy technology, will further be developed and validated in clinical setting at company headquarters and laboratories located near Prague Vaclav Havel airport in Ruzyne. The initial investment was provided by the i&i Prague company, which is a leading Central European biotechnological incubator and investment centre providing financial support to promising projects in the field of living-nature science, biotechnology and modern medicine. “Liquid biopsy is a newly emerging field with fascinating growth potential, destined to fundamentally change modern medicine from diagnostics to therapy. We have been following the oncoMonitor™ technology for some time and we are now excited to collaborate with the team at Elphogene in its clinical implementation“ says Dr. Jaromir Zahradka, the CEO and a co-founder of i&i Prague. In the long run, the Czech Republic has been occupying leading places in patients with colorectal carcinoma. Thanks to extensive campaigns aimed at the importance of screening and early detection of colorectal carcinoma, the number of patients who lose their fight with this insidious disease has been dropping. On the other hand, there is an ongoing lack of non-invasive methods which help post-op detection of recurring cancer activity and prolonging the lives of patients in advanced stages of the disease. According to the available data from the National Cancer Registry, a total of 7800 patients was newly diagnosed with colorectal carcinoma in 2016, 1508 of which suffered verifiably from advanced stages with the occurrence of metastases. In the same year, almost 4 thousand patients succumbed to this disease. To compare the occurrence of colorectal carcinoma in Europe, according to the 2018 data by Globocan, the Czech Republic takes the 15th place in the number of newly diagnosed cases and the 18th place in death rate. In a whole-world comparison, it takes the 23rd place in newly diagnosed cases and the 22nd place in death rate. Colorectal cancer usually appears in older patients, and in the Czech Republic, colorectal carcinoma is a more frequent phenomena in men. A novel early cancer diagnostics method has been developed at University of Pardubice, partnered with i&i Prague Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous and most aggressive types of cancer. According to recent data, the twelfth most common malignant disease in the world. It is also associated with a high mortality rate, and it is the seventh of the most common causes of deaths for both sexes in cancer in general. In addition, the incidence has increased in recent years and can be expected to move to the third position ahead of breast cancer. Scientific teams around the world are looking for methods for early diagnostics of cancer. Among these is the team of Prof. Michal Holčapek of the University of Pardubice. „We have developed new methods for the lipidomic analysis of body fluids, predominantly blood, which distinguish patients with several types of cancer from healthy volunteers. We are currently working on pancreatic cancer data, where early diagnosis in early stages is the only chance for survival,“ described Prof. Holčapek the goal of the project. The research project of Prof. Holčapek has been awarded the European Research Council (ERC) grant and has been financially supported by the Ministry of Education of the Czech republic. Recently, the University of Pardubice has signed the memorandum with Czech Biotech incubator i&i Prague establishing a strategic collaboration towards further commercial development of the technology in order to introduce the novel diagnostic methods into the world market. i&i Prague is going to support the project with 20k EUR in the very first phase to ensure the business plan development and to cover further analyses to verify the commercial potential of the method and develop solid patent protection of the technology. i&i Prague incubator support „Ones we are able to confirm the potential of the technology, we are ready to invest up to 200k EUR in this project and invite further co-investors,“ commented Jaromír Zahrádka, CEO of i&i Prague, adding at the same time: “Prof. Holčapek’s project is a world-class science. However, it need to be properly developed to become the comprehensible and ready-made business opportunity for investors and corporate partners. This is a necessary step to offer this promising technology to patients in future". „The accuracy of our method is more than 90% for the very first stage of pancreatic cancer. However, the accuracy of other state-of-the-art and promising method was reported to be only 43%, according to the results published in Science magazine. The high accuracy of the method for early stages is a key parameter. Early diagnostics in oncology is crucial to improving patient prognosis and increasing survival chances, “ commented further Prof. Holcapek a key competitive advantage of his technology.The project is currently undergoing the clinical testing and beside the pancreatic cancer detection, highly promising results has been obtained for other cancer types which uncovered a potential for further exploitation of the technology. Biotechnology Incubator i&i Prague supports projects by scientists and researchers focusing on technologies in medicine, biotechnology, diagnostics and drug development. It takes care of the business part of the projects, leads and plans their business direction, looks for partners and takes care of technological marketing. The full press release can be found here . DIANA Biotechnologies, a novel startup in the i&i Prague´s academic incubator A new startup, DIANA Biotechnologies , has been founded at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague). This unique technology created by postgraduate student Václav Navrátil has the potential to significantly improve disease diagnostics and accelerate the development of new drugs. The startup has earned the trust of investors, who are putting more than 3 million EUR into the project. A PhD graduate, Václav Navrátil has developed together with his colleagues a technology known as DIANA, or DNA-linked Inhibitor Antibody Assay. The unique method allows for ultrasensitive quantification of enzymes and other proteins in a solution, e.g. human blood, urine, or