Innovation Competition 2023 Prize for IMM-developed hydrogel for 3D cell culture applications

Lotte Gerrits and Paul Kouwer from the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) of Radboud University have won the Innovation Competition 2023 for the development of a functional gel for cell culture applications. The Innovation Competition (IC) is a training programme organised by Mercator Launch for researchers who have aim to develop their ideas or technologies towards commercialization.

Fibrous hydrogels

As a 3D network of a hydrophilic polymer material that enables absorbing and holding large amounts of water, hydrogels are broadly used in many industries such as food and cosmetics. Also our own bodies are composed of hydrogels and, as such, they developed as a versatile biomedical research tool. The Molecular Materials group of Kouwer developed a synthetic gel that can be used for cell culture applications, including the growth of stem cells, formation of tumor organoids for disease modelling, cell-based assays for drug screening, stimulation of wound healing and controlled drug release.

Molecular materials

Dr. Paul Kouwer and Lotte Gerrit are researchers in the Molecular Materials group with the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) of Radboud University. They develop soft, polymer-based materials with unique characteristics for a range of biomedical applications.

Mercator launch

Mercator Launch is a pre-incubator for early phase entrepreneurship at Heyendaal Campus in Nijmegen. They aim to empower entrepreneurial minds by supporting start-up companies that emerge from innovative ideas.

We warmly congratulate Lotte and Paul with their prize.

More information? please contact
Paul Kouwer, p.kouwer@science.ru.nl
IMM Communication, imm-communcation@ru.nl