AmsterdamUMC is continuously advancing its knowledge and expertise across patient care, research, and education. Recently, valorisation has become the fourth pillar of our mission. Valorisation refers to the process of translating knowledge and expertise into meaningful applications that benefit healthcare and society at large.
In line witht the strategic plans from AGEM and the Amsterdam UMC as a whole, AGEM wants to promote that the dissemination, translation, implementation and upscaling of scientific knowledge into practice will intertwine more systematically with all facets of research that takes place in the context of the AGEM research institute.
Societal impact initiatives
Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare, but serious hereditary metabolic disorder. In boys that have it, it can cause damage to the brain and adrenal glands. However, early detection and treatment can prevent these negative outcomes. From 1 October 2023 onwards, the heel prick test for the Dutch newborn screening also tests for metabolic disorder ALD. This is, among other things, due to the efforts of AGEM researcher Stephan Kemp and his research group!
If the heel prick screening test result shows signs of ALD, the child goes to the Amsterdam UMC to confirm the ALD diagnosis. .
There are many children with a stoma and yet they often think they are the only ones. It is nice if they can talk about it with others in the same situation, but also if they receive good and understandable information about dealing with a stoma. This is possible thanks to the special stoma app for children. This StoMakker app, just like the special stoma app for adults, was developed by physician-researcher at the Pediatric Abdominal Center Sebastiaan van der Storm, as part of his PhD research.
Van der Storm did not do this alone: “We consciously involved all relevant parties. Patients, their parents, pediatric surgeons, pediatric urologists, stoma nurses and several patient organizations. We wanted to create a good medical app; one that will be used extensively. Only when everyone is behind it and there is sufficient support, will it be a success.” With the StoMakker app, he - together with his supervisor, professor of surgery, e-health expert and AGEM researcher Marlies Schijven - already won the Medical Inspirator Prize 2020/2021.
MyHeBu (My Health Buddy) by AGEM PI Georges Janssens, a wearable device-based and AI-powered digital twin to track your health and aging. This application was nominated for the Amsterdam Science Innovation Award.Many people are tracking all of their health data using wearable devices, but it’s not really giving them answers to simple questions like: ‘How often should I exercise?’, or ‘Is my high protein diet helping or actually hurting me?’. My Health Buddy has been developed to show people their biological age, by using wearable device data as movement patterns, heart rate variability, resting heart rate and gender. My Health Buddy reduces complex data to one easy score, aiming to empower people to personalize their lifestyles for keeping people’s biological age younger than their normal age, to live a long and healthy life.
IXA Alliance Office
The Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA) Alliance office assists researchers in creating value from their research and aimed at working with industry to negotiate research collaborations.
The Alliance Office is an embedded IXA business development office, aimed at working with industry to negotiate research collaborations. IXA operates as a department of Amsterdam UMC and assists researchers in creating value from their knowledge and expertise.
AGEM Dedicated Business Developers
To facilitate this, Business Developers have been appointed to AGEM. Their role is to support (pre)clinical scientists in unlocking the societal and commercial value of their research. This includes early identification of potential inventions, evaluating their commercial/societal value, securing our intellectual property, and exploring licensing and spin-off opportunities
In their role as business developers Sanne Stembert and Ric van Tol can help with actively seeking partnerships, both inside-out (from Amsterdam UMC to external parties) and outside-in (bringing external partnerships into our ecosystem). They work closely with our investigators to identify and implement the most suitable contractual frameworks, such as collaboration agreements, service contracts, consortium agreements, and consultancy and speaker engagements.
Moreover, Sanne and Ric can also be involved in a more strategic role at the front end of project development. Where they can help shaping large-scale research proposals and partnerships, and identify funding resources such as subsidies and industry sponsorships.
Additionally, examples of external companies that have worked with AGEM researchers in the past or are currently collaborating on a project can be found on this collaborations page.
