ASEF BioX: Innovative Research at the Intersection of Industry and Academia

At this year’s first meeting of the BioX Reading Circle, as part of the industrial lectures, we listened to a presentation about the BioMed X Research Institute on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. The institute operates on a unique research model at the intersection of industry and academia. Research groups at BioMed X develop industry-sponsored academic research projects with industrial timelines within a primarily academic micro-environment.

Dr. Mojca Frank Bertoncelj, who led the research group Protective Factors in Autoimmune Diseases (PTA) at BioMed X, presented her career path and experience at the BioMed X institute in Heidelberg, Germany. She described how BioMed X selects a new research project and project leader during a 5-day innovation challenge (the so-called “boot camp”), and how project management proceeds – from generating the initial research ideas to the project’s conclusion, which simultaneously marks the end of the career path at the institute.

BioMed X is represented at various locations around the world, with its main institutes on the campus of the University of Heidelberg and the campus of Yale University in Connecticut, USA. The research covers various biomedical scientific fields such as neuroscience, cancer, artificial intelligence, and immunology. The PTA research group, where the Slovenian researchers Nika Boštic and Larisa Janžič also worked, operated within the framework of the latter.

The research journey at the BioMed X Institute begins at the so-called boot camp, where 15 young scientists, divided into five teams, create and present five innovative proposals for solving a defined scientific challenge within 96 hours. The project proposal with the greatest innovative and applied potential forms the basis for the creation of a new BioMed X group, led by the leader of the selected project idea. Over the course of four to five project years, the new research team actively dedicates itself to researching the assigned challenge and strives to get as close as possible to the project goal. The project work is exceptionally dynamic, intensive, with a fast timeline, and ensures continuous progress in knowledge and career development for the researchers.

Research is conducted in close contact with academic and industrial mentors during interactive monthly research meetings. This is where numerous exceptional academic-industrial partnerships are forged, involving a multilateral transfer of knowledge. The success of achieving project goals and the continuation of funding for the following project year are decided at annual meetings with the industrial Joint Steering Committee. Challenges naturally arise in research at the intersection of industry and academia, and they are related to the specifics of both academic and industrial research. One of the challenges for the PTA group was obtaining joint tissues from patients with inflammatory autoimmune arthritis. This challenge was elegantly overcome by establishing three clinical-academic collaborations, including the University of Lisbon, Erlangen University Clinic, and the Ljubljana University Medical Centre.

The 4-year PTA project at BioMed X concluded in July 2025. With the goals of completing the final experiments and publishing scientific publications, Dr. Frank Bertoncelj continues her research work at the University Medical Centre and Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana, and at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

The presentation of the institute was followed by an engaging discussion where ASEF scholarship holders learned more about the institute’s operations and research opportunities.