THE INNOVATOR: Startup Of The Week: SPARK Microgravity
Meet the startup who won #1 EU Deep Tech Award 2025
Barcelona/Munich, November 2025 – SPARK Microgravity GmbH, a Munich-based space biotech startup, has clinched the top honor at the Barcelona Deep Tech Summit 2025, taking home the #1 EU Deep Tech Champion Award. The award, presented on November 5 at Fira de Barcelona, recognizes SPARK’s pioneering work in using microgravity (near zero-gravity conditions in space) to advance cancer research. CEO Allison Bajet delivered an inspiring pitch at the summit, outshining over 600 deep-tech startups from across Europe. SPARK was recognized for developing a first-of-its-kind hardware and software platform that enables cancer research in microgravity, creating more predictive tumor models and accelerating the development of new therapies. “We want to cure cancer in space,” Bajet said, reaffirming the company’s bold mission. Co-founded in 2024 by Bajet and Katharina Weidmann (COO), SPARK Microgravity is building Europe’s first orbital laboratory dedicated to cancer and drug research – a platform designed to run advanced biomedical experiments in space that simply can’t be done on Earth.
SPARK’s vision is as audacious as it is groundbreaking: perform cancer research in orbit to unlock insights impossible under Earth’s gravity. Studies have shown that microgravity alters cell behavior in significant ways, offering a unique window into diseases like cancer. For example, cancer cells grown in space exhibit an 85% similarity to how they grow in the human body, far closer than traditional lab models on Earth which often translate to humans only about 8–34% of the time. This means experiments in orbit can reveal a cancer cell’s “true behavior” and help scientists observe tumor growth and drug interactions in three dimensions, free from gravity’s distortions. “Space provides us the perfect laboratory,” explains Allison Bajet, noting that in microgravity, cells don’t settle or require extra scaffolding – they float naturally, allowing more lifelike 3D growth. By leveraging these conditions, SPARK aims to accelerate drug discovery and make personalized oncology a reality back on Earth.
The company’s orbital lab is fully autonomous – a crucial feature that dramatically lowers costs and expands access. “SPARK is completely autonomous, making it 10× cheaper than systems requiring human intervention,” says co-founder and COO Katharina Weidmann, highlighting one of the key advantages of their platform. Unlike many existing microgravity experiments, SPARK’s lab doesn’t depend on the aging International Space Station at all; it’s a compact, self-contained payload that can hitch a ride on any launch vehicle. This launcher-agnostic design means SPARK’s research can continue uninterrupted even after the ISS retires in 2030, future-proofing their mission. It’s also the only space laboratory focused exclusively on cancer, allowing standardized hardware and processes for all experiments. “There are over 4,000 nanosatellites in space, but zero dedicated to cancer research – we’re changing that,” Bajet points out. By opening up microgravity to oncology, SPARK Microgravity is turning an inspirational vision into a tangible platform for curing cancer in space.
The Barcelona Deep Tech Summit is a premier European forum for cutting-edge technology startups, and winning its top award underscores how inspirational and visionary SPARK’s work truly is. The Deep Tech Champion Award was decided by a distinguished panel of industry and academic experts, who were impressed by SPARK’s potential to revolutionize health science. The jury included leaders such as Juan Baselga (Director of Business Services at Barcelona Activa), Cobus Bothma (Senior Product Manager at NVIDIA), David Domingo (Senior Conference Curator of the Barcelona Deep Tech Summit), Mar Martínez (Associate Director at IESE Business School’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center), and Rosa Maria Sebastian (Vice-Rector for Innovation, Tech Transfer and Entrepreneurship at UAB). These judges lauded SPARK Microgravity’s bold approach of bringing biotech into space as *“deep tech” at its finest – addressing one of humanity’s biggest challenges with an innovative cross-disciplinary solution. Winning this award, against stiff competition from hundreds of startups, validates SPARK’s vision and momentum as it leads Europe’s emerging space-biotech field.
Looking ahead, SPARK Microgravity is rapidly turning its vision into reality. The startup plans to launch its first autonomous orbital lab in early 2026, aboard Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane, to begin in-space cancer experiments. In total, SPARK has four missions to the International Space Station lined up for next year, securing precious flight slots to run multiple research payloads in microgravity. These missions – effectively “cancer experiments in orbit” – will test how tumor cells and potential drugs behave in zero-gravity, generating data that could unlock new treatments. SPARK is already in advanced discussions with major pharmaceutical companies and research institutions to utilize these upcoming flight opportunities. New partnerships are underway, aimed at collaboratively exploring novel cancer therapeutics using SPARK’s platform. By bringing together space engineers, oncologists, and pharma R&D teams, the company is fostering a new ecosystem at the intersection of aerospace and healthcare.
Co-founder Katharina Weidmann, who left a career in law to drive SPARK’s operations, emphasizes the importance of marrying scientific innovation with business execution. Under her guidance as COO, SPARK has built a robust strategy around its science – from securing regulatory compliance to scaling operations and engaging investors. “This recognition is a huge motivator for us,” Weidmann says, noting that the award not only spotlights their technology but also the team’s relentless effort to push boundaries. “It’s deep tech with deep impact – and we’re just getting started,” adds Bajet, reflecting on how far SPARK has come since its founding in 2024. Backed by the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) in Bavaria and initial pre-seed funding of €500,000, SPARK has swiftly moved from concept to tangible hardware. Now, with multiple ISS missions on the horizon and fresh industry alliances being forged, SPARK Microgravity is poised to make space a new frontier in the fight against cancer.
SPARK Microgravity GmbH is a deep-tech startup headquartered in Munich, Germany, on a mission to advance cancer research through microgravity science. Founded in 2024 by Allison Bajet and Katharina Weidmann, SPARK is building Europe’s first orbital cancer research laboratory – an autonomous space-based platform for pharmaceutical R&D. By conducting cancer biology experiments in microgravity, SPARK provides drug developers and researchers with unprecedented insights into tumor behavior and drug interactions that are not observable on Earth. The company’s innovative approach aims to accelerate the discovery of new cancer therapies and make personalized medicine a reality for patients. SPARK Microgravity was the winner of the 2025 Deep Tech Champion Award at the Barcelona Deep Tech Summit, and is supported by leading space and science institutions. With upcoming missions scheduled to the International Space Station and partnerships with global pharma companies, SPARK is at the forefront of a new era of space-enabled biotechnology, striving to “cure cancer in space” for the benefit of all.
Meet the startup who won #1 EU Deep Tech Award 2025
SPARK Microgravity's co-founders share their space research mission during an interview at Barcelona Deep Tech Week 2025.
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SPARK is excited to collaborate and fuel the next wave of cancer research breakthroughs, from Earth’s orbit to clinics worldwide. Let’s launch the future of oncology, together.
