How to develop a novel type of strategic alliances to move ahead: Business ecosystems grown, developed and powered by FiZ

Abstract

In the age of digitalization, innovation is increasingly taking place across different sectors. The key components of this precision medicine are the collection of a large number of samples in hospitals, transfer of the biological material into data with the help of sequencing, availability of high-performance information and communication technologies (ICT), access to databases for analysis and result representation, and follow-up of the treatment in hospitals using blood-based biopsy companion diagnostics tests.Over the past few years, innovation research has brought to light that the added value of innovation emerges less from purely technological development than by a market-oriented connection of companies and technologies. The use of the mp3 technology at Apple is one example of this. This example also impressively shows how new business models developed in digitization and caused a massive change in the market for consumer electronics. Similar profound changes are expected for the health sector as well.For one, FiZ has a network of companies and researchers in the field of precision medicine and, for the other, the necessary IT infrastructure for adding future value via digitalization business models is available at the Frankfurt site. FiZ developed the project German Genethics (GG) on the following basis:German Genethics (GG) supports doctors who (want to) work with precision medicine to define individual therapies. The special aspect here is: GG has a worldwide unique database based on complex algorithms.The database connects information from renowned specialist magazines and highly specialized molecular biology databases that contain research results from clinical studies with knowledge from recognized treatments. This big-data solution can categorize the characteristics of each individual DNA sample and match it to existing knowledge. In this way, “big data” becomes “intelligent data.”GG is a joint FiZ project on a global scale. The network initiated and coordinated by FiZ consists of highly specialized companies, some of which are headquartered at the FiZ campus in Frankfurt am Main.My passion is the interaction and the network of the companies at FiZ and the collaborative approach of the international research institutes. This will make the term “New.German Engineering”1 a new quality concept in the strong growth markets, which, while making use of the past, will experience expansion in the age of digitalization. With GG, the foundation is laid for establishing a system, which can then be extended into other disease areas, e.g., diabetes, autoimmune diseases, etc. This is how translational medicine gets its daily routine in the clinics and for the benefits of the patients.