CREATE Health renews and extends the collaboration with the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital (TMUCIH) in China. The parties have signed a 5-year collaboration agreement. Focus will be on recruitment of PhD students to cancer research at Lund University, exchange of physicians within oncology between Skåne University Hospital and TMUCIH, as well as joint research projects.

One of the first projects, is led by Prof. Sara Ek and Lecturer Dr Anna Gerdtsson at the Department of Immunotechnology. The research focus is early detection of ovarian and pancreatic cancer by serum-based diagnostics and the use of spatial analysis of the tumor micro-environment to identify novel strategies for cancer therapy.

TMUCIH and CREATE Health have initiated their collaboration already in 2012 when representatives for Region Skåne and LU signed the agreement on site in Tianjin during a visit. Since then, numerous bilateral exchanges have taken place. Anna Gerdtsson, lead scientist in the collaborative project, worked on site in Tianjin during 2016 where she successfully completed the practical part of the project, which was later published in Molecular Oncology.

Since 2015, TMUCIH is one of the two national cancer centres in China, the other being Beijing University. Thus, CREATE Health rates the renewed agreement as a strategically important opportunity for increased international collaboration. Prof. Carl Borrebaeck, director of CREATE Health, sees the environment at Medicon Village with co-localization of industry and the new infrastructure SpatialOmics@LU, which is currently established at Immunotechnology, as important assets in being an attractive partner to TMUCIH for continued collaboration.

This November, CREATE Health researchers participated in the popular science show ’Om X Antal År’ (in so many years) hosted by Cecilia Nebel and comedian Jesper Rönndal at Medicon Village, Lund. Combining research and humor, the show addressed some pressing questions regarding our future. How can we get really old? And how will we fight disease? Director Carl Borrebaeck and CREATE Health researchers Prof Kristian Pietras and Dr Leena Liljedahl were part of the expert panels on stage and discussed research on how cancer can be diagnosed better and earlier in the future.

 Foto:Roger Nellsjö

Mårten Fernö and Åke Borg, both breast cancer researchers at Lund University, received the Breast Cancer Association Award 2019. In more than 40 years, the two scientists have developed methods to distinguish patients that need additional treatment after cancer surgery from those for whom an operation is sufficient and extra treatment would only cause unnecessary stress. Now they are both recognized by the Breast Cancer Association for their many years of dedicated research and their tireless dedication to the patients in breast cancer care.

Foto: Bosse Johansson 

The European Urology Congress European Association for Urology (EAU) was held in Barcelona, on March 15-19, for the 34th time. There, Anders Bjartell was awarded the Dominique Chopin Distinguished Award for successful urology research. 

When Göran Gustafsson Prize, one of Sweden's most sought-after prizes for younger researchers, is awarded, two of the prize winners are from Lund University. The prize in physics goes to Anders Johansen, Lund University, "for his pioneering research on the formation and development of planets near young stars". The award in medicine goes to Kristian Pietras, Lund University, "for his breakthrough analysis of the cancer-associated microenvironment and its role in tumor development".

A research team from the Division of Computational Biology at Lund University and Bionamic, were recently announced as winners of the “NCI-CPTAC Multi-omics Enabled Sample Mislabeling Correction Challenge” arranged by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Cancer Institute (NCI). The challenge is a part of President Barak Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative from 2015.

Mislabeled biological samples significantly contribute to non-reproducibility and erroneous decisions in omics data (RNA and protein measurements) driven research, but is a source of error often ignored. The goal of this challenge was to develop algorithms to detect and correct this type of errors. The organizers had deliberately introduced sample mislabeling (accidental swapping of patient samples) or data mislabeling (accidental swapping of patient omics data) at rates and in patterns previously observed in various data sets in these types of datasets. 

The algorithm developed by Anders Carlsson (Bionamic), Patrik Edén, Mattias Ohlsson, Björn Linse, and Carsten Peterson (LU) identified and corrected 100% of errors without introducing new ones and outperformed academic and commercial research groups from USA, Europe and Asia.
The method, built using various Artificial Intelligence (AI) components, will be presented at a conference in Washington D.C in May, and is due to be published together with the organizers in Nature Medicine.

Professor Carsten Peterson: “This is another example where AI technologies enter the scene with its power. However, to reach the final percentage profound application knowledge is needed.” 
Anders Carlsson,PhD, founder of Bionamic, the success was due to “the broad range of world-class knowledge in our team, and our unique ability to combine them. 

