The CSIC selected four different projects on Friday 13 June 2025 at the Casa de la Ciencia in Seville as winners of the Activa-T Hackathon. This initiative identifies CSIC projects with significant innovative potential and supports them in their initial steps towards the market. The four chosen projects, selected from eight finalists, will receive funding of up to €20,000, as well as guidance and assistance necessary to launch and develop their ideas and to establish a spin-off company.
During the Hackathon, participants worked on validating and presenting their business idea, guided by experts in hackathon facilitation and supported by mentors provided by Andalucía Emprende and Sevilla Emprendedora. Each team presented their Elevator Pitch to a panel of judges, who selected the eight finalist teams that advanced to the Pitch Competition. Amongst the finalists, there were two ICMAB projects.
The initiative is part of Converge, the CSIC’s open innovation hub, which fosters the creation of companies based on knowledge generated within the institution.
OncoLiCure, a novel platform for cancer treatment, the winner
The winning ICMAB project was OncoLiCure, from the SSC-NANOCIM group at ICMAB, with Stefania Sandoval and Marina Llenas representing the group in Seville.
OncoLiCure project proposes a novel nanoplatform loaded with lithium-6-enriched compounds to improve the efficacy of neutron capture therapy (NCT), one of the most promising approaches for treating inaccessible cancers such as head and neck cancer. Theoretically, lithium-6 could enhance the therapeutic potential of boron-10, which is currently used for NCT in clinical practice.
Their in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that this technology could overcome key limitations of the boron compounds currently used in the clinic by encapsulating the therapeutic agent in carbon nanohorns and applying active targeting. This strategy helps reduce rapid clearance from the body and increases the concentration of the agent in tumor tissue.
The prize they received will be used to conduct a regulatory study, which will help them to better understand the necessary steps and requirements to advance toward clinical application.
A pont-of-care biosensor at the final
The finalist project was a point-of-care biosensor technology from the eMolMat group, which they also presented at Transfiere 2025, represented by Diego Gutiérrez and María Ortiz- Aguayo at the EBTON.
Members of the eMolMat group at the EBTON
The eMOLMAT group is developing an innovative Point-of-Care sensor platform for in vitro biomarker detection, which has already been validated with several antigens. The resulting biosensors enable quantitative electronic measurements with data transmission capabilities and promise a lower limit of detection (LOD) compared to current market devices. This, combined with their versatility, makes them particularly useful in the healthcare field.
As part of the Activa-T initiative, they have proposed a project offering a technically and economically viable solution to meet the diagnostic needs of specific market niches. The next step is to establish collaborations with companies in the sector through technology transfer projects, which will allow them to carry out testing with real samples and validate the devices in relevant environments.
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