Life science community gathered for SciLifeLab Day in Lund
On September 28, the SciLifeLab Day Lund gathered some two hundred participants in the venue of Forum Medicum for presentations, a poster session, and networking.
After welcoming words by Kristina Åkesson, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University, SciLifeLab’s Director Olli Kallioniemi, and Co-Director Mia Phillipson who coupled the local and the national perspective of SciLifeLab through a presentation on SciLifeLab’s role in the Swedish life science ecosystem, followed by an introduction to the national research infrastructure of SciLifeLab, presented by SciLifeLab Infrastructure Director Annika Jenmalm Jensen.
In 2021, the SciLifeLab announced Lund, Linköping, Gothenburg, and Umeå as official SciLifeLab sites alongside the nodes in Stockholm and Uppsala. The aim of the sites is to bring national infrastructure activities closer to the research communities at these locations and to contribute to increased synergies and collaborations with multiple stakeholders.
SciLifeLab Lund was formally launched in 2022 as a cross-faculty initiative between the Faculties of Medicine, Sciences, and Engineering and is governed by a steering group with representatives from the faculties, and Region Skåne. The site is led at the operative level by Site Director Marcus Heidenblad, Site Coordinator Esther González-Padilla and a management group.
During the morning sessions, the audience listened to presentations focusing on the research infrastructures MAX IV, ESS and LINXS, the Institute of Advanced Neutron and X-ray Science presented by Trevor Forsyth, Director of LINXS.
Stefan Jovinge, Head of Research at Skåne University Hospital presented how Region Skåne aims to contribute to strengthening the transition from strong basic science to advanced therapies in the clinic.
“We bring in the health economists early on to our environment, the intersection between innovation and science, where we also have healthcare, research, and education linked. To be able to address the right patient at the right time, we also need to organize our data, therefore, we have launched Project Data Lake in collaboration with Microsoft and a legal team. To succeed in our mission, we need the scientists, and the platform – here SciLifeLab is key for us and innovation. Further, we also need collaborations with biotech and big pharma, as well as health economists and an updated regulatory framework”, said Stefan Jovinge.
Linking to the need for organized data and storage, Hanna Kultima from the SciLifeLab Data Centre and Erik Hedman, Data steward at SciLifeLab’s bioinformatics platform NBIS, explained that SciLifeLab Research Data Management Services and Support is a collaborative activity between SciLifeLab Data Centre and NBIS.
”Data is one of the most valuable and long-lasting products of the operations at SciLifeLab, and therefore, good Research Data Management is key to ensure data reuse, and to maximize the value of research. Also, to allow for data reuse, the data needs to adhere to open science and the FAIR principles aiming to improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of data” said Hanna Kultima, Vice Head of SciLifeLab Data Centre.
The morning was followed by paired talks moderated by Karin Tran Lundmark, Associate professor and assistant university lecturer at Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine (WCMM) and Vinay Swaminathan, Senior lecturer at Cell Mechanobiology, Lund University, focusing on the DDLS Program and research infrastructures in Lund. Currently, SciLifeLab Lund consists of eight research infrastructure units. Six of those are part of SciLifeLab’s technology platforms, while the remaining two represent core local facilities that are nationally relevant and have missions and objectives similar to those of SciLifeLab.
The afternoon offered a well-visited poster session as well as parallel sessions on SciLifeLab’s capabilities; Pandemic Laboratory Preparedness, Planetary Biology, and Precision Medicine and was closed with a celebratory mingle.
“Our primary objective for today’s event was to enhance SciLifeLab Lund’s presence within both the local and national research communities, while also broadening our network of potential collaborators. The day has proven to be a stimulating and dynamic occasion, characterized by meaningful interactions and the participants have engaged in lively discussions. I hope this has contributed to fostering an atmosphere for innovative collaborative endeavors,” stated Esther González-Padilla, Site Coordinator at SciLifeLab Lund and a member of the organizing committee.
The organization committee behind the SciLifeLab Day Lund:
Anna Hellgren, Communication Officer, Lund University
David Gisselson Nord, Region Skåne, Lund University
David Gotthold, Operations Office, SciLifeLab
Esther González-Padilla, Site Coordinator, SciLifeLab Lund
Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson, WCMM & DDLS, Lund
Johan Malmström, BioMS, Lund University
Lena Eliasson, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University
Markus Heidenblad, Site Director, SciLifeLab Lund
Sebastian Wasserstrom, LBIC, Lund University
Simon Ekström, Structural Proteomics & BioMS, Lund University
