Anna Sandström
Senior Director Science Policy and Relations Europe at AstraZeneca
“Within the next generation of therapies, we are using our growing toolbox of pharmaceutical technologies to address new discoveries of disease mechanisms with exceptional accuracy. For example, the latest research within genomics has created the opportunity to use technologies such as CRISPR, adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) and nucleotide-based drugs to target the genetic driving forces behind rare and chronic diseases.
New ways to safely, effectively and precisely deliver these new drugs will play an important role, such as conjugating nucleotide therapies to target drugs towards the right tissues and cells, or encapsulation in lipid nanoparticles to improve cellular uptake.
By taking advantage of breakthroughs in research, we aim to treat, prevent, modify and ultimately even cure diseases.”
Maria Smedh
Site Coordinator for SciLifeLab (a national research infrastructure for molecular life sciences) in Gothenburg
“SciLifeLab focuses on providing state-of-the-art infrastructure and promoting collaborative research environments. It is very important for us to anticipate and facilitate the next wave of scientific breakthroughs. In future, molecular life science will become increasingly complex and researchers will need to make even greater use of many different advanced technologies. As a national infrastructure, we will therefore become even more important, as it is hard for individual researchers to afford the expensive instruments they need, and to be experts in all the techniques themselves. Moreover, many technologies are moving increasingly towards automation and high-throughput screening, producing large quantities of research data that needs to be handled correctly. This is where our bioinformaticians, data experts and of course AI and machine learning come in.”
Marjolein Thunnissen
Senior Life Science Advisor at MAX IV Laboratory in Lund
“MAX IV Laboratory is a Swedish national infrastructure that is dedicated to providing our users with the most brilliant X-rays for research.
Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, increasingly rapid methods for sequence analysis have led to a huge amount of data on the genetic background of diseases. This has opened up the possibility of personalised treatments within precision medicine. However, the underlying mechanisms of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and Alzheimer’s need further investigation to link the genetic background to physiology in order to develop effective treatments. To fully understand the pathogenic mechanisms, information is often needed at multiple length scales, from the organism/tissue scale down to molecular and atomic levels. Here, molecular life science will lead to breakthroughs in understanding the link between the molecular level and an organism as a whole.”
