As we embark on a new year, I am grateful for a year of scientific progress in challenging global economic times. Last year at this time, the COVID-19 pandemic exploded with the unexpected arrival of the Omicron variant. Even as the incredible breakthrough of mRNA vaccines have helped society reach…

Cancer has been rightfully termed the emperor of all maladies. This ancient disease remains one of the leading threats to human health, causing more than 18 million new cases and nearly 10 million deaths around the globe every year1. …

Two weeks ago, Leaps proudly launched Chapter III: Leap Forward. Our chapter films share the vision of Leaps by Bayer and the impact we aim to achieve. While investments began in 2015, Leaps and our mission to break boundaries in life sciences investment — in scale, risk, and collaboration —…

Leaps by Bayer, the impact investing arm of Bayer, commits to realizing paradigm-shifts in life sciences. We are an impact fund in its truest sense — targeting positive solutions for ten key agriculture and healthcare challenges facing humanity, which we call “Leaps”. Our Leaps range from e.g.: preventing and curing…

We live in a fragile, interconnected world. As the COVID pandemic has made clear, local disruptions can reverberate along our increasingly long, complex supply chains, making it harder for food to move from farms to tables around the world. What’s more, these disruptions are becoming the norm. Geopolitical unrest —…

What’s a meal that you’ll never forget? Food is a cherished part of our traditions and cultures. Cooking is a huge part of what makes us human. I believe that everyone deserves access to healthy, affordable food, but too often, our food systems fall short in providing the nutrition we…

Our brains are responsible for much of what we value about ourselves: our creativity, our personalities, our intelligence, our abilities to connect and empathize with others. Because our brains are so crucial in shaping our sense of self, neurological diseases and mental-health disorders, which affect more than 1 billion people…

The rapid advances in cell therapy are among the most exciting avenues for the future of biotech. As I have written before, an emerging field of cell therapies harnesses the incredible powers of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to regenerate tissues lost and damaged in conditions like Parkinson’s disease, heart…

Written by Jürgen Eckhardt, Head of Leaps by Bayer The human immune system is one of the greatest marvels of the biological world. An army of specialized cells works together to patrol our bodies in search of viruses, bacteria, and other invaders. Our immune systems can protect us against previously…