saliva. In practice, it should help doctors diagnose certain diseases (cancer and various infectious diseases, for instance) at an earlier stage than is possible with existing methods. Moreover, it enables screening of large numbers of chemical substances for enzyme inhibitors and the identification of suitable compounds for further development as drug candidates. DIANA Biotechnologies is being set up with the support from the academic incubator of biotechnologies i&i Prague as well as from investors at bpd partners, who plan to provide over 3 million EUR in the next few years. The DIANA technology was developed at IOCB Prague. The institute is known for its efforts to systematically advance the results of basic research applicable in practice and facilitate their transition to the world of business, which is overseen by the institute’s subsidiary IOCB Tech (formerly IOCB TTO). The quality and potential of the DIANA project is reflected in the prestigious Werner von Siemens Award for the most significant result in the field of development and innovation, which was recently awarded to Navrátil and his team. The full press release can be found here . Novel partnership for iBodies has been facilitated by i&i Prague and IOCB Tech managers The Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (IMC) of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) in cooperation with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB Prague) are moving ahead together in intensive research of synthetic antibody mimetics called iBodies®. They have just commenced cooperation with the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (ICCI). In the future, newly prepared iBodies® should serve in clinical diagnostics, e.g. histological staining of tissues. The partnership has been facilitated by our colleague Jiri Moos, who supports iBodies project management and business development. Congratulations! For the full press release, click here . Revolutionary type of catheter raised €2 million from private investors Czech company Riocath Global has introduced a worldwide unique technology applicable to tubular medical devices. This revolutionary technology has been patented and developed in collaboration with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague ). The urinary catheter is one of the first clinically significant applications. The clinical trials will begin by the end of this year. The RIOCATH® (Reversal Inside-Out CATHetrisation) design greatly reduces the risk of introducing bacterial infection into the body. The current catheter is carrying on its surface microbes from the urethra tip as it makes its way through the urethra. Another danger is the damage to sensitive tissues caused by the insertion of current catheters. The new type of RIOCATH® urinary catheter will be of great benefit to a broad spectrum of patients. Reduction in bacterial infections should contribute significantly to reducing the need for antibiotic treatment. All of this should contribute to significant savings in the health care system and more comfortable patient care. “Unlike old catheters whose casing rubs on the urethra´s wall during insertion, the new technology allows for the catheter to extend by unfolding itself from the inside out, virtually imitating a snail´s eye stalk,” explains Miroslav Svoboda, MD, the project initiator, co-inventor and the CEO of Riocath Global. “Upon completion of clinical trials and marketing of the catheter, the estimated value of the company will grow to tens of millions of euros. Apart from urinary catheters, the principal can be used in a number of other applications which are part of the company´s development portfolio with the considerable market and therapeutic potential,” comments on the importance of the patented technology Jaromír Zahrádka, PhD., the CEO of i&i Prague and a member of the board of directors of the Riocath Global. responsible for the intellectual property protection. The first product market entry is expected in 2019. The full press release can be found here . Startup Riocath is among Hello Tomorrow’s top 500 stratups in the world Hello Tomorrow, which recently partnered with i&i Prague to advance its mission of fostering advancements in deep technology startups and businesses, will hold its global summit in Paris on 14-15 March. As part of the summit program, Hello Tomorrow highlights 500 of the most outstanding startups in the field of deep technology. This year’s top 500 selection includes another of i&i Prague’s very successful partners, Riocath, a company specializing in tubular medical devices. Included with this honour is the opportunity for Riocath to compete for one of the limited showcase positions at Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 2019 . i&i Prague became a shareholder in the spin-off XENO Cell Innovations! XENO Cell Innovations is a young, progressing company based in Pilsen, Czech Republic. It is focused mostly on bio-computing – capturing complex biological system in images, combining creative microscopy with a little narration and a lot of imagination to make more visible the amazing potential of computing in liquid media. Their technology is able to link up to biological objects generating a coherent intelligible interface. It self-assembles into computational clusters and processes information locally within these clusters. Rather than relying on brute-force screening, the linked biological sample reports on itself. Categorically, a cluster is a physically connected network made up of genetically engineered yeast, linkers, enzymes, and other chemical modifiers. Clusters are not prefabricated. They self-assemble around objects with specific immunological profiles. By fusing different fluorescent labels to different yeast strains, the makeup of a cluster can in part be made visible. We, the i&i Prague, had this great opportunity to offer our services to this project and helped its creators reach their goal. Now, with the company established, we became a proud shareholder! The motto of XENO Cell Innovations is: „Many foundational problems in diagnostics and bioengineering are solvable if biology could just do more of the work. But current biotech isn’t smart enough. We are interested in changing the status quo by systematizing