“Bring them to Stockholm-Arlanda airport and show them the choice available”

From my window, I see the typical skyline of Uppsala with its castle and cathedral. The university, humbly represented by the rooftop of Gustavianum, is also visible. So the three elements of life illustrate themselves no more than 100 meters apart: Power, Faith and Wisdom. This contrasts against the situation in a larger city like Stockholm, where institutions and hospitals are geographically more dispersed. Infrastructure is the key to communication. Yet another contrast is the land surrounding Strängnäs, with its lake and countryside charm.
Imagine life-science entrepreneurs looking to establish their business somewhere in the world. Just bring them to Stockholm-Arlanda airport and they will have all alternatives to choose between at half-an-hour’s distance!

People were important – not money

When I started Q-Med in the mid 90s, it was not obvious to choose Uppsala for its business. My family had already moved to Paris so France was definitely an option. The fast train and the channel tunnel were already working, so UK was another option. The authorities in central Europe are very keen to support new business establishments and have quite some resources to contribute. They work with instruments like loans and tax benefits.
But when analysing what we really would need going forward, it was not money but well-educated people backed up by top-level academic research. At the time, we also had a Swedish Notified Body for our approvals. Pfizer had already started dismantling their prime business, so recruitment was fairly easy. We only needed to reprogram from big pharma to small med. tech. thinking.

Crisis more than just financial

Time passes, new winds will blow. Right now we are adapting to a period of recession that was started by people who did not know that wealth comes from hard work and not pyramid games. But the crisis is certainly not just financial. We tend to continue our thinking in old patterns when all we know is that real changes only come from really new thinking.
Take for instance, a whole era of 100 years of combustion engines in big cars. That crisis is not just financial but conceptual. People protest against wasting non-renewable resources. But the lack of a functioning financial system will certainly hit back at life science as well. Reduction in public spending, reduced profits from companies and lay-offs of employees will not help the necessary support of research for the future.    

Magic of the living cell

All major achievements (or disasters for that matter) come from new innovations. If our region wants to maintain a technological advantage, and thereby export high-value products, we need to identify and support initiatives in that direction. Life science carries enormous potential, not only to prevent and cure disease but also to make almost any living process to work to our advantage. We have a piece of magic in our hand when we look at the living cell and how it handles its multitude of processes. That is condensed life science! Then again a word of warning – all that glitters is not gold – we need to be realistic. Early on in my career, my manager always said, “prove that you are wrong”! when I presented my fantastic propositions. I did not really understand that until age hit my enthusiasm and reality grew stronger.
Maybe our time-frame is too narrow? Think about this. We (Homo sapiens) have survived 150,000 years. We now talk about all kinds of disasters that will happen in the next couple of decades that may eradicate us from this planet. Maybe it is time to start a new political party that will set up a competition of beating the longevity of the Dinosaurs! That is a tough one because they managed to stay around for 75 million years!

Celebrating Darwin

Darwin would celebrate his 200th birthday this year. It is interesting to read about his life, which really illustrates the importance of irregular careers in research. I still think we need to add something to the ‘survival of the fittest’ considering that all human beings only have 8000 generations to express their uniqueness. A little bit of Lamarck and mutations may have helped.
2009 will be the year when we see the full nature of our financial collapse. Research reaches beyond that and will continue to add wisdom to the empowered and faithful humans.