Chiesi AIR & CARE through the Impulse is sponsoring a competition to award one Golden Ticket at any BioLabs site located in the US. The Impulse is Chiesi’s global initiative dedicated to advancing healthcare through bold, patient-centered innovation. Each Golden Ticket provides one year of fully paid individual bench space and membership at a fully equipped laboratory designed to accelerate innovative, life-science startups working on innovative therapeutics that aim to restore and revert lung structural damage in chronic respiratory care and neonatal respiratory care such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, bronchiectasis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome (nRDS).
Additional eligibility requirements are listed below.
Application Process
The official application process can be found below. Please read and verify your availability before submitting your application.
Golden Ticket Benefits
Eligibility Snapshot
Chiesi is looking for innovative life-science startups working in chronic respiratory care and neonatal respiratory care on innovative therapeutics that aim to restore and revert lung structural damage through:
Cell therapies
e.g., CART and CART-Reg, iPSC derived alveolar epithelial type II (AT2) cells, basal stemcells, airway epithelial and endothelial progenitors, macrophage/immune cell reprogramming, MSC-derived products.
Gene Therapies
siRNA, miRNA, mRNA, DNA, ASOs, inhaled nucleic acids.
Gene Editing Modalities
(with emphasis on in vivo approaches): e.g CRISPR/Cas (nuclease, base, primeediting), RNA editing, epigenetic modulation/editing/engineering, Gene-writing systems, transcriptionalcontrol, programmable recombinases.
Regenerative Tissue Engineering
including artificial lung technologies and organ bio fabrication.
Preventive approaches
Engineered/Programmable living systems
(bacteria, virus).
Lung Targeting delivery platforms
e.g. nanoparticles, lipid systems, receptor-targeted.
To be eligible, companies should be at one of the following development Stages:
• Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3–5
• Early preclinical stage
• Not yet in preclinical regulatory development
• Not clinically validated in the indication of interest
For additional requirements refer to the Terms and Conditions document.
The Application Process
01
Submit the online application by March 13, 2026
02
A subset of applications will be identified as finalist by the contest judges by
March 27, 2026
03
Finalists will present their company & scientific concept virtually on
week of April 13
(exact date TBC)
04
One award will be granted
Good luck!
Objective of the Golden Ticket:
To validate the asset in relevant respiratory indications by enabling proof-of-concept (POC) studies in vitro and/or in vivo.
Judging Criteria
The Committees will judge all Applications based on the following criteria:
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Innovation and Scientific Merit: Originality and soundness of the proposed approach.
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Sustainability, Feasibility and Scalability: Potential for translation into clinical practice and scalabilityfor widespread use.
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Impact: Potential to significantly improve patient outcomes and address current limitations in the field.
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Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Integration of expertise across biology, engineering, data science, and clinical research.
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Applicability of technology for addressing chronic respiratory diseases with demonstrated unmetmedical needs.
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Pre-clinical evidence to support quality and feasibility of the technology.
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Potential for platform development.
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Strength of prospective clinical impact and differentiation within the competitive landscape.
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Capability to clearly define, communicate, and achieve proposed research milestones.
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Alignment with Chiesi’s mission in prioritizing sustainability, health equity, and patient care.
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Motivation and qualifications of the team supporting the technology
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Must meet BioLabs’ resident criteria.
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Readiness to move into the BioLabs lab space shortly after receiving an Award (subject to siteavailability).
Contact us
If you have any questions about, BioLabs Hôtel-Dieu or this Golden Ticket, contact
If you have any questions about BioLabs, contact
