Two innovative researchers selected for Faculty of Impact

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28 March 2024

Anouk Post and Felix Paulußen are selected for Faculty of Impact. Anouk comes with a camera the size of a pill, and Felix brings a targeted treatment for colorectal cancer. Through intensive entrepreneurship training, these researchers will bring their innovation into society.

In the Life Sciences & Health round, 14 researchers in total have been selected for the Faculty of Impact programme for two years of intensive and personal guidance in entrepreneurship, intellectual property and investment. In this time, researchers can focus on taking their innovation into the world.

Anouk Post (VU Amsterdam) - LightUP: a pill-sized imaging device for the early detection of oesophageal cancer

Each year, 600,000 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and 75% die within 5 years after receiving this diagnosis. Early detection dramatically improves survival rates. Screening is offered to people with Barrett's oesophagus, a disease linked to a higher oesophageal cancer risk, but it misses 25% of early cancer and is expensive. Anouk Post and team created LightUP, a pill-sized imaging device that will detect at least 25% more early cancer than current screening, at a lower cost.

Felix Paulußen (VU Amsterdam) - Ninetac: new modalities for the treatment of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common and deadly disease. While surgery is the main treatment option, many patients still rely on radio- and chemotherapy associated with severe drawbacks. Therefore, extensive efforts towards molecular targeted therapies have been undergone, however, with very limited success. Felix Paulußen's project team has developed two families of peptide-derived agents that address a key driver of CRC, aberrant β-catenin/Wnt pathway activation. These inhibitors interfere with the β-catenin/transcription factor interaction and have shown cellular activity. Thus, they provide the ideal starting point for the development of therapeutics that target Wnt-dependent cancers as well as their valorisation.

About Faculty of Impact

Faculty of Impact offers an intensive, two-year programme for researchers to focus 100% of their time on turning their research into a business with positive societal impact. Participating researchers, now fellows of The Faculty of Impact, meet up every month for training over the course of one week. The remaining time, the researchers stay connected to their own university or research institution. After nine months, the fellows evaluate in what role they will continue the program, as CEO of the intended company, as CTO or rather from the university, as scientific advisor. At the end of the two years, the idea or product is ready for demonstration in practice and for attracting funds for the next step of development.

Thematic rounds

Faculty of Impact works with thematic rounds, that are connected to the major societal challenges of our time. The first time the call was open, it welcomed applications from researchers working on solutions towards the theme of 'energy transition and sustainability'. The current round is on the theme of Life sciences & Health. Later rounds will touch on other themes, such Artificial Intelligence and Food & Agriculture.

The Faculty of Impact is a collaboration between the Universities of the Netherlands (VSNU), Techleap and NWO.

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