Innovation
Vice Chair of Research and Innovation Nanna MacAulay
Department of Neuroscience, Panum building, room 24-6-34
E-mail: macaulay@sund.ku.dk. Telephone: +45 3532 7566
Innovation Ambassador
Associate Professor Kenneth Lindegaard Madsen
Department of Neuroscience,
Mærsk building, room 07-5-52
E-mail: kennethma@sund.ku.dk
Telephone: +45 2364 9401
Innovation Ambassador
Professor Birgitte Kornum
Department of Neuroscience,
Panum building, floor 24-6-12
E-mail: kornum@sund.ku.dk
Telephone: +45 5051 1511
We hold expertise in converting scientific knowledge into start-up companies. We will continue to focus on innovation and entrepreneurship to enable our scientific ideas to become alive in commercial solutions to the benefit of patient and society.
Innovation is about getting ideas and transforming them into novel, applicable solutions. There is an increasing awareness among our scientists about the value of commercialization of their scientific results. The Department of Neuroscience aims to encourage and support our researchers in their endeavors towards transforming their research into inventions.
The first step in the process – acknowledging an invention potential in our research – will be highlighted in the department by our two innovation ambassadors, Professor Birgitte Kornum and Associate Professor Kenneth Lindegaard Madsen, who are both experienced innovators with successful spin-out companies. The two innovation ambassadors will serve as informal sounding boards for the researchers at the Department of Neuroscience and will represent us at the Faculty’s Innovation Working Group (IWG; Kenneth Lindegaard Madsen) and the Rectorate's strategic committee for an innovative and solution-oriented university (Birgitte Kornum).
UCPH Lighthouse serves as hands-on support in the further process with submission of invention declaration forms (IDFs), filing of patents, formation of start-up companies, seeking funding from innovation stakeholders, and providing consultancy services to companies.
The Department of Neuroscience already holds significant experience with patenting and entering private partnerships although limited to a few researchers. We will, in the coming years, foster our innovation culture for the whole department.
Our start ups
Birgitte Kornum (IN), Petrine Wellendorph (ILF) and Bente Frølund (ILF) have Aug. 20, 2018 founded the biotech company Ceremedy ApS together with Casper Tind Hansen (BiOrigin). The company is based on research performed at UCPH funded by a pre-seed grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The aim of the company is to perform drug discovery in CNS disorders based on analogues of the neuroactive substance gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB).
VISIT CEREMEDY'S WEBSITE
Founded by Andreas Toft Sørensen, Kenneth Lindegaard Madsen and Ulrik Gether from the Department of Neuroscience. The scientific group has been working on modulation of neuronal transmission for more than 15 years, which has led to the discovery of new drugs designed to specifically treat chronic pain without the usual side effects.
VISIT ZYNEYRO'S WEBSITE
Mitii Development A/S was established in 2009 with the purpose to develop and commercialize internet based training systems from perception, cognition and motor control. Mitii Development A/S has developed a unique training method for people with different types of brain damage. Our Prof. Jens Bo Nielsen (IN) contributed to the development of the concept. Mitii Development is owned by the Elsass Foundation.
VISIT MITII'S WEBSITE
Combigene’s scientific founders, Associate Prof. David Woldbye, Department of Neuroscience, UCPH, and Prof. Merab Kokaia, Lund University were among the first in the world to demonstrate that a neuropeptide in the brain, NPY (neuropeptide Y), suppresses epileptic seizures in animals and that the effect could be further strengthened with the addition of the Y2 NPY receptor. On 25th May 2015 CombiGene was listed on SPOTLIGHT Stock Market.Since the original discovery, CombiGene has successively built up a unique body of knowledge concerning gene therapy mechanisms in relation to various neurological illnesses, with an initial focus on epilepsy. Recently, the company was listed at Nasdaq First North stock market.
As of 2025 the Board of Combigene has announced a decision to discontinue activities linked to Biotech research.
Panion Animal Heath AB was founded in July 2015 as a wholly owned subsidiary of CombiGene AB and with the purpose to develop and commercialize the canine (dog) application of CombiGene AB’s technology for gene therapeutic treatment of drug refractory epilepsy. The scientific foundation goes back almost 20 years to the researchers Associate Prof. David Woldbye, Department of Neuroscience, UCPH and Prof. Merab Kokaia, Lund University, and was based on the hypothesis that neuropeptide Y (NPY) is part of the body’s own defense mechanism for preventing epileptic seizures. They discovered that a pronounced anti-seizure effect could be achieved if an increased level of NPY is combined with an increased level of the receptor Y2 in the brain.