News from London: Exclusive Press Seminar on Stockholm-Uppsala-based Protein Research
The Swedish Embassy in London hosted a seminar for invited science journalists on May 13th 2011. The seminar, entitled ‘The age of protein science: hype or reality? Can it solve the world’s health problems?’, was organised by Stockholm-Uppsala Life Science (SULS). The invited panel members were experts on protein research from the region.
‘The age of protein science: hype or reality? Can it solve the world’s health problems?’ . The Swedish Embassy in London hosted a seminar for invited science journalists on May 13th 2011. The seminar and the following expert panel debate were organised by Stockholm-Uppsala Life Science.
Protein science is one of the major strengths of the Stockholm-Uppsala region. Recent years have shown several examples of groundbreaking research with subsequent commercialisation of biotechnological inventions in the region. Many of the established businesses in the area have their origins in protein research, for example GE Healthcare, Phadia, and Olink, among others. The seminar was arranged to highlight the significance of protein science in recent medical developments and to showcase Stockholm-Uppsala as a leading region in both research and industry in the sector.
Mr Andreas von Beckerath, Minister Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy, and Deputy Head of Mission Political and European Affairs, gave the opening address. The members of the panel were:
Gunnar von Heijne, Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Stockholm University; Program Director for Center for Biomembrane Research at Stockholm University and Co-Director at Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and has acted as chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
Ulf Landegren, Professor at the Department of Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University and Codirector of Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala. He is a member of EMBO and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Prof Landegren is the designated inventor of more than 20 patents and patent applications.
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| Lotta Ljungqvist, Kristian Tryggvason, Ulf Landegren, Gunnar von Heijne and Dan. |
Lotta Ljungqvist, Head of R&D BioTechnologies, Life Sciences at GE Healthcare AB, Sweden, was previously the CEO of IMED, and has also headed the Biopharmaceuticals division at Biovitrum. She has extensive experience in the development of monoclonal antibodies and other protein based drugs.
Kristian Tryggvason, CEO of BioLamina AB, Sweden. His previous experience includes various positions at Orexo AB, Atlas Antibodies and Hempel AS. Kristian has a PhD in cellular and molecular biology from the Karolinska Institutet and an MBA from the Copenhagen Business School.
The seminar was highly appreciated by the participating journalists. One of them said: ”I thought it was really good. I found the biomarker discussions really helpful and interesting. In fact I did not one but two stories from the discussions. I’m following the whole personalised medicine theme, so I found it quite useful.”
Many of the questions from the audience naturally centred on the publication of a new biomarker for prostate cancer diagnosis found by Dr. Masood Kamali-Moghaddam, a member of Prof. Landegren’s research team in Uppsala.
