Dr. Nina Fechler (Charité)
Dr. Nina Fechler leads all activities within the Berlin University Alliance at Charité, one of Europe’s largest university hospitals, with the mission of turning Berlin into an internationally-visible science hub.
Nina holds a Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces where, after a research stay at the University of California Santa Barbara, she was also granted a research group leader position in the area of sustainable materials for energy storage and catalysis. During that time, Nina graduated from a Master in Science Marketing program and kick-started a spin-off project on bio-inspired construction material.
Nowadays, Nina is also a member of the Advisory Board of the German Scholars Organization, which supports researchers on their career path development.
Can you explain your job to a five year old?
We all wish to be healthy and enjoy life. Here, science helps us to understand how to prevent becoming sick and, in the case we do get sick, how to recover fast. However, solving important questions becomes increasingly complex and requires joint work from people with very different backgrounds. I build solutions to team up the right people, educate the next generation, make science applicable, and ensure the necessary research conditions are in place.
What excites you most about your job?
I’m an explorer. I love to dive into how things work and build solutions that can improve our everyday life. In my current role, I have the great opportunity to work with people from different scientific disciplines, as well as different stakeholders from research, the private sector, society, and politics. This enables a more holistic perspective that in turn helps to better understand our complex environment and what you can do for innovation and society.
Which trend will change the future of medicine?
On the one hand, I believe we will see a shift toward prevention and predictive medicine, so we will focus less on treatments and more on precaution. For example, smart devices and advanced analytics will enable early awareness of potential health risks and support doctors’ decisions. On the other hand, personalized medicine will lead to more efficient patient support, including diagnosis, drug development, and treatment.
Looking back, which trends have you missed or underestimated?
There is no question that digitalization will continue having a tremendous impact on society. However, the quality and availability of the underlying data is the determining factor. Looking back, I underestimated the central value of interoperable data.
Which MedTech initiative or startup deserves more attention?
I think we will see progress in areas of unmet medical needs. For example, cancer remains one of the most challenging diseases. T-knife discovered an approach for the development of new cancer treatments by making use of the body’s immune system. Another recently-founded biotech startup, Grove Biopharma, is working on protein-like polymers (PLP) with the potential to address important biological disease targets, including those classically considered undruggable, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Where would you put a million dollars?
I would invest in the education of scientific entrepreneurs and matchmaking platforms, to connect scientists with entrepreneurs, companies, and society.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
It’s often not a technical question, but how to make people use it (i.e., how to turn an invention (discovery) into an innovation (application)).