biologic units and constructing modular composition rules“.To find out more about this growing company, SEARCH: https://xenocells.com/ i&i Prague co-invested Dracen Pharmaceuticals, a company developing a novel oncology treatment i&i Prague has co-invested in a new oncology project. The development of novel glutamine antagonist prodrugs is supported with a total investment of $40.5 million. The international team of scientists from Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Science (IOCB Prague ) and Johns Hopkins University (JHU ) has prepared and tested a new substance for cancer treatment. The aim is to stop the cancer growth by cutting out the glutamine supply necessary for the viability of cancer cells. The novel glutamine antagonist prodrug was prepared at the IOCB Prague. Further clinical development will be led by a biotech company Dracen Pharmaceuticals , formed recently with the support of both IOCB Prague and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The phase I clinical studies of the new substances should begin in the first half of 2019. The potential of the new therapy is highlighted by the fact that the company has closed a $40.5 million financing round led by Deerfield Management. The full Press Release can be found here . i&i Prague is joining Hello Tomorrow Ecosystem, a global community boosting deep technology-based start-ups In mid-June 2018 a new partnership has been established between a Prague-based company focused on central and east European biotech start-ups in the early stage of development and a global organisation which gives a platform for deep technology-based start-ups all over the world, Hello Tomorrow. i&i Prague has joined the Ecosystem Partners of Hello Tomorrow , which aims to connect current and future start-ups coming from the i&i Prague´s incubator to the global start-up scene and increase their visibility, e.g. by participating in the Global Challenge and other activities organized by Hello Tomorrow. Additionally, the collaboration will help Hello Tomorrow and its partners to connect and tap into unsuspected opportunities and projects in biotech and deep technologies originating in central and east Europe. About Hello Tomorrow Hello Tomorrow is a non-profit organisation bringing together a community of actors aiming to unlock the potential of deep technologies to solve the world’s toughest challenges. They source deeptech projects and startups and facilitate collaboration between entrepreneurs, industries and investors in order to propel innovation from the lab to the market. Hello Tomorrow organises startup competitions, mentorship programs and a series of events around the world, as well as educating and consulting relevant stakeholders on emergence of deep technologies. Hello Tomorrow is fast becoming a key reference platform in deeptech innovation and entrepreneurship. i&i Prague successfully mediated an out-licensing of antibodies from IMG A strategic business collaboration of Institute of Molecular Genetics of the CAS and i&i Prague has been established recently, in October 2017. Despite it is still fresh, this partnership showed its promising potential within first months. Our very first collaborative effort resulted in out-licensing of one of the IMG assets to an international pharmaceutical company. Institute of Molecular Genetics is one of the top Czech Biotech institutes and the scientists are doing world class research. However, the highest quality of their work has not been fully recognized by companies and investors yet. Since we had a chance to screen full portfolio of IMG projects, we are sure further successful deals with companies and investors should follow quickly. Congratulations and we look for further great deals for IMG! Anchor 17 Anchor 18 Anchor 19 Anchor 20 Anchor 21 Anchor 22 Anchor 23 Anchor 24 Anchor 25

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CasInvent Pharma, a New University Spin-Off Focused on Developing Cancer Drugs Established with Help of i&i Prague! A new spin-off company, CasInvent Pharma, a.s., has been established by Masaryk University (MU) in cooperation with its investment partner, i&i Prague, s.r.o. (Ltd), in order to facilitate further development of new compounds that could be used to treat certain types of leukaemia, lymphoma and solid tumours. The company will test the compounds that inhibit the enzyme Casein Kinase 1 (CK1) which is responsible, among other things, for the migration of leukaemia cells into lymphoid organs. The research groups of Vitězslav Bryja and Kamil Paruch from the Faculty of Science MU have been studying and developing these compounds for a long time now. Thanks to the newly-established company, they will be able to finish the preclinical stage of the development of these prospective drugs and move on to clinical trials of the most promising compounds. “The main reason behind establishing this spin-off company is the fact that it is virtually the only option to commercialize this technology, which is still in early stages of development, and advance the research to such stage that it catches the interest of big investors from the pharmaceutical industry,” says the director of Technology Transfer Office MU, Eva Janouškovcová, as to why the joint-stock spin-off company was established with the university as one of its stakeholders. “The i&i Prague company searchs and supports the most promising technologies and the highest quality projects. We have known for a long time that the inhibitors of CK1 are the most promising Czech projects. I am glad that Masaryk University has chosen the i&i Prague as a strategic partner for this project. I believe that we will be able to make significant progress towards clinical trials in the development of the drug, attract other co-investors and international partners and enable the practical use of these new substances as soon as possible thanks to the establishment of the CasInvent Pharma company,” said the CEO of i&i Prague, Jaromír Zahrádka. The CasInvent Pharma spin-off will continue developing the promising results of the scientific teams which led to the patenting of the inhibitors, i.e. compounds that significantly decrease or completely inhibit the activity of CK1 and can be used to treat e.g. certain types