SciLifeLab’s roadmap for precision medicine published
Precision medicine plays an increasingly important role in healthcare, and Sweden has high ambitions to be a leading country within this field. The SciLifeLab capability for precision medicine was established in 2021, and the roadmap for SciLifeLab’s contribution and role within precision medicine has now been published.
Precision medicine is based on characterization of individuals’ phenotypes and genotypes to find the best treatment or preventive measures, and holds promise to significantly improve human health. Life science and precision medicine is high on the agenda for the Swedish government, and with its cutting-edge technology platforms and data capabilities, SciLifeLab has potential to be a key player to accelerate research and implementation of precision medicine.
“The SciLifeLab Clinical Genomics platform plays a major role in the implementation of genomics-based precision medicine in healthcare. It is very good and timely that SciLifeLab has a strategy for contributing to precision medicine using their full range of technologies, building on the expertise that we have established”, says Thoas Fioretos, professor at Lund University and director of the Clinical Genomics platform.
The SciLifeLab precision medicine team was formed in 2021 with the responsibility to define a strategy and coordinate SciLifeLab’s actions within precision medicine. The team consists of Päivi Östling, Åsa Johansson, Janne Lehtiö and Eva Berglund. The overall vision of the roadmap, which was recently approved by the SciLifeLab Board, is for Sweden to become a world-leading nation in precision medicine. Towards this vision, four strategic objectives have been defined.
“SciLifeLab is a fantastic resource for discovery research, and the ambition to make the infrastructure more accessible also for clinical research is great. There are still many unmet clinical needs where the technology- and data capabilities at SciLifeLab can enable clinical research to be swiftly integrated and implemented into the clinic” says Beatrice Melin, Professor at Umeå University and research, development and innovation director at Region Västerbotten.
SciLifeLab is one of many stakeholders in the precision medicine landscape, and an important part of the work will be to align SciLifeLab’s efforts with those of other stakeholders, including for example Genomic Medicine Sweden, healthcare, industry and patient organizations.
“Now that the roadmap is finalized, we will continue working towards the defined objectives together with the SciLifeLab infrastructure and other key partners. Our expectations are that the roadmap will serve as a guide for SciLifeLab’s role within precision medicine”, says Päivi Östling, chair of the SciLifeLab precision medicine team.
Contact information
Päivi Östling, Scientific Lead for Precision Medicine, paivi.ostling@scilifelab.se
Åsa Johansson, Scientific Lead for Precision Medicine, asa.johansson@igp.uu.se
Janne Lehtiö, Scientific Lead for Precision Medicine, Janne.Lehtio@ki.se
Eva Berglund, Scientific Coordinator for Precision Medicine, eva.berglund@scilifelab.uu.se
