Industry News

Thursday, 25th November 2021, from 13:30 to 18:00

Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI, Auditorium (PSI West)

Program and online registration: https://indico.psi.ch/event/Anmeldung

The "Technology Briefing" aims at informing our industry partners and SMEs about current practical issues in the field of advanced manufacturing. In addition, the event enables the direct exchange of experiences with experts from CSEM, Empa, PSI, Hightech Zentrum, ANAXAM, as well as from industry.

Today, on September 24^th, Switzerland Innovation Park Innovaare holds its topping out ceremony to celebrate the completion of its new Innovation Campus building together with more than 300 guests from science, industry and politics. The new research and development campus has a size of 38’000 m2 and consists of two 7-story-buildings which are connected by a large, temperature-stable and vibrationfree cleanroom.

Araris Biotech AG is a spin-off company from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich pioneering a novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-linker technology.

At the this year’s edition of the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award, where Switzerland’s best startups are celebrated, Araris ranks TOP11! What a great success for Araris, after positions 13 in 2020 and 95 in 2019. 

We congratulate Philipp Spycher (CEO) and his team for this great achievement!

The innovation campus of Park Innovaare is growing in leaps and bounds. The modern buildings, under construction in the immediate vicinity of PSI, are ideally suited to the R&D needs of industry with office-, laboratory- and clean room space.

Since the ground-breaking ceremony in November 2019, construction work on the 38,000 m2 buildings, led by ERNE AG, has been on schedule and completion is expected at the end of 2023. Then the companies and spin-offs already located in the park, as well as several PSI departments, will move into the new buildings along with other companies wanting to benefit from Park Innovaare's innovation ecosystem.

For further information: https://www.parkinnovaare.ch/switzerland-innovation-hightech-campus-research-park

Circular cities, food and agriculture as well as infrastructure and logistics: this is the focus of the third edition of CE2 on 22 September 2021 at the Kursaal Bern. The conference is the compass for companies that want to anchor sustainable business and the circular economy in their DNA. Renewable energies and recycling are important innovation topics at PSI - this is why we support CE2 as a partner.



Meet other forward-thinkers, designers, and specialists, exchange ideas and get inspired by around 25 experts in keynotes and deep dive sessions. These include Simonetta Sommaruga (Federal Councillor), Thomas Vellacott (CEO, WWF Switzerland), Cllr. Anna Richardson (City Convener, Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, Glasgow City Council), Dr Ian Roberts (CTO, Bühler Group) and Patrick Camele (CEO, SV Group).



Further information and registration at www.ce2.ch/en/

For the last three years, Dr Remo Lütolf, the retiring Chairman of the Board of innovAARE AG in Villigen has successfully guided the development of Park Innovaare. With his background as former country manager of ABB Switzerland, Remo Lütolf was able to incorporate his broad know-how and experience from industry into his mandate for the Park. His successor, Dr Christian Brönnimann, is the founder and CEO of Dectris AG, a company based in Baden-Daettwil. Dectris is the world's number one in the manufacture of X-ray detectors, and is a successful spin-off company of the Paul Scherrer Institute.

In der Reihe "Forschung online erleben" veranstaltet das PSI am Mittwoch, 23. Juni 2021 von 19 bis 21 Uhr  einen virtuellen Vortrag & Rundgang  durch die Krebsbehandlungsanlagen am PSI. Erfahren Sie mehr darüber, welche Krebsarten am Zentrum für Protonentherapie des PSI mit Protonen behandelt werden, welche Patienten für eine solche Therapie infrage kommen und wie eine Behandlung abläuft.

Wählen Sie sich über diesen Link direkt in den Live-Video-Rundgang ein:

Mittwoch, 23. Juni 2021 – 19 bis 21 Uhr

https://psich.zoom.us/j/61021531635 , Meeting-ID: 61021531635

Weiterführende Informationen finden Sie unter folgendem Link:

https://www.psi.ch/de/psiforum/news/forschung-online-erleben-die-protonentherapie-am-psi

The importance of rare earths has increased steadily in recent years - and so has their demand. Digitization and e-mobility in particular heavily rely on rare earth elements. However, Europe is heavily dependent on China in this area, where a large proportion of the current worldwide rare earths supply is sold from.

