MUHS Ideas Competition 2025

Innovation, creativity and a clear view of the challenges of the future: students and researchers at Marien University Hospital & School Gelsenkirchen (MUHS) have once again presented exceptional startup ideas in this year's ideas competition organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurship Gelsenkirchen (CEDUS). At the award ceremony on 10 July, forward-looking ideas prevailed in the ‘Students’ and ‘Researchers’ categories. From an innovative process for producing insulin tablets for children with diabetes to an AI-supported platform for analysing environmental factors and a biotechnological solution for using agricultural waste - the variety of ideas was impressive.

For the fourteenth time, CEDUS organised the MUHS Ideas Competition, which encourages students and researchers to develop their creative ideas for an entrepreneurial future. In total, more than 100 innovative concepts from the two categories were submitted and evaluated by a panel of experts. In addition to the technical assessment, the feasibility and potential for success of the ideas were also taken into account.

This year's award ceremony took place in a festive setting at CEDUS Coworking. In a pitch competition, the six nominated teams presented their ideas to a large audience. The winning ideas in both categories were then honoured and prize money totalling 3,800 euros was awarded.

In addition, the Heine-Center for Sustainable Development (HCSD) special prize for sustainability was awarded for the third time. Traditionally, the audience decides directly and live at the award ceremony which concept was best received.

First place, endowed with 1,000 euros, went to "InsuPrint", second place with 600 euros to "Cherri" and third place with 300 euros to "Exposoma". The money can be earmarked for startup and project-related expenses.

1st place: InsuPrint
InsuPrint is working on a process to produce insulin tablets specifically for children with type 1 diabetes. The aim is to use 3D semi-solid extrusion (3D SSE) to produce insulin tablets that can be taken without injections. This innovative solution could significantly improve the quality of life of diabetics worldwide.
1st prize: 1,000 euros
Alaa Mohamed Abdelmoneim Amin from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

2nd place: Cherri
Cherri uses agricultural waste product - cassava pulp - and ferments it with the help of special yeasts to produce vegan, biotechnologically high-quality cosmetic ingredients. By upcycling biomass waste, Cherri contributes to both reducing the environmental impact and providing sustainable cosmetic ingredients.
Prize: 600 euros
Team: Niloofar Motahhar, Maruf Ahasan Khan, Óscar Barba de la Orden from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

3rd place: Exposoma
Exposoma offers an innovative platform that collects environmental factors such as air quality and UV radiation and combines them with health data. This solution helps to create risk analyses and early warning systems and offers personalised advice for individuals as well as strategic recommendations for cities and medical facilities.
Prize: 300 euros
Berke Kaya, Constantin Puppe from the Faculty of Medicine

1st place and 1,000 euros in prize money went to ‘LifeShare’, 2nd place with 600 euros went to ‘EpAlert’ and 3rd place with 300 euros went to ‘HealthyCrops’.

1st place: LifeShare
LifeShare has developed a process for the production of antibody concentrates, e.g. for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, which enables a concentrate with an antibody concentration four times higher than in blood to be produced from a single donation, and in a significantly shorter production time than is currently required.
Prize: 1,000 euros
Team: PD Dr med Anja Moldenhauer, Jannik Rothenburg, M.Sc., Dr med Thomas Schreiner Silke Rink-Baron, Prof. Dr med Johannes Stegbauer, Elena Stemmler, Claudia Hülstrunk, Dipl.-Ing. Vahid-Mohammad Rasoulpour, Nadjib Hamadou, Manuela Sufcak from the Faculty of Medicine

The Audience Award also went to the LifeShare team, whose innovative solution was also met with great enthusiasm by the audience.

2nd place: EpAlert
EpAlert is a wearable device that uses a biochemical signal to recognise impending epileptic seizures at an early stage and warn the person affected and their carers in good time. This proactive safety technology reduces the risk of injury and improves the quality of life of epilepsy patients.
Prize: 600 euros
Dr. Saeed Zahran from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

3rd place: HealthyCrops
HealthyCrops uses genome editing to prevent rice crop losses due to the disease white leaf blight. The development of disease-resistant rice plants and a diagnostic kit for the early detection of bacterial strains not only improves food security, but also significantly reduces the use of pesticides.
Prize: 300 euros
Team: Dr Marcel Buchholzer, Prof. Dr Wolf B. Frommer, Dr Eliza Loo, Sarah Hatzenbühler, M.Sc., Melissa Stiebner, M.Sc., Dipl.-Ing. Britta Killing from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

The MUHS Ideas Competition is designed to raise awareness at Marien University Hospital & School Gelsenkirchen of the career options of self-employment and starting a business, and to arouse curiosity about exciting alternatives to the typical work biography. In doing so, the competition supports the goal of creating a creative start-up culture and awakening and supporting entrepreneurial thinking and action among everyone at MUHS at an early stage. The ideas competition took place for the fourteenth time in 2025.

The MUHS Ideas Competition is organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship Gelsenkirchen (CEDUS). At the CEDUS, all measures of the MUHS in the promotion of start-ups are bundled. Whether during consultation hours, in a classic startup consultation or at one of the numerous events: CEDUS is the contact for all questions concerning self-employment and business start-up.

Authors: Simone Rehrmann / Carolin Grape