of leukaemia. More specifically, the B-Cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) and the Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). CLL characteristically causes the accumulation of dysfunctional cancer cells in the blood and their migration to lymph nodes, liver, spleen and bone marrow, which causes further complications such as enlargement of organs, immunodeficiency, anaemia and other. The aggressiveness of the disease then depends on the interaction of these dysfunctional cells with their immediate surroundings – so-called microenvironment. This interaction leads to tumour cells dividing uncontrollably. The inhibitors of CK1 can effectively stop the migration of the leukaemia cells to lymphoid organs, which prevents them from being damaged and hinders the spreading of CLL. AML, which is one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat types of leukaemia, has CK1 working in a different way. Based on the current results, the scientists expect the new compounds to initiate programmed cell death (so-called apoptosis) in leukaemia cells. Targeting interactions in the microenvironment, regulating apoptosis and inhibiting migration mechanisms can be successfully used with other forms of cancer as well, e.g. solid tumours the growth and spreading of which often depends on roughly the same principles. CasInvent Pharma joined the ranks of the other 17 spin-off companies Masaryk University helped to establish. The purpose of these spin-off companies is mainly to utilize the university’s intellectual property and increase its value. The university grants companies intellectual property licensing agreements and, in some cases, it even owns shares of the company. As a result, the spin-off companies established by the university bring profit to all the parties involved: for the university, it is the best way to appreciate its intellectual property, the spin-off company gains a competitive advantage on the market and, last but not least, the end product reaches the consumer more quickly

i&i Prague supports the innovative start-up PEP-Therapy in their extension of the Series-A financing, totalling €5.4 million to progress the clinical development of the lead candidate PEP-010 PEP-Therapy, a biotechnology company developing cell penetrating peptides as targeted therapies for the treatment of cancers, announced today that it raised an additional €2.6 million ($3 million) in an extension of its Series A financing round, bringing the total raised in this round to €5.4 million ($6.4 million). This new funding comprises €1.6 million in equity from Anaxago, i&i Prague and BADGE as well as a €1 million loan from Bpifrance. This increased financial support highlights the potential of PEP-010, as well as PEP-Therapy’s Cell Penetrating & Interfering Peptide (CP&IP) technology platform, which was first developed at Sorbonne University and Institut Curie. PEP-010 is the first of a new class of therapeutic peptides based on PEP-Therapy’s innovative Cell Penetrating & Interfering Peptide (CP&IP) technology. These innovative molecules penetrate cells and specifically block relevant intracellular protein-protein interactions, leading to the inhibition of key pathological mechanisms, without altering physiological mechanisms. PEP-Therapy will use the funds to finance the Phase I a/b clinical trial of PEP-010, PEP-Therapy’s lead candidate, for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. The first part of the Series A, which closed in April 2021, will finance the Phase Ia dose escalation part of the study, with the additional funds being used for the development of PEP-010 until the end of the expansion cohorts, Phase Ib. PEP-Therapy expects to generate promising clinical data from this study, particularly in two indications: metastatic triple negative breast cancer and platinum resistant ovarian cancer. Patients with these two types of solid tumors have a poor prognosis and limited therapeutic alternatives. Antoine Prestat, CEO and co-founder of PEP-Therapy, said: “We are delighted to have completed this financing round via an attractive balance of dilutive and non-dilutive funds from new high quality and diversified investors who will bring expertise and new insights to support our development.” Jaromír Zahrádka, PhD, CEO of i&i, commented: “PEP-Therapy has developed an extensive knowledge of targeted peptides and the promising preclinical data the company has generated show great potential. We are looking forward to seeing the confirmation of the positive results seen in preclinical data in the upcoming Phase I study.” Gaston Vasseur, Investment Manager at Anaxago, added “This extended financing highlights PEPTherapy’s capacity to attract highly specialized as well as diversified investors. The Company has managed to rapidly secure the funding for the Phase I trial with PEP-010, a very important milestone for the company. We are happy to contribute to this financing round in conjunction with a number of experienced life science investors.” In addition, PEP-Therapy and its clinical partners, Institut Curie and Gustave Roussy, previously received a €2.9 million grant from the French state innovation fund – Fonds Unique Interministériel (FUI) – to finance nonclinical and early clinical development of PEP-010. About Anaxago Founded in 2012, Anaxago Venture Capital is a digital VC firm specialised in Healthtech & Biotech, Proptech, Fintech and Impact investing. Anaxago Venture Capital has financed more than 45 companies since its creation. About BADGE Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles (BADGE), created in 2004, is a leading French Business Angels association with more than 280 members, and having participated in 21 fundraisings in 2020 of a combined value of over €5.3 million. Its members are recognized leaders in all sectors of the industry and are willing to finance and support young innovative companies with high growth potential. BADG aims to: Identify and review promising innovative projects Conduct fund-raising for the most promising ones Support the entrepreneurs with individualized business advice and key contacts Provide training and methodological support to its members BADGE has thus financed more than 185 young companies since its creation.