The PSI-EPFL spin-off REMRETEch is focusing precisely on this and is dedicated to the commercialisation of rare earth recycling. REMRETEch isolates rare earths from electrical scrap with its promising and scalable technology. The start-up has already taken first steps out of the laboratory and is currently working on a pilot project:

Am PSI arbeiten Forschende aus aller Welt daran, Massnahmen gegen das Virus zu entwickeln. Sie wollen besser verstehen, wie das Virus in den menschlichen Körper und seine Zellen gelangt, wie es verschiedene Organe, zum Beispiel die Lungen, schädigt und welche Medikamente am besten gegen das Virus wirken. Dazu werfen sie tiefe Blicke in Gewebe und analysieren die Bausteine des Virus sowie die Struktur vielversprechender Wirkstoffe.

Im Filmbeitrag erklären Forschende ausserdem, wie das Virus durch Aerosole übertragen wird, ob ein Malaria-Medikament auch bei Covid-19 helfen kann und wie man den Aufbau und die Wirkweise von Medikamenten entschlüsselt.

Employers complain about a shortage of skilled workers, while young researchers often do not know exactly where to look for their next professional challenge. Strengthening the bridge between academia and industry at PSI can help open up new perspectives for both sides.

Online Symposium on the provision of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals for a paradigm shift in cancer therapy

The approach of using radioisotopes of the same element for theragnostics has been successfully investigated in previous preclinical studies. The PSIs Tattoos Infrastructure Project will allow the production and subsequent investigation of four interesting “sister” Terbium radionuclides for all modalities in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine. The virtual Mini Symposium hosted by PSIs specialist will give interested participants the opportunity to listen to and question experts in this emerging field of personalized medicine.

Please find more information on the program and registration for the online symposium:

https://www.psi.ch/de/zrw/tattoos-mini-symposium

Best Practice Meeting // Dienstag, 20.April 2021,  17:00 – 18:30 Uhr

Am 20. April organisiert die Schweizerische Management Gesellschaft (SMG) von 17:00 – 18:30 Uhr ein virtuelles Best Practice Event, zu welchem wir interessierte Stakeholder aus Industrie und Akademie herzlich einladen.

Construction work on the Park Innovaare innovation campus, which began in November 2019, is progressing very well. In the meantime, the construction progress is clearly visible. The Innovation Campus consists of two main buildings (A1 and B1), in which entire floors as well as individual offices and laboratory spaces will be rented out. A1 and B1 are connected by a passageway on the first floor.

We are pleased to invite interested national and international companies to our information webinar for the SLS 2.0 (Swiss Light Source) upgrade project in Villigen, Switzerland.

This webinar will be broadcast on the 9th February 2020 from 10:00 to 12:30 CET.

The event is jointly organised by the PSI (Paul Scherrer Institute) and the Swiss ILO (Industry Liaison Office for Research Institutions). During this webinar we will provide information on the PSI procurement rules, an introduction to the SLS 2.0 project and an overview of the upcoming SLS 2.0 commercial tenders.

XRnanotech, the latest PSI spin-off, is working on nanostructured X-ray optics that make the smallest things - the world of the nanometer - visible. Founded only a few months ago, the start-up already has numerous successes to its credit and is already in talks with its first customers and investors.

Roger Herger wrote his diploma thesis and doctoral dissertation on X-ray diffraction of complex metal oxides at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) synchrotron. At the end of June 2020, he founded the high-tech startup maXerial, together with two business partners. Their goal: to combine industrial X-ray technology with artificial intelligence. We trace his path from research to entrepreneur and show how cutting-edge PSI know-how and laboratory-based X-ray technology ideally complement each other to solve the challenges of the Swiss high-tech industry by means of data-driven materials development.

Even as a doctoral student at PSI, Agnese Carino wanted to put the findings of her research into practice and did not hesitate to present her business idea to the CEO of Medicoat AG, Philipp Gruner. She wanted to develop a novel coating for small implants, which accelerates the recovery of the patient, into a product. Supported by the Hightech Zentrum Aargau this was the starting point of the joint SNI project NanoCoat. Carino was awarded the Founder Fellowship by PSI for her business idea. This program supports the transition from promising research findings to marketable products. We are pleased that Dr. Carino is now working with Medicoat to advance the commercialization of this technology.

This year's Swiss Innovation Forum takes place from 17th - 19th November as a 3-day virtual conference. Under the motto "It's time to innovate - NOW" the focus is on creativity, innovation and technology. Which technological trends will conquer the market? And what impact will Covid-19 have on future innovations? These and other questions will be addressed at this year's Swiss Innovation Forum.

