Start-ups in Thuringia – ThExAward 2022

Start-ups in Thuringia – ThExAward 2022

Yesterday, DeepEn was awarded 2nd place in the Startup/Foundation category of the #ThExAward2022 competition in Erfurt. The ThEx Award – the Thuringian Startup Award – is the most prestigious award for successful founders and startups in Thuringia. In addition to the award and prize money, the Founder’s Award is particularly distinguished by its support for startups and companies in the Free State of Thuringia. The competition recognizes and honors outstanding ideas and achievements as well as special commitment of Thuringian founders.

The award and the prize money of 4000 € were presented to our teammates Patrick Westermann and Jirka Hofbrucker by the Thuringian Minister for Economy and Science, Wolfgang Tiefensee. We would like to thank the jury and ThEx Enterprise for organizing a great event!

Our spin-off startup from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technologies is on its way to provide users in neuroscience and medicine with ultra-thin imaging tools.

#GRÜNDEN #technology #startup #jena #forschung #optik #photonics #neuroimaging #endoscopy #neuroscience #medicine

Deep-brain imaging system NeuroDeep at MEDICA exhibition 2022

Deep-brain imaging system NeuroDeep at MEDICA exhibition 2022

DeepEn on the road for the first time at a major trade show!

After a long resting period due to the global pandemic, the world’s biggest trade fair of the medical industry, MEDICA, was held again in Düsseldorf from November 14-17, 2022. With 17 giant exhibition halls, over 5,000 exhibitors from 70 countries, and more than 120,000 visitors, MEDICA is the premier platform for showcasing the latest medical technology, products, and services. The fair brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, medical technology manufacturers, and distributors to exchange ideas, network, and explore the latest advancements in medical technology.

And DeepEn was right in the middle of it all.

Our startup joined a shared booth of the German States of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia under the common slogan „Research for the Future.“ It was a great setup, as we got to connect with colleagues from our own local ecosystem, such as Blink-DX, Leibniz Health Technologies, and InfectoGnostics Research Campus. Also, two other young innovative companies, Nanotubetec from Leipzig and Biophotonics Diagnostics GmbH from Jena, were present as well. As a result, interesting conversations never stopped.

To attract visitors‘ interest to our part of the booth, the DeepEn team was prepared with flyers and a large roll-up, as well as a 3D printed miniature version of our deep-brain imaging system, NeuroDeep. The preparation paid off since a good number of interested MEDICA visitors came around to discuss medical applications of the hair-thin, holographic endoscopes in fields beyond neuroscience.

We also took the initiative and ventured out from our base, armed with a single-fiber-probe and a tablet with demonstration videos. The plan was to show the capabilities of holographic endoscopes for subcellular and macroscopic imaging to other endoscope manufacturers, to spark a discussion and learn more about the industry. The spontaneous reaction of the MedTech representatives was often disbelief as they wondered how it is physically possible to use a single multimode fiber as an imaging probe. Indeed, there is no other product on the market yet that can apply the innovative technology we are utilizing. In the end, we had several fruitful exchanges, brainstorming further potential use cases in medicine and possibilities for future partnerships.

After several hours on a tour through the different halls of the MEDICA trade fair, we were physically exhausted but also left with a much better feeling for how established industry players do things.

If you are interested in minimally invasive intravital endoscopic imaging for examination of sensitive tissues, especially for imaging of neuronal connectivity in deep brain regions, we invite you to get in touch!

Visiting life science clusters in Japan

Visiting life science clusters in Japan

Last week, DeepEn Business Specialist Patrick Westermann spent a full week in Japan, visiting the life science clusters around Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe. Though DeepEn is still in the pre-seed phase, housed in the facilities of Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, we are already thinking globally. The leading position of Japan in the fields of Neuroscience, Photonics, and Medical Innovation makes it one of our first focus markets outside of Europe. In international comparison, Japan stands out due to its distinctive research culture and innovation-friendly environment. The Japanese life science industry offers foreign entrepreneurs and researchers numerous opportunities and represents a very attractive growth market.

During his week in Japan, Patrick visited neuroscientists at Kyoto University, discussed internationalization at an event of DJW – Japanese-German Business Association and exchanged ideas with life-science founders at Innovation Dojo Japan. We want to thank International Startup Campus for making this extremely insightful and valuable business trip possible. A big “Thank You” goes to Valerie Daldrup for great coordination and organization of the trip!

#photonics #business #technology #startup

DeepEn’s in-vivo imaging technology at FENS 2022 – Meeting the brightest minds in Neuroscience.

DeepEn’s in-vivo imaging technology at FENS 2022 – Meeting the brightest minds in Neuroscience.

As a young startup with a technological background in the field of photonics and an ambition to provide helpful tools to neuroscientists, it is very important for the DeepEn Team to understand where modern brain research is moving.

And what would be a better place to get connected with the top of the field than the FENS Forum of neuroscience, the largest international neuroscience meeting in Europe? Therefore, DeepEn Team members Hana and Sergey went to Paris to connect with key-opinion-leaders in the field of brain research and catch up with partners and collaborators that were essential to get holographic endoscopy where it is today. The two used the time of the conference from 9-13 of July 2022 to connect with leading scientists and present and discuss the in-vivo imaging technology with them.

The FENS (Federation of European Neuroscience Societies) conference is renowned for gathering top-tier scientists, researchers, and industry professionals, and serves as an annual platform for knowledge exchange, breakthrough sharing, and collaboration in neuroscience. From the very start of the DeepEn research transfer project, we were sure that FENS was the place to be for us.

And we were very happy that we also had time not only to build new relations, but also strengthen existing once. Our colleagues from ISI-CAS in Brno were at FENS, as well as colleagues from LIN in Magdeburg and the University of Edinburgh. It was in Scotland where DeepEn Co-founders Tomas and Sergey first collaborated with neuroscientists to use the holographic endoscopy for bioimaging successfully. If you are interested, read more about the results of this collaboration in this paper. Meeting up again with the colleagues and brainstorming about prospective future projects gave us a lot of inspiration.

All in all, though we could not yet demonstrate the prototype of DeepEn’s first device, the NeuroDeep V1.0 Laboratory system, we could still gather information, make new contacts, and get the opinion of scientists in the different areas of neuroscience. Be sure that DeepEn will be back at FENS in the near future, then with our own holographic endoscope prototype ready to be showcased.

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Investor Days Thuringia 2022

Investor Days Thuringia 2022

The Investor Days Thuringia 2022 #IDT22 this week was DeepEn’s first Investor Event! We were blown away by the cooperative spirit and passion for innovation. The IDT offers a diversity of innovative technologies and business concepts, a large pitch stage and numerous networking opportunities with more than 500 regional, national and international founders, startups, SMEs and many more. The event provides an environment for interesting conversations, experience sharing, inspiration and networking. There, the latest trends in technology, innovation and sustainability will be presented and valuable content from experienced entrepreneurs and investors from around the world.

Discussing start-up topics with people from fellow young companies as well as local, national, and even international investors was very educational for our team. Furthermore, we could finally meet in person with several of the supporters that continue to help us overcome the struggles that a young start-up faces. We are grateful for the great organization of the event by the STIFT – Stiftung für Technologie, Innovation und Forschung Thüringen. Keep up the great work! #investordays #dealflow #STIFTlovesstartups #pitchevent #startupevent #VC #pitch #startupcommunity #dasistthüringen #investmentreadyness #innovationforeveryone #neuroscience #bioimaging #endoscopy #medicaldevices #researchtransfer #innovation