GO-Bio initial funding for Helen Dauben

From academia to industry: development of a new antibody

Helen Dauben, a postdoctoral researcher in the Matic research group, has received initial funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the Go-Bio programme. The programme will provide her with a total of €100,000 from October 2024 to the end of September 2025.

The money will be used to further develop an innovative idea for the transfer of research results from academia to industry. Specifically, the aim is to develop an anti-mono ADPr antibody from a pure research tool to a diagnostic and possibly even therapeutic tool.

During this so-called 'exploratory phase', no laboratory work will be carried out. Instead, the focus will be on the specification of the idea, literature searches, initiation of collaborations, initial market research and a state of the art analysis. The last two steps are carried out in close collaboration with an external company.

Helen Dauben developed the antibody as part of her PhD thesis. The antibody is able to detect mono-ADP-ribosylation, which has never been done before with such specificity. Using this antibody, her research group was able to demonstrate a second wave of DNA damage repair.

More information on the GO-bio initial program:
https://www.go-bio.de/gobio/de/go-bio/go-bio-initial/go-bio-initial.html