SPEED OF LIFE

In this episode we meet Carolina Pettersson, Senior Advisor at AFRY. We discuss how recruitment across industries can be promoted, different possibilities and challenges for larger consultancy firms and the current state of the Life Science market. We also hear about the shaping of Carolinas own career and discuss possible career pathways for consultants.   The Silent Facilitators is a podcast series by Stuns Life Science where we meet influencial people from the service companies of the Life Science industry. 

In this episode we meet Christian Reinmar. We talk about challenges and opportunities with expansion into new geographical areas and new industries, we hear about Christian's thoughts on consultants' seniority and the business landscape after the pandemic. Last but not least, we learn more about Bjerking and how the fact that they are employee-owned really works.  The Silent Facilitators is a podcast series by Stuns Life Science where we meet influential people from the service companies of the Life Science industry. 

In this episode we meet Sandra Bydell Sveder, senior recruitment consultant and co-founder of SallyQ. We will discuss Sandras's motivations behind starting her own consultancy business and the pros and cons of doing so.  The Silent Facilitators is a podcast series by Stuns Life Science where we put the spotlight on consulting in the Life Science industry. 

We meet Håkan Engqvist - the Inventor. Håkan shares his view on making research ideas into commercial success.

We meet Christel Bergström - the Research leader. Christel shares how she balances her work and how she blows off some steam, as the researcher-entrepreneur-professor-program director she is.

We meet Johan Sundström - the Curious Researcher. Johan shares his thoughts on interdisciplinary work, free will, and paradigm shifts.

We meet Ulf Landegren - one of Uppsala Prominent figures. Ulf shares his story from his early days to his view on commercializing research.

We meet Sara Mangsbo - the Super Entrepreneur. Sara shares her motivations and rationale behind the decisions she has made in her career - in a very thoughtful way. 

When animal owners thought it was complicated and slow to send in samples for parasitological analysis, Vidilab solved the problem by developing kollamasken, one of the earliest sample kits on the market, aimed directly for the consumer. kollamasken is a sampling kit containing everything the animal owner needs to easily collect, package and send the sample to the laboratory. On the outside of the box the laboratory address and pre-paid postage is printed, making it even easier for the consumer.

Monitoring made AccessibleThe Cavidi BOLD add-on technology makes highly reliable, incredibly sensitive biomarker detection accessible to all researchers and clinicians globally. The technology requires no specialized equipment or expensive investments. In the lab this will help researchers and drug development teams get to market sooner with life-saving innovations.The Cavidi goal is to democratise ultrasensitive detection.

Rarity BioScience has developed an ultrasensitive and multiplex technology for mutation detection in liquid biopsies, meaning that we can detect down to 1 mutation in 100,000 healthy cells, which is up to 100 times more sensitive than current technology. And perhaps the best part, the assays are run using existing instruments already available in every hematology lab.We provide the sensitive and cost efficient tools needed to replace conventional costly and painful tissue biopsies with blood samples to enable early detection of cancer relapse and treatment response.Rarity is funded by seasoned Uppsala entrepreneurs and researchers, combining previously successful technologies in an ingenious and beautiful way.

Digitalization has been a hot topic that has been accelerated by the recent pandemic, making us rethink the way we work. The knock-on effects have led to digital business transformations in the life sciences such as digital health apps that enable a more holistic healthcare and digital research & development for accelerated research. Listen more to hear why this trend is important to STUNS!

Ridgeview Instruments provides LigandTracer® instruments, TraceDrawer® evaluation software and Education to generate insights on biological interactions with live cells. Our products are typically used to improve the design of protein-based therapeutics and target specific PET/SPECT tracers. Ridgeview Instruments is built from the ground up without public investor, has a strong research focus and sustainable growth for over 15 years and has instruments in over 25 countries worldwide. In this podcast, Jos Buijs, CEO, and Sina Bondza, Principal scientist, talk about company culture, business strategy and the way they work in a collaborative manner with both industry and academia.

Previct is a digital platform for efficient and successful addiction treatment. The therapist receives reports about the patient’s wellbeing and sobriety in real-time, predicting relapses before they occur.Previct also enables faster and more frequent interactions with the patient, and makes it possible for the patient’s family to assist in the treatment. The healthcare provider gain invaluable knowledge while the patient receives daily behavioral therapy, a path leading to deeper and more constructive treatment sessions.

Life science is a sector that has a close relationship with health, well-being and life itself. Naturally much focus within the business community is on the SDG goal number 3, which manifests the very core of the sector itself. Moreover, there is a common understanding through out the sector today that a green transition and a sustainable development is of necessity, if there is to be a healthy and sustainable future.However, to contribute to the sustainable can be manifested in different ways but action is key. Other success factors is communication, collaboration, quantity, involve everyone and own the goals. To form sustainable collaborations STUNS has an important role.Listen to Fanny Blom, who is responsible for the area sustainability in life science at STUNS Life science, sharing her analysis of sustainability within the local life science sector and why we at STUNS engage in this area.

Bio-Works is an Uppsala-based manufacturer of chromatography resins, an advanced purification tool that makes the development and manufacture of new biological drugs possible. The company was founded in 2006, and today Bio-Works’ next-generation, agarose-based products, ”WorkBeads”, are used to purify proteins, peptides and other biomolecules, resulting in purer therapies and safer diagnostics.

