Spin-offs
Over the years, the activities of our laboratory have led to the formation of several spin-off companies, all of them domiciled in Switzerland.
MaxWell Biosystems has been founded on September 1st, 2016 in Basel by four BEL collaborators, Dr. Michele Fiscella, Dr. Urs Frey, Dr. Jan Müller and Dr. Marie E. Obien.
MaxWell Biosystems develops and markets advanced electrophysiology platforms for cell assays in preclinical drug discovery, safety pharmacology and basic neuroscience research.
- Cell types: Neurons, cardiomyocytes, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC), others
- Preparations: acute brain slice and retina, dissociated cell culture, organotypic slice culture, embryoid body
- Applications: phenotype screening, detailed single cell analysis, multi-parametric network analysis, drug efficacy testing, toxicity testing
Validity Labs is a spin-off company of BEL and was founded on July 26th, 2016 in Hünenberg, Switzerland, by BEL collaborator Dr. Sebastian Bürgel and his partner André Wolke.
Validity Labs is a leading provider of blockchain-based decentralized applications and is based in Switzerland. The company started in 2015 with the Ethereum genesis block as the first blockchain education company. Today, Validity Labs is the technical partner of choice for a range of startups as well as large corporates, offering support and know-how in the areas of blockchain-enabled solutions, decentralized applications, tokenisation and initial coin offerings. The company implements smart contracts and builds novel web3.0 solutions from frontend to backend.
Shift Cryptosecurity is a spin-off company of BEL and was founded October 30th, 2015 in Basel by BEL collaborator Dr. Douglas J. Bakkum and the entrepreneur Jonas Schnelli.
The company produces hardware devices to secure digital assets, or, in other words, physical keys for our digital lives. Applications include:
- Cryptocurrencies and blockchains
- Authentication and passwords
- Personal identity
- Document signing
InSphero, another spin-off company of BEL, has been founded on March 26th, 2009 in Zurich by the BEL collaborator Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, as well as Dr. Jens Kelm (ETH and University of Zurich) and Dr. Wolfgang Moritz (University of Zurich).
The company produces biomimetic three-dimensional microtissues, which constitute a significant advance over conventional two-dimensional cell cultures, e.g., in drug screening experiments. The applications include:
- Pharmascreening
- Diagnostics and medical therapy
Zurich Instruments, the first spin-off company of BEL, has been founded on April 3rd, 2008 in Zurich by two BEL collaborators, Dr. Sadik Hafizovic and Dr. Flavio Heer.
The company develops and markets high-tech instrumentation for dynamic signal analysis. The applications include:
- Scientific instrumentation for research in electrical engineering, physics and communication technologies
- Instrumentation for quantum computing
- Medical instrumentation for high-resolution magnetic-resonance imaging
- Bioelectronic and bioimpedance measurements in life sciences