Anna Dachs wins the 2025 University Prize for sustainable LED research!

Anna Dachs wins the 2025 University Prize for sustainable LED research!

What a reason to be happy! The Straubing University Prize winner for 2025 has been chosen: Anna Dachs will be honored for her master's thesis on the topic “Engineering Living Materials for Bio-HLEDs”. With a straight grade of 1.0, she prevailed in the competition. The Straubing University Prize, which has been awarded annually since 1997 by the Sparkasse Niederbayern-Mitte, the city of Straubing and the Straubing-Bogen district, is being awarded for the 29th time this year.

Anna Dachs was born in Straubing and attended the Anton-Bruckner-Gymnasium before continuing her academic career at the TUM Straubing Campus for Biotechnology and Sustainability. Her master's thesis is particularly promising because it is dedicated to the development of more sustainable LEDs. The aim is to replace rare earths with special proteins. What's special about their study is the production of these proteins using live E. coli bacteria, which could potentially significantly reduce the cost of producing BioLEDs. The aim of this innovation is to replace conventional fossil technologies with environmentally friendly alternatives.

Ceremonial awards ceremony

The official presentation of the prize, worth 5,000 euros, will take place on July 16th in the Max Frank Hall in Leiblfing. The university prize has established itself as an important instrument to recognize exceptional achievements by students and to promote engagement with the city of Straubing and the Straubing-Bogen district. Over 5,000 euros, which turns out to be a small reward for the prize winner for her hard work, makes the whole thing seem even more attractive.

Not only our region, but also the entire biotechnology industry has recently developed briskly. An example of this is the Innovation Award, which was awarded on April 9, 2025 as part of the German Biotech Days in Heidelberg. Application-oriented ideas with high implementation potential and great market opportunities are honored. This year, six finalists were honored by the expert jury, while three of them were awarded 2,000 euros each.

Award winners and innovations

• Lumatix Biotech: Lichtgesteuerte Antikörperreinigung mit der Solaris®-Technologie.
• Sweethoven Biotech: Entwicklung biotechnologischer Prozesse zur Umwandlung von Zucker in gesundheitsfördernde Alternativen.
• Ymolution: Effiziente und kostengünstige Antikörperproduktion in vitro.

Such awards contribute to the visibility of innovative solutions in biotechnology and illustrate the importance of collaboration between BioRegions and Bio Germany. It's nice to see creative minds at the forefront of progress and proving that great ideas are also being developed in our region.

We are excited to see how Anna Dachs' innovative approaches will be implemented in practice and what the future holds for biotechnology in Bavaria.