Life science is an industry with a strong foothold in the Uppsala region, much thanks to successful collaborations between the business community, the two universities, and the University Hospital. In recent years the industry has expanded at a rapid pace, and forecasts predict that it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Our proven medical device technology is helping patients with breast cancer undergoing implant reconstruction to return to an active life and regain self-confidence together with a better body image.TIGR® Matrix is fully resorbable surgical implant with the main purpose to help the body’s own healing. Its unique dual stage degradation design offers the necessary support to soft tissues in the initial wound healing process, and gradually resorbs until it is no longer needed and new strong connective tissue has replaced it.

Life science is an industry with a strong foothold in the Uppsala region, much thanks to successful collaborations between the business community, the two universities, and the University Hospital. In recent years the industry has expanded at a rapid pace, and forecasts predict that it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.Continued expansion, however, places demands on strategies for a sustainable supply of skills. Currently, certain skills are in higher demand than the labor market can offer, and short-term strategies are often applied.Listen to Erik Allard, who is responsible for the area of skill supply at STUNS Life science, sharing his assessment of what could be done in order to meet the skill demand in a more sustainable way over time.

In this special edition episode, professor Christel Bergström, Center Director of SweDeliver, and professor Cecilia Persson, Center Director of AM4Life (Additive Manufacturing for the Life Sciences), talk about; the two research and competence centres, their work of creating and developing new and improved drug therapies, technology and spin-offs. Furthermore their contribution to building a strong research environment and ecosystem, their work to provide and support the future supply of competence, and about the world-leading research and solutions emerging within the collaborations that will ultimately lead to real problems solved by innovative approaches and provide patients with an enhanced quality of life.

Lokon Pharma is a biotech company in Sweden based on research from well renowned Uppsala University. They develop a new cancer medicine based on a virus that selectively kill tumor cells and activates the patients own immune system to attack the tumor. It is often described as an immunostimulatory gene therapy.

The incubators provides business development support, knowledge, and networks to innovative startups and fast-growing companies from all sectors.

Stardots develops a deep-tech Software-as-a-Medical-Device (SaMD) for Parkinson’s disease with the goal to increase quality of life and lower cost to society.Parkinson’s disease is complex, non-curable and costly, and causes great amount of suffering to the patient and their relatives. Since there are no readily available bio-markers, care is often subjective, unequal and not optimized. Stardots digital health approach is to offer progressive markers by mathematical modelling of symptoms (e.g., tremor) and using these objective estimators to optimize current treatment (e.g., deep brain stimulation). Our unique algorithms are based on many years of R&D at Uppsala university and tested in pilot studies at Uppsala University Hospital, and we have strong indications that similar approaches could be valid for other neurological diseases.

Deversify is a Swedish R&D company offering tech solutions in consumer health. We develop and commercialize mobile electronic devices and apps to monitor biomarkers for individualized health. Our products help people understand — and improve — their own health. Our mission is to act as a good force against today’s lifestyle diseases – such as obesity, diabetes, addictions, and cardiovascular disease.Deversify operates in growing consumer health markets which today in Europe and US alone are valued at over USD 5 billion. Our first product, the ketone breathalyzer Acetrack®, measures if your body is burning fat and is currently sold to health-tech consumers. Deversify is here to help you understand your wellbeing holistically – inside and out, from ketones to ECG.

Advanced therapies are increasingly being developed for patients in need, thereby putting pressure on the drug developers to produce qualified, effective, and safe matches. Immuneed combines our strong scientific knowledge with a versatile preclinical platform based on fresh, circulating human blood. Thereby, we provide our customers with a tailored solution in the early stage of development, enabling safe and effective drugs.

With the vision to eliminate anesthesia related complications, Senzime develop and commercialize systems powered by unique algorithms and sensors to monitor patient muscle function and electrical impulses, before, during and after surgery.

BioReperia helps every cancer patient to get the most effective treatment available, for their specific disease.BioReperia has developed a unique zebrafish tumor xenograft (ZTX™) platform that provides functional in-vivo data to evaluate treatment efficacy for tumor regression and metastasis inhibition in only 5 days.Our goal is to increase the speed and accuracy of preclinical drug development and clinical cancer treatment, enabling researchers and clinicians to select the drugs/drug candidates with the highest potential to succeed in less time.

The increase of antibiotic resistance is a global threat to human health. It is due to over- and miss-use of antibiotics, as a result of that doctors currently need to prescribe antibiotics before they know the resistance profile of the bacteria.Astrego’s technology provides such a resistance profile in 30 min and therfore allows prescription of effective,  non-broad spectrum, antibiotics at the point-of-care. Astrego’s first product targets urinary tract infection, which affects 100 milj women each year, and represents 15% of the antibiotic use in human medicine.

The ILP-technology is based on deploying chemokines, which until now have been regarded too unstable to be suitable as therapeutics. Ilya Pharma has overcome this problem by letting live lactic acid bacteria produce and deliver the human therapeutic chemokines on site in wounds in skin or e.g in the intestine acting like small bioreactors.

Pressure ulcer (bedsore) is a both painful and dangerous but unfortunately common medical injury. Among health care-related injuries, pressure ulcers are one of the most burdensome both economically and when it comes to human suffering, OECD reports.PU sensor has developed a method for evaluating a patient’s physiological condition regarding blood flow at pressure and thereby anticipate the risk of pressure ulcer and prevent it from appearing.

Gradientech is a Swedish diagnostics company dedicated to support the modern microbiology lab with state-of-the-art solutions that facilitate testing of time-critical sepsis samples.

The Biomarker Gliostem® will help neurosurgeons distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissue during brain tumor surgery. Celluminova specializes in developing new tools for stem cell research, including cancer stem cells. The patented biomarker GlioStem is intended for the detection and visualization of stem cell-like cells in brain tumors.