SciLifeLab Voices: Rebecka Klintenberg

Hi Rebecka! You are a project coordinator at the Drug Discovery and Development platform of SciLifeLab. Can you tell us a bit about your professional background?

I am a pharmacist by training and did my PhD in Pharmaceutical Biosciences at Uppsala University, followed by a three-year postdoc in Prof John Casida’s Lab at UC Berkeley, where I worked on the pathophysiological mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease in a collaborative project with NIH. After that, I worked 6 years as a Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca R&D in Södertälje, in different projects aiming to develop drugs against Alzheimer’s disease. After the AZ site closed, I started at SciLifelab as a project manager.

What are you most proud of in your work?

What I like most about my work is that we are trying to make a difference by bringing new therapies a step closer to patients in close collaboration with academic researchers. There are huge demands to develop new therapies for so many diseases, and it feels like the drug discovery platform really can make a difference. There is a big reward in that.

In your experience, what are the three main hurdles in drug discovery and development? And how do you address them at DDD?

One of the major hurdles in drug discovery and development is the large cost associated with drug discovery and the complexity of the process. At DDD, we can provide the knowledge and laboratory work needed to develop a prototype drug. The competencies needed for this are normally not available to an academic scientist and can be expensive to attain, but at DDD, you only pay for consumables. We set up each project as a collaborative project and provide a project leader who coordinates the work that is done. The discussions and knowledge sharing within the project team are key to driving the project forward and hopefully add value to the original project idea so that the PI eventually will find it easier to find investors before starting the expensive stages of clinical development.

Another general problem when it comes to developing new therapies is that many potential drug candidates fail (most often due to lack of efficacy) in the clinical trials. The lack of good biomarkers is often a hurdle, too. At DDD, we already, at an early stage, discuss and help the academic researcher to choose the indication, the selected patient group and the potential biomarkers needed.

What do you like to do on a day off?

A good day for me is a day when I spend at least part of the day outside. I love skiing in the winter, both downhill and cross country or, when in season, picking mushrooms or hiking. We live in an old vicarage in the countryside so I also like to do different projects on the house or in the garden; we have learned a lot about building preservation since we bought the house. However, the most important thing for me is to spend time with my family. As two of my children are now studying abroad, a perfect day off would also include seeing them and drinking loads of coffee.

With whom would you like to share your next cultural experience – and what would you like it to be?

I am always dreaming of exploring new cultures, but the more realistic plans involve hanging out with my book club, discussing the last book we have all read. I am also looking forward to going to the Kent concert in Stockholm in March with my husband.