References:      Nature Medicine 24, 1301–1302 (2018) for background; 

                         https://precision.fda.gov/challenges/5/view/resultsfor the results

In some cancers, connective tissue is formed around and within the tumor. A hypothesis, which has not been proven so far, is that there are several different types of connective tissue cells that have different functions and which can thus affect tumor development in different ways. But now a research group at Lund University has identified three different types of connective tissue cells, and in breast cancer patients studies found that two of these are linked to a worse forecast.

The director of CREATE Health Professor Carl Borrebaeck and one of this year's Nobel Prize laureates  in Chemistry, Sir Gregory Winter, previously worked side by side with publishing a new technology in a new and hot area called "antibody engineering". In 1989, both researchers published findings on the technology now underlying this years  Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Professor Carl Borrebaeck, held an inspiring talk at TEDxLund, www.tedxlund.se, hosted by Medicon Village and MAX IV. 

The theme of TEDxLund "Prima Materia." The event featured speakers, presenting in front of an audience, and was recorded in its entirety and then streamed to another 100 audience members at Medicon Village (Auditorium). In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection.

See the TEDx talk here. 

Professor Thoas Fioretos, one of CREATE healths principal investigators is one of 4 active chief physicians who was awarded this years Wallenbergs Clinical fellow grant. As a Wallenberg Clinical Scholar, he will develop new methods to improve diagnostics, treatment selection, and follow-up of patients diagnosed with leukemia. The project will also provide important insights into why leukemia develops. The grant is from Wallenberg is on SEK 15 million over a 5 year period, with the possibility for an extension for another 5 years.

For further information

Project home page

Professor Kristian Pietras publish new study in Nature Medicine. 

The researcher team lead by Professor Kristin Pietras has developed a new drug that transforms aggressive breast cancer so that it becomes responsive to standard hormone therapy. Approximately 10–15 per cent of breast cancer cases do not respond to treatment with hormone therapy, which means that they are more aggressive and often recur. An international research team led by researchers at Lund University in Sweden has uncovered a way to treat these aggressive tumours through manipulation of the connective tissue cells of the tumour. 

Read more at link

Or Listen to Kristian Pietras here

Please read more here

IVAs Kungl. Teknikresa besökte den 29 november CREATE Health Cancer Center på Medicon Village Science Park i Lund. Hedersdelegat vid besöket var H.M. Konung Carl XVI Gustaf.  Landshövding Anneli Hulthén var en av delegaterna liksom IVAs VD Prof. Tuula Teeri. Delegationsledare för besöket var Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademins Preses Leif Johansson.

Delegationen med H.M. Konung Carl XVI Gustaf i spetsen fick höra spännande föredrag om innovativ och världsledande forskning, presenterat av dagens värd Professor Carl Borrebaeck, CREATE Health, Lunds universitet. Delegationen fick även en presentation om Medicon Village och dess koncept av Mats Leifland och Mas Paulsson liksom företagspresentationer av några av de framstående bolagen på Medicon Village, SenzaGen, Alligator BioScience och SAGA Diagnostics. Besöket avslutades med en företagsvisning på Immunovia, fokuserat på cancerdiagnostik, innan sällskapet åt en avslutande lunch på Restaurant Inspira. 

Carl Borrebaeck tilldelas BiotechBuilders Award 2017 

Carl Borrebaeck, Director för CREATE Health och Professor på Institutionen för Immuntekologi, Lunds Universitet, har tilldelats den prestigefyllda utmärkelsen BiotechBuilders Award för sin banbrytande forskning och framträdande roll som entreprenör inom Life science. Utmärkelsen delades ut i samband med BiotechBuilders årliga sammankomst, detta år med Hawaii tema,  den 28 augusti.

Carl Borrebaeck tilldelades priset med motiveringen att han är en flerfaldigt framgångsrik entreprenör som bidragit till skapandet av en rad nya life science-företag, inklusive, bl.a. Alligator Bioscience, Immunovia, BioInvent och SenzaGen, Även hans ansträngningar för att bygga vetenskapliga nätverk, bland annat CREATE Health, Medicon Village, NOME (Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship) och Cancer Crosslinks konferensen, bidrar till hans position som en framstående ”bioteknikbyggare” och god representant för svensk life science.