The Prague.bio international conference will bring together the best of science and business in Prague. Promising ideas will receive money for their development. Prague, 25 April 2023. The first edition of the Prague.bio international conference will offer a unique meeting of representatives from science and business who will exchange their experiences in the development of new drugs, diagnostics, medical technologies and other areas of biotechnology. The event is supported by the Czech government and will feature renowned experts from the world of BioTech. The Prague.bio international conference is intended for academics, investors and industry representatives from all over Central Europe. Experienced investors, representatives of leading pharmaceutical as well as diagnostic companies and technology transfer offices will meet promising startups, scientists and students to help them with advice and insights in commercializing their scientific ideas. For industry representatives and investors, the conference will provide an interesting space for exchanging ideas and establishing further cooperation. "Science and business are often two completely different worlds. But they need each other and have something to offer each other. Scientific projects are often a source of unique commercial ideas and an interesting investment opportunity, while successful commercialisation of scientific knowledge brings significant financial resources back into research," explains Prof. Martin Fusek, Director of IOCB Tech, one of the organisers of the conference. According to him, the Prague.bio conference should contribute to the creation of a permanent network of partners whose goal will be to build a more effective transfer of biotechnology not only in the Czech Republic but also in the entire Central European area. The transfer is also supported by the government "Who does not transfer is not a good economist. The transfer of scientific research knowledge into practice is one of the priorities of our government and I am pleased that a conference is being prepared to help this even on an international scale," explains Helena Langšádlová, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation of the Czech Republic, whose department is co-organizing the event. Moreover, according to the Minister, technology transfer is an important topic not only for science but also for the national economy. It can generate billions of Czech crowns in revenue annually. The Prague conference is based on the experience of similar events abroad. However, it is unique in Central Europe. "At the moment, we can reveal that the Prague.bio conference will not lack lectures by representatives of major pharmaceutical companies, we are also preparing an interesting panel discussion with foreign investors and several pitch sessions that will provide an opportunity to present promising projects in the field of biotechnology," adds Jaromír Zahrádka, CEO of the i&i Biotech Fund and founder of the i&i Prague bio-innovation centre, another of the conference organisers. The conference will take place on 26 September at Liechtenstein Palace in Prague. Registration is now open for those interested in attending. The relevant form, including payment options, can be found at www.prague.bio . The fee for early registration is 200 Euros, or 150 Euros for students and researchers. Interesting scientific research ideas can also apply for the event and register at the above-mentioned website. The registered projects will be evaluated by an expert committee and the best ones will compete for investor support at the conference. Contact Martin Kovalčík, 777 472 863, kovalcik@iniprague.com Martin Opatrný, 602 252 405, opatrny@prclinic.eu About IOCB Tech The Technology Transfer Office IOCB Tech, s.r.o. is a fully owned subsidiary of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB). The main responsibilities of IOCB Tech include the identification of commercially interesting projects at IOCB, analysis of their market potential and patentability, protection of intellectual property, support for the development of the projects in the form of project management, search for commercial partners and negotiation of contractual terms for signing license agreements. IOCB Tech has been involved in the process of negotiating and concluding more than a dozen key license agreements with major pharmaceutical partners such as Gilead Sciences, Merck, Novo Nordisk and SHINE Medical Technologies. In 2017, the company established a subsidiary, i&i Prague, which focuses on funding promising early-stage projects at the Institute and other research and academic institutions. For more information visit www.iocbtech.cz . About i&i Prague The i&i Prague Bio-Innovation Center focuses on the transfer of new technologies into practice. The company was established at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS and is mainly dedicated to innovations in the field of drug development, diagnostics and medical devices originating from academic institutions. It supports the creation of spin-off companies and the sale of licenses. So far, the company has participated in the creation of or otherwise supported 15 spin-off companies from five countries, has an equity stake in nine of them and has invested over 70 million crowns. In total, the spin-offs in i&i Prague's portfolio have raised more than CZK 1.8 billion from other investors. In addition to direct financial investments, i&i Prague also assists more than 15 research institutions and universities in the Czech Republic and abroad in the commercialization of innovative technologies. In 2021, i&i Prague started up the i&i Bio investment fund. About i&i Biotech Fund (i&i Bio) i&i Bio is a Luxembourg-based venture capital firm that invests in innovative European Life Sciences companies focused on drug discoveries, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health. The Fund was created thanks to the cooperation of the biotech incubator i&i Prague and the European Investment Fund (see below). With over €47M under management, i&i Bio plans to invest in about 20 early-stage companies. i&i Bio is led by an experienced team of professionals with backgrounds in private equity, healthcare and venture capital supporting entrepreneurs on their journey to global success. Thanks to close cooperation with the fund’s main sponsor, the biotech academic incubator i&i Prague, i&i Bio is supporting and advancing transformative Central European technology companies. For more information visit www.inibio.eu . About EIF i&i Bio is supported by an investment from the EIF, with the support of: lnnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing; and the Pan-European Guarantee Fund (EGF), implemented by the EIF with the financial support of the Participating Member States. The objective of EGF is to respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that companies in the Participating Member States have sufficient short-term liquidity available to weather the crisis and are able to continue their growth and development in the medium to long-term.

