In a repurposed industrial loft in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood of Berlin, teams of scientists are preforming a range of skits for one another to show off their latest inventions. Some are pretending to be on a first-date, sharing their most promising product features to a new potential lover, others are on a podium addressing an imaginary political cabinet. There are no scientific instruments to be found anywhere in the room, and the facilities wouldn’t pass any lab certification, but the work being done here is absolutely cutting edge.
The teams have been selected to take part in the Inventors for Health (I4H) Program, a new development from Spark BIH. For this new venture, Spark has partnered with the Charité Foundation and 5WX New Ventures GmbH. The three-month program focuses on entrepreneurial skill-building for the next generation of scientists from within the Charité and its partner institutions. The aim is to develop solutions to address yet unmet medical needs.
Inventors for Health traces its roots to the work of Abigail and Craig Garner, both of whom have spent the better part of their careers at Stanford translating basic research to meaningful biomedical solutions. At the centre of this process is biodesign – a patient-focused innovation approach that’s been used to great effect in the valley and beyond. The premise was a simple one: what might happen if we marry the principles of biodesign with entrepreneurial skills and the unique startup ecosystem present in Berlin?
Their close ties to the Charité found the perfect partner in the Charité Foundation who for years have been working to develop its people and elevate the success of the organizations founded there. They didn’t shy away from investing nearly €1 million in making it happen.
From the outside looking in, you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s all fun and games here (and sometimes that's true) – but the teams are working to solve some of the biggest challenges in health today: communication between clinics and their patients, heart valve replacement in children, and the treatment of rare forms of cancer, to name a few. They’re also doing all of this outside of a traditional lab setting with the help of teammates with no formal scientific training. Within the Charité, and beyond, this is what makes the program completely unique.