During her doctoral studies, Gitte Neubauer already knew that she did not want a purely research-oriented career: "I always wanted to bring research results to application. Writing papers for their own sake was not enough for me in the long run," says the CEO of the Heidelberg biotechnology company Cellzome. "Good research can also be done in the industry, especially when you have the chance to actually start a company."

This can be seen at Cellzome. The company specializes in understanding disease progression and the mechanisms of action of drugs at the molecular level to find suitable targets for new and better medicines. "Our methods, for example, allow us to determine how precisely drugs influence the proteins they are supposed to inhibit or activate or to identify the molecular characteristics of patients who respond to a particular therapy," explains Gitte Neubauer.

The story of Cellzome began around 2000 at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Gitte Neubauer was freshly graduated and was offered the chance to co-found a new EMBL spin-off: "We prepared our project in the late 1990s, then founded it and quickly received our first funding," recalls the Cellzome CEO. The time was right, as there was a genuine biotech boom in Germany. Numerous BioRegions were established as part of the BioRegio initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, including in Heidelberg. The initiative aimed to promote the use of biotechnology and facilitate the transfer of technology into application.

Cellzome benefited from this positive atmosphere but chose a unique path, as Gitte Neubauer reports: "Many other companies hoped at the time that drug development would become simpler and faster through genome sequencing. However, we knew that the genome was only part of the solution. We wanted to focus on proteins and understand how they interact within the cell and determine cellular functions." The Cellzome team was confident that this would lead to a better pharmacological approach.

The company's success proved them right: In the first two years of its existence, Cellzome grew rapidly and opened a second branch in the United Kingdom. Although the biotech boom abruptly ended with the attacks of September 11, 2001, and investor money dried up, Cellzome survived the setback. "Many companies founded in 1999 and 2000 had to give up. This shows that biotech is a high-risk business despite all good ideas and depends on favorable conditions," explains the CEO. The pharmaceutical company GSK acquired Cellzome in 2012 after a four-year collaboration. GSK wanted to broaden the technology platform and cover multiple therapeutic areas.

Why was Cellzome successful? "In Heidelberg, we had the best of several worlds," answers Gitte Neubauer. "At EMBL, we found an international environment and incorporated this into our corporate culture, so the working language at Cellzome has always been English." This not only facilitated collaboration with the international pharmaceutical industry but also the recruitment of top scientists. Today, the Cellzome site in Heidelberg employs 80 people from around the world and from various scientific disciplines: biologists, computer scientists, AI specialists, and engineers. "We have a wide range of competencies: some are more analytically active, others in bioinformatics, and others specialize in laboratory work," describes Neubauer the work environment of the biotech company.

Heidelberg offers not only an international environment and a high quality of life, which is important for talent recruitment. The infrastructure of research institutions and clinics is excellent: "Heidelberg's research quality is on par with other major biotech hubs and is certainly comparable to Cambridge, Oxford, or US locations," says Gitte Neubauer. However, to activate this potential for spin-offs and start-ups, robust networks are necessary: "If you are founding a company from a university and have no experience with drug development, you can exchange ideas through networks - not only with peers but also with industry and research." The BioRN Network, which Neubauer chairs, provides ideators, mentors, and people who want to help build an outstanding ecosystem.

The Heidelberg Technology Park plays an important role in the development of this ecosystem, as Cellzome's early days show: "Besides the support in finding suitable spaces, the Technology Park helped us with its foresight and deep understanding of what new companies and groups need." The Technology Park and the city of Heidelberg understood the strengths of the location and that sometimes one has to take risks with great flexibility: "The Technology Park was a driving force in getting the BioRegion started." Additionally, the newly established technology transfer office at EMBL in the early 2000s helped Cellzome overcome initial difficulties. Even after the acquisition by GSK, Cellzome remained connected to EMBL. "Our cooperation with EMBL works excellently thanks to pragmatic and trusting collaboration. We can finalize a new contract for a new research project within a few weeks," explains Gitte Neubauer.

However, this is not always the case: "We could utilize our potential in Germany much better," Neubauer is convinced: "A little less bureaucracy and generally a more risk-taking mentality would be helpful. The possibilities of technology transfer are limited here. The framework conditions must be created by politics." The same applies to funding opportunities. While networks also provide access to VC investors, "In Germany, financing a young biotech company with venture capital is still much more difficult than in the USA. We benefited greatly from the fact that our founding team included not only scientists but also experienced biotech entrepreneurs from the USA, who provided us with a completely different access to investors," recalls Neubauer.

With better-funded start-ups and more investments, the number of potential cooperation partners also increases. This would be advantageous for Heidelberg, as the upcoming biotech trends require a multitude of well-coordinated competencies: "We will have to approach biomedicine much more interdisciplinarily than before. The interfaces between disciplines are becoming increasingly important. This is evident not only in the field of machine learning but also in the crossover between biotech and medtech," explains the Cellzome CEO. Therefore, an innovative ecosystem today needs actors from numerous fields. This is evident on a small scale at Cellzome itself.

To manage this increasing complexity, BioRegions should grow together even more playfully. Not all places need to offer the same services: "The division of tasks offers a great opportunity for Heidelberg and its surroundings." An opportunity that must be seized. Much of the future success of the location depends on companies, cities, and the BioRegion developing in harmony with each other.

by Dr. Stefan Burkhardt

Download: Testimonial from Dr. Gitte Neubauer