Czech liquid biopsy startup Elphogene comes under full control of one of the founders February 6, 2023 Czech biotechnology start-up Elphogene who pioneered cancer monitoring through its liquid biopsy technology has announced a change in its shareholder structure. The new and sole owner is now Marek Minarik, one of the two original founders of the company. Elphogene, which based its original business plan on molecular cancer diagnostics and monitoring of cancer therapy for patients with colorectal tumors using its proprietary liquid biopsy technology, has seen unprecedented economic growth over the past two years resulting from COVID-19 PCR tests. The company chief, Marek Minárik, says: "With the outbreak of the covid pandemic we have surprisingly seen a significant decrease in interest in our oncology diagnostics from the referring clinical sites. Based on this, our SARS-CoV-2 virus PCR protocol, which was originally developed only for internal testing of our oncology patients, was then converted into accredited regime and after obtaining a license for the Czech National Institute of Public Health we have become part of the official national network of testing laboratories." Elphogene labs, which greatly benefited from their location near the Václav Havel International Airport in Prague - Ruzyne, processed close to 330,000 PCR tests throughout the pandemic, representing approximately 1% of all COVID PCR tests performed at that time in the Czech Republic. The company was first with accreditation for COVID-19 PCR testing, and also one of the first to introduce and validate the pooling method for preventive screening provided to a number of primary and secondary schools in Prague and the Central Bohemia region. "After the decline in COVID tests during the spring of last year, we decided to focus fully to the research and development of a new generation of our technology for the sensitive detection of tumor-specific markers in the peripheral blood of oncology patients," says Minarik, adding: "At the end of the last year, we succeeded in validating of a completely new approach, for which we are now finalizing European patent application. At the same time, we have already approached several leading players in the field of instrument diagnostics with a possibility of technology transfer." Minarik, one of the two original founders, who until now owned 78% stake in the company, acquired the remaining share from a biotechnology incubator i&i Prague, which was the original angel investor when Elphogene was founded at the beginning of 2020. The founder share buy-back, which took place during the last days of December, represents the second successful exit of the investing fund which was established at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague. i&i Prague: Our mission ends, we wish you much success In the portfolio of the bio-innovation center i&i Prague, Elphogene was among the most mature. "Our investments were at the early stage of the company and helped the transition of its technology from the laboratory to oncology patients and, last but not least, enabled it to respond flexibly to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to this, Elphogene has become one of the leading laboratories in the Czech Republic in the diagnosis of this disease," says Jiri Moos, executive director of i&i Prague and, until recently, also one of Elphogene's executives. The task of i&i Prague is to search for promising technologies and help them with their introduction to the market. This was achieved in this case, the company Elphogene is today a functioning private healthcare facility that has all the necessary accreditations and permits authorizing it to operate its activities. "At this point, our mission ends and we will focus on supporting other unique ideas from our portfolio. We would like to thank Associate Professor Marek Minarik for excellent cooperation and wish the Elphogene company much success in the commercialization of their technology," adds Jiri Moos. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Co je to transfer technologií? Transfer technologií je zjednodušeně přenos myšlenky, poznatku či vynálezu do praxe. Jde o dlouhou cestu, během které je nutné zajistit dostatečné financování, právní ochranu i správné komerční nasměrování původního nápadu. Bez profesionálního transferu technologií se komerčního úspěchu prakticky žádný vynález nedočká. I tak v praxi v Česku uspěje přibližně každý desátý projekt. Ročně zajišťuje transfer technologií české vědě prostředky v řádech miliard korun.

Jaromír Zahrádka: Investments help science to serve people Jaromír Zahrádka According to Jaromír Zahrádka, director of the i&i Biotech investment fund, investing in science is like the proverbial chicken and egg. If there is a lack of investment, no new projects are created. And without interesting projects, it is impossible to get investors interested. So how to solve this dilemma? Jaromír Zahrádka answers these and other questions in an interview for Vědavýzkum.cz. The fund was established last year and has so far a total of 45 million euros at its disposal. It plans to invest this money over the next five years in about 20 scientific startups, in close cooperation with the i&i Prague incubator and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS. Please try to briefly introduce the i&i Biotech Fund. What are you involved in? We focus on investments in unique ideas in the field of drug development, diagnostics and medical technologies. We target early-stage scientific startups that often build on decades of research and have the potential for breakthrough discoveries. We invest to help them at a critical stage of their development. This is the period when they leave their laboratories or research facilities and lose their ability to access traditional sources of funding, such as research grants. At the same time, they are not yet in a position to compete for their first investors. We are trying to help them in their transition from purely scientific projects to functional companies. How does the new fund help? The fund gives us completely new opportunities to do so. And it's certainly not just about increasing the volume of investments we are able to make now. We have added experienced professionals to the team who have a wealth of experience with similar investments, which has significantly expanded our expertise. The fund is also built on standards that are common in Western Europe and the US. It is above all a transparent system with a precisely described investment strategy, clearly defined responsibilities of investors and managers and a precisely defined decision-making system. We want to set a certain standard and thus contribute to the cultivation of the overall environment. It is necessary to move on, because investing in the natural sciences unfortunately does not yet have much of a tradition in our region. The fund was created in cooperation between the i&i Prague incubator and the European Investment Fund (EIF). How was the idea for its establishment born? Let me go back in time. When we founded the i&i Prague incubator five years ago, we wanted to show that there are interesting ideas in the field of life sciences in the Czech Republic that deserve the attention of investors. We have drawn a lot from our close cooperation with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS and from the experience of its technology transfer office IOCB Tech, which works well under the leadership of Professor Martin Fusek. Thanks to this, we knew the expectations that international companies and investors have when assessing scientific projects, and we knew what it takes to get them interested in a new technology. At the same time, we had already built up quite a wide network of contacts from previous activities. Thanks to all of this, we have managed to find and support many unique startups over the years, and we have helped many of them to attract important strategic partners. Within the incubator we have built an interesting portfolio of promising startups, in which we have already invested over 70 million (Czech) crowns in addition to other support. However, we felt from the beginning that this investment component of our business needed strengthening, if only to be able to attract more investors. That is why we decided to create a completely new entity that will specialise in investment activities. We we approached the EIF with our vision and they liked our idea. What followed was a rather difficult negotiation that resulted in the creation of the i&i Biotech Fund. If I may make light of it, our whole business resembles the well-known saying about the chicken and the egg. If there is a lack of investment, new projects do not emerge, but without interesting projects you will not get investor interest. I am therefore very pleased that we can now support the development of all elements of our innovatory ecosystem simultaneously. This gives the Fund the chance to access unique and well-proven investment opportunities that may not be available to other investors. Could you describe more about how the negotiations with the EIF went? It was a relatively long-term affair, with the first contacts and discussions taking place before the establishment of i&i Prague. The final phase of "courtship" lasted three years, with the last two being very intense. During that time we had to convince the EIF that we could invest their money well. We had to prove that we could identify innovative scientific startups with interesting investment potential, that we could manage the portfolio of these startups and increase their value over time. In addition, we had to go through many formal processes. We were scrutinized on the overall setup of the fund, the transparency of its management, the functionality of its control mechanisms and the ethics of investing. Last but not least, we had to meet the general criteria of the EIF – for example, that the support must be directed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We are opening up to the world, which will also help Czech projects You have announced your first investment ventures. These are investments in the Austrian start-up Celeris Therapeutics, in the American company Dracen Pharmaceuticals and in the Czech-American technology start-up, Sampling Human. Although there is a significant Czech footprint in two of the three investments, it cannot be said that you are primarily focused on domestic startups. Is that right? Yes, it is. When we founded i&i Prague, we decided not to focus purely on the Czech Republic, but to open up to the world, figuratively speaking. We did the same when we set up the fund. The reason is simple – by cooperating with foreign partners for a long time, we learn and gain invaluable experience. We can then use this to select the most interesting Czech startups and help them become even better. This ultimately moves them forward and makes them competitive both in Europe and globally. When looking for investment opportunities, we therefore focus primarily on the Central European region, which we know well and where we have many good partners. However, in the event of an interesting offer, we are also ready to support projects that originate outside this geographical area. Thanks to the fact that we are creating a portfolio composed of unique Czech and foreign startups, we increase the chances of success for the whole fund and attract the attention of other foreign investors who are not yet familiar with our region. This is not to say that we don't want Czech projects. On the contrary, we will be happy for them. Our advantage is that, in addition to investment, we can also offer them intensive support from the i&i Prague incubator. What is your experience with the quality of Czech projects? How do they compare with foreign competitors? We know from experience that the ever-increasing quality of science in the Czech Republic gives the opportunity for unique ideas, inventions and technologies that are no worse than similar projects from the USA or Western Europe. The difference is mainly in the mindset of the people and the availability and quality of the supporting infrastructure, be it technology transfer centres, incubators or grant resources. I believe that, thanks to our Fund's approach, we will also gradually become fully integrated into the advanced European countries where we belong in the area of innovation and investment. Let us move on. As you yourself have already indicated, investment in the natural sciences does not have much of a tradition in the Czech Republic. Could you explain at least some of the specifics that this sector