PSI will be there - visit us at our virtual booth and find out more about how the technology transfer centre ANAXAM uses state-of-the-art material analysis to support both industry and SMEs in optimising production methods and processes, thus creating the basis for innovations.

With its extraordinary X-ray optics, XRNanotech GmbH, PSI's latest spin-off, was able to convince the jury of the "Business Incubation Centre (BIC) of CERN Technologies" programme of Park Innovaare and prevail over the other finalists. As the winner of this programme, the start-up will receive CHF 50,000 as well as further support from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, CERN and PSI.

Araris, one of PSIs youngest spin-offs, today announced that they have successfully closed a CHF 15.2M seed round with a group of previous and new investors. The funds raised will allow the further development of the ADC linker technology licensed out by PSI and hopefully identify potent drug candidates.

Dr. Philipp Spycher, CEO of Araris Biotech AG began his entrepreneurial endeavors with the PSI Founder Fellowship that helped kick-start his ideas of building a business around the technology that he helped to develop at PSI.

PSI applauds this development and looks forward to a bright future for Araris.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020, from 13:30 to 18:00

Empa, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf  (Participation possible on site OR via Zoom)

Online registration: www.empa-akademie.ch/technology

The conference series aims at informing our industry and business partners about pressing issues of practical relevance. Speakers representing CSEM, Empa, PSI and industry will cover a well-balanced and practice-oriented overview of the latest technologies. The event also provides a platform for knowledge sharing and exchange of experiences, allowing the identification of potential cooperation and further innovation.

Several months have now passed since the new technology transfer centre "ANAXAM" was founded. Under the management of Dr. Christian Grünzweig and in close cooperation with PSI, ANAXAM is on the road to success for industry - time for a brief review.

Debio 1124 - a compound developed at PSI and out-licensed to the Swiss company Debiopharm - is being tested in a clinical phase I study in patients with small cell lung cancer, as Debiopharm has published in a press release. The peptide binds highly specifically to proteins found on tumour cells in this type of cancer. If Debio 1124 is coupled to a nuclide, it can be used both to detect the tumour with imaging procedures and therapeutically to destroy the tumour cells bound in this way.

Since the ground-breaking ceremony for the Park Innovaare last November, the construction of the new Innovation Park has been progressing at a rapid pace. Research and industry will work closely together there to bring innovations to market. The new building should be ready for occupancy by the end of 2023.

Although Switzerland is championed as a world leader at innovation, it is less celebrated for its start-up culture. Does the country have what it takes to produce, finance and nurture the technology of the future? A new documentary explores that question. Our spin-off Gaia Membranes talks about their experiences as a swiss startup.

One year following its incorporation, ELDICO Scientific, benefitting from research and development cooperations with the PSI, has successfully closed a seed funding round. The company raised almost CHF 1.5 million from private and institutional investors, BERNINA BioInvest, several industry-savvy private investors, the Aargauische Kantonalbank (AKB) and Venture Kick. ELDICO will be launching the first electron diffractometer specially designed for nano-crystallographic research.

The PSI Fellow Florian Döring (PostDoc in the «Photon Science» Division) receives Venture Kick's second stage of pre-seed funding, network support, and entrepreneurial training.

Scientists from Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zurich have taken a big step towards making Spintronic devices manufacturable based on processes used in CMOS microchip production. So called Domain Wall Logic circuits can store many different non-volatile magnetic states (bits) directly within the circuit. Such a logic-in-memory device would restart in the exact state it had before a power loss and could immediately continue whatever process was underway at the time of the power loss. The team led by Professors Gambardella and Heyderman demonstrated a working proof of concept Domain Wall Logic Adder that fundamentally merges storage and processing operations in a single circuit opening  the doors Spintronic chips.

The current Coronavirus pandemic has scientists worldwide collaborating extensively to learn about the virus and develop vaccines as well as therapeutics. Together with scientific and industrial partners including the Paul Scherrer Institute, our spin-off leadXpro has developed a method to provide the research and development community with SARS-CoV-2 M protein. This M protein that is an important part of the virus capsule is a potential target for drugs against the virus. We are happy to invite interested parties wishing to receive protein to contact leadXpro. 

The current pandemic is also having a severe impact on Switzerland as a business loca-tion. That is why it is particularly important to invest in innovation now. With this in mind, “Switzerland Innovation” Foundation is launching its first major call for proposals to-gether with renowned partners from the Swiss economy. Funding will be provided for in-novation projects that address the most pressing problems of our time.