Every three years, UNIPRENEURS awards Germany’s highest honour for outstanding achievements in promoting entrepreneurship, technology transfer and spin-offs at universities and non-university research institutions. Prof. Dr Christian Hackenberger is among this year’s twenty award winners. He is a Professor of Chemical Biology at Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) and heads the Biomolecule Modification and Delivery research unit at the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP). He is also a co-founder of the Munich-based company Tubulis, a joint spin-off of the Leibniz-FMP and LMU Munich.
His research focuses on the development of new chemical methods for the modification and transport of biomolecules, with the aim of developing innovative biopharmaceutical active substances. His work on the production of cell-permeable antibodies and the development of P5 labelling technology for the manufacture of novel antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) has garnered particular international recognition, for which he has received numerous awards. In 2019, together with scientific partners, he founded the biotech company Tubulis to harness P5 technology for new cancer therapies.
P5-ADCs developed by Tubulis and Bristol-Myers Squibb are currently being used in clinical trials (Phase I/IIa) for ovarian and lung cancer. Several other ADCs are in the pipeline. In April 2026, Tubulis was acquired by the US pharmaceutical company Gilead for up to US$5 billion, making it one of the largest transactions in the European biotech sector in recent years.
“I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to Professor Hackenberger on this further accolade for his excellent research and his entrepreneurial commitment. Through his work, he has exemplified how research findings can be transformed into innovative applications. I hope that many colleagues will be able to follow his example. Spin-offs make an important contribution to solving pressing societal problems such as – in this case – curing cancer through novel therapies,” said Prof. Dr Julia von Blumenthal, President of Humboldt University of Berlin.
About UNIPRENEURS
UNIPRENEURS is an initiative aimed at strengthening spin-offs at German universities. The Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft is responsible for organising and implementing this joint initiative. The Startup-Verband, Bitkom and AddedVal.io support UNIPRENEURS as partners. Every three years, UNIPRENEURS awards Germany’s highest honour for outstanding commitment to entrepreneurship at universities. This year, twenty professors were honoured from a field of more than 800 nominations submitted by founders.