entails? Compared to other industries, investing in life sciences is more demanding in terms of knowledge and the amount of investment. We need to be able to assess the potential of new scientific discoveries, which entails the need to understand their nature and uniqueness. There is also a need for considerable flexibility, as the chosen technology is often developed towards an inappropriate application, so that the final use changes multiple times during development. The original business plan is constantly being significantly modified based on the results obtained. The better and more comprehensively you can understand, monitor or even direct the development of the entire project, the better your chances of success. Compared to other industries, there are also much stricter regulations. The other side of the coin is that there is less competition in this field within the EU, which gives a relatively small and new fund like i&i Biotech the chance to get involved in top European projects. As far as valuation is concerned, if you manage to overcome the considerable initial barriers with your technology and obtain the necessary certifications, the value of the project will increase rapidly and you can find a place on a global level. But it's not just about the money. Investing in innovative science projects advances human knowledge and new technologies help people. And it's exciting to be at the start of a journey that may one day end up bringing new drugs to market or introducing new diagnostic methods. Technology transfer? Like driving a car... Let's now turn to technology transfer, a concept that is intrinsically linked to your work. How would you answer the question of what it is for a layman? The whole process can be imagined, for example, like driving a car. At the beginning of the journey, i.e. during the initial research period, the scientist himself drives the car. The moment the project leaves the lab and develops into a functioning company, the driving becomes more and more challenging and the driving needs to be shared with professionals, experts and managers. The scientist then becomes much more of a navigator, showing where to turn, but the overall direction of travel must already be determined by market principles. During the journey, the crew is further expanded to include other passengers, such as economists, lawyers, patent experts and, of course, investors, who together ensure that the car does not run into a dead end, that any breakdowns are quickly repaired and that the car does not run out of petrol. Some of the passengers will only ride for a short distance, others will become a permanent part of the crew, but it is only through the effective cooperation of everyone involved that the challenges of this challenging journey can be overcome. It is important to have working relationships in place, otherwise the journey can end at the first minor puncture. It is the establishment of fair partnerships and sufficient trust between scientists, their parent institutions, managers, investors and companies that I believe is the main task of technology transfer offices. Everything else then runs almost by itself. What do you see as the biggest benefit that technology transfer brings? Technology transfer, including various forms of contract research, generates billions of (Czech) crowns for Czech science and universities. It is therefore an important pillar of funding that can only be further supported. Above all, it enables the transfer of scientific discoveries from the laboratory into practice. It is a long and challenging journey, during which it is necessary to ensure sufficient funding, legal protection and the correct commercial direction of the original scientific idea. The fact is that, without professional technology transfer, virtually no invention will achieve commercial success. This is also why many interesting results of science and research go unused and never help anyone. All major research institutions are gradually realising this, and technology transfer is becoming an increasingly important issue for the Academy of Sciences as well as for universities and other institutions. Why should a scientific discovery be commercially successful? I am referring to the relationship between technology transfer and basic research... Basic research pushes the boundaries of human knowledge, so the function is irreplaceable. Without it, no discoveries will be made, there will be nothing to transfer, and everything will probably only happen at the level of small innovations in companies. However, the aim of scientists should not only be to discover something new, but they should also think about whether they can help people with their discoveries. To do this, it is necessary to transfer successful ideas from scientific laboratories into practice, which is what technology transfer makes possible. Thus, technology transfer does not go against basic research, but instead constitutes a service needed to fulfil one of the primary functions of science, which is to improve the quality of human life. Scientist as businessman? The success of a startup depends not only on the idea itself or the willingness of investors to finance its development, but also on the skills of its managers. Where can you find such people? Finding experienced managers with the necessary scientific background is more than difficult in the Czech Republic, but it is not easy elsewhere in Europe either. It is a question of when we will be able to change this, because science entrepreneurship has almost no roots here. This is a structural problem that will take time to solve. We can start, for example, by including subjects in the study of science that introduce students to the start-up as an interesting perspective for their life development and give them the opportunity to experience such work, for example through internships. Thanks to their creativity and imagination, science students and young scientists are very well-placed to become successful managers. If we allow them to get a good feel for the workings of a start-up during their studies, I firmly believe that many of them would actually start their own companies in the future. Unfortunately, it still happens quite often that top Czech experts and scientists want to return after gaining further experience abroad, but we are not able to offer them favourable conditions to carry on further work in the Czech Republic. This problem could be partly solved by technology start-ups. By supporting them, we will not only enable the return of the investments we have made in the education of these people during their studies, but we will also start a positive spiral towards a knowledge-based economy with high added value. Fortunately, the necessary change is already gradually taking place, with the first successes appearing and more to follow. I am glad we are there. In conclusion, what would you wish Czech science on its way to further successes? I would wish it to finally get the necessary attention from politicians and other authorities. So that it does not have to defend its social need and its funding in such a complicated and repetitive way. Unfortunately, the current overblown bureaucracy and the eternal "presumption of guilt" often makes scientists more like bureaucrats, trying to comply with all the administrative requirements of grant and other agencies. In all this, they are left with relatively little time for scientific work itself, and it is difficult to carry out the more daring projects that can lead to groundbreaking discoveries. Despite all these obstacles, however, Czech science is growing and producing unique results. It seems to me, therefore, that it is about time that we were able to recognise the potential that Czech science offers to our economy. However, I would like us all, first and foremost, to stop underestimating ourselves unnecessarily in the Czech Republic. At least in the area of science, technology transfer and smart investment, I see no reason to do so. Author: Martin Kovalčík Published on www.vedavyzkum.cz , the interview can be found in Czech here .