Bakom de life science-företag som Professor Borrebaeck har grundat ligger många år av excellent forskning på avdelningen för Immunteknologi, LTH, Lunds Universitet. Professor Borrebaeck startade 2006 även det translationella cancer centret CREATE Health, LTH med syfte att på ett effektivare och bättre sätt ta forskningen ut till nytta för patienterna. Detta har varit mycket framgångsrikt och detta långsiktiga forskningsfokus som CREATE Health har är nu ett hett område som drar till sig stor uppmärksamhet världen över.

Tidigare vinnare av BB awards

Mathias Uhlén (2016)
Saeid Esmaeilzadeh & Ashkan Pouya (2015)
Gunilla Lundmark (2014) 
Thomas Eldered (2013)
Johan Malmqvist (2012)
Hans Wigzell & Conny Bogentoft (2011)
Elisabeth Lindner (2010)
Torbjørn Bjerke (2009)

Om Biotech Builders

BiotechBuilders startades i Danmark, 2002, av Dr Jørgen Thorball en tidig morgon på Köpenhamns flygplats, Kastrup. Nyheter om en döende bioteknikindustri krävde åtgärder för att stimulera entreprenörer och ge nytt liv till branschen. Dr Torberg bjöd in ledande life science-företag för att initiera den första BiotechBuilders-träffen. I en lekfull och inspirerande miljö gavs de olika företagens grundare, visionärer, riskkapitalister och verkställande direktörer möjlighet att skapa nätverk och utbyta idéer. År 2009 testades evenemanget även till Sverige och har sedan dess hållits årligen i Stockholm, och det har varit en stor framgång och mycket uppskattat bland de deltagande.

Biotech builders  

The Scan-B study established in 2010, has now reached 10 000 patients. This makes is world’s largest genetically study of breast cancer. For more information please follow the link for a article in Swedish, or for more information please visit the Scan-B home page.

The registration for the 5th Cancer Crosslinks, is now open. This year’s sessions are;

Cancer and the Immune system

Transformative Oncology

Personalized Healthcare – What is next?

with speakers from academia, industry, and health care.

The conference also enables plenty of networking opportunities.

Detailed information on program and registration can be found at:

www.cancercrosslinks.se

Welcome!

Immonovia, spin out from CREATE health

The IMMray™ PanCan-d bloodtest, developed to discover pancreatic cancer through a blood test, was mentioned today in the Swedish News Swedish radio (SR) P1, and part of a longer radio broadcast (Vetandets värd), highlighting new discoveries in the field of pancreatic cancer.

The technology platform IMMray™ of Immunovia finds early biomarker signatures for several forms of cancer and autoimmune diseases, which gives it the potential to significantly increase the survival rate and quality of life of many patients. 

Founded on the research of Professor Carl Borrebaeck at Lund University, Immunovia has developed a technology platform, IMMray™(Immunovia Antibody Microarray), for early diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of cancers and autoimmune diseases. 

”Complex diseases leaves footprints in the immune system. With a simple blood sample we can measure many proteins simultaneously in the immune response and thereby identify clinically relevant biomarker signatures for several forms of cancer, as well as autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren’s Syndrome, Lupus etc. that are hard to diagnose early,” says Mats Grahn, CEO of the molecular diagnostics company Immunovia.

The company’s first and main product is aimed for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. 

For full article please follow the link.

Cancer Crosslinks 2017 will host a range of interesting topics presented by speakers from academia, industry, and health care, as well as plenty of networking opportunities.

Detailed information on program and registration will follow - stay tuned!

Contact: Ulrika.Axelsson@immun.lth.se

Save the date!

Make sure to book the 19 October 2016 in your calendar. Cancer Crosslinks is back in Lund!
Location: Medicon Village, Scheelevägen 2, Lund.

This is the successful conference linking Academia, Health care systems and Industry. Focus: Immunooncology and Perzonalized medicine.

For more information click  here

Contacts: 
Ulrika.Andreasson@immun.lth.se
Therese.Nordstrom@immun.lth.se 

According to US estimates, 90 per cent of all drugs are effective in less than half of all patients.  Therefore, both the US and EU are doing major investments in personalized medicine, while Sweden is currently falling behind. In the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, prominent researchers from five Swedish universities, including Professor Carl Borrebaeck from CREATE Health, emphasize the importance of similar investments in Sweden. The authors strongly urge financiