Two UNIGE Life Sciences Projects Get a CHF 100’000 innoLIFE Grant

Two UNIGE scientists, Sanae El Harane from the Department of Medicine, and Maude Rolland, from the Department of Surgery received a CHF 100’000 innoLIFE grant to pursue their research.

Turning academic breakthroughs into real-world healthcare solutions is no small feat. In fields like pharma, biotech, and medtech—where regulation is stringent and the path to market is long and costly—early-stage inventions often struggle to attract industry interest or funding. That’s where innoLIFE comes in. At the University of Geneva (UNIGE), many promising healthcare innovations are too early-stage to be licensed or spun out. To bridge this gap, innoLIFE provides essential funding to generate strong proof of concept and reduce project risk—key prerequisites for attracting industrial partners or venture capital.

Each year, Unitec, the tech transfer office of University of Genevan awards up to two innoLIFE grants of CHF 100,000 to support the maturation of healthcare-related inventions developed at UNIGE. These funds, generated from licensing revenues, are reinvested to help researchers bring their innovations closer to market. Here are the 2025 awardees :

Innovative shipping for organoid plates

Building on the Airliwell technology, this project, led by Sanae El Harane from the Department of Medicine, tackles a key logistical challenge: how to reliably ship pre-seeded organoid plates. Ensuring viability and usability upon arrival will transform organoid accessibility for research and industry, boosting reproducibility and scalability in biomedical research.

Packaging cell line for gene therapy vectors

To address manufacturing bottlenecks in gene therapy, this project, led by Maude Rolland, from the Department of Surgery, develops a novel packaging cell line for efficient, scalable vector production. This advancement could significantly lower costs and expand access to life-saving gene therapie

➡️ Source: UNITEC

📸 © UNIGE. Photo 1 (L to R): Dre Maude Rolland,  Dr Fabien Abdul, Dre Pascale Ribaux and Honorary Pr Karl-Heinz Krause. Photo 2: Sanae El Harane, Department of medicine, Faculty of Medicine.