Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award Honors HAYA Therapeutics Co-founders
The award jury selected Samir Ounzain, PhD and Daniel Blessing, PhD as the winners from an outstanding finalist group of life science entrepreneurs
The committee of the newly established Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award announced that Samir Ounzain and Daniel Blessing, the two co-founders of HAYA Therapeutics, are the inaugural winners of the Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award. Established to support and recognize entrepreneurial vision in the life science arena, the award recognizes the co-founder’s progress in building a company developing an RNA therapeutic approach targeting long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in multiple disease areas, in advance of the start of a HAYA’s first-in-human clinical study in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
“Together with the award committee and this year’s jury, we congratulate Samir and Daniel and hope that this award provides an additional validation as HAYA’s begins the next stage of development as a company. They have proven their ability to translate their findings from the lab into a differentiated cell-state-modifying platform that has significant potential to provide novel, disease-modifying therapeutics for the heart and a range of other disease areas,” Andreas and Thomas Struengmann said in a joint statement. “Throughout our selection process, it has been a tremendous privilege to view the outstanding companies nominated from across the DACH region and, in particular, get to know the finalists whose successes made the final decision a difficult one to make.”
The company teams shortlisted in May represent established and emerging biotech entrepreneurs in the DACH area who made significant achievements over the past years. These entrepreneurs turned unique scientific approaches into companies focused on bringing solutions to patients through modalities ranging from cell and RNA therapies to ADCs. Following the nomination, a group of finalist innovators had the opportunity to present their companies and their respective scientific approaches to an expert jury of leading personalities from the DACH life sciences sector, who then selected the winners announced at the Festival of the Future at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. As part of the award, Samir Ounzain and Daniel Blessing received a cash prize of €100,000, which they will share.
“We created HAYA to translate our knowledge of lncRNAs into tangible therapeutic candidates, with the upcoming first-in-human study with HTX-001 in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as the next opportunity to demonstrate the potential. To be recognized by the Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award for our achievements to date and contributions to the DACH life science ecosystem is a true honor. It fuels our ambition of providing patients with disease-modifying therapeutics with the potential for greater efficacy, safety, and accessibility,” said Samir Ounzain, CEO of HAYA Therapeutics.
Daniel Blessing, CTO of HAYA Therapeutics, added: “We are confident that this prestigious award will become one of the most important recognitions for emerging companies and their founders. Being nominated alongside other inspiring entrepreneurs and selected as the first winners is truly exciting for us, but also the entire HAYA team who is working with great commitment to make our shared vision a reality.”
As a molecular biologist, Samir Ounzain has over 15 years of experience exploring the non-coding portion of the human genome, known as "dark matter", and his research efforts directly led to the discovery of hundreds of novel heart-enriched lncRNAs. Daniel Blessing is a biotechnology scientist with 10 years of experience working in the field of pharmaceutical biotech including various translational aspects of drug development and production.
HAYA Therapeutics is a precision medicine company developing programmable therapeutics that target lncRNAs, a new class of regulating molecules. The company is using its innovative cell state modifying platform to gain new insights into the biology of disease cell states and the lncRNAs that regulate them to address fibrotic diseases. Its first program, HTX-001, is targeting Wisp2 super-enhancer-associated RNA (Wisper), a cardiac fibroblast-specific lncRNA, which shows increased cardiac expression after myocardial infarction (MI) and in hypertension models. Inhibition of Wisper after MI is thought to inhibit the development of fibrosis and improve cardiac function. HAYA Therapeutics is nearing clinical readiness for HTX-001 in non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Additionally, the company is developing a pipeline of lncRNA-targeting therapies for the cell-specific treatment of diseases in other tissues and disease areas, including the lung and the tumor microenvironment.
The award was established in 2024 to recognize outstanding entrepreneurs realizing revolutionary ideas in the DACH life science sector. The goal is to reward exceptional achievements with a prestigious prize and to further the development of the next generation of leaders in this space. The award was named to honor twin brothers Andreas Struengmann, M.D., and Thomas Struengmann, Ph.D., who are among the important entrepreneurs, visionaries and investors in the life science sector. As the founders of Hexal, they achieved extraordinary entrepreneurial success and as investors, they have continued to repeat that success for more than 20 years by building and developing leading companies across the industry, including Mainz-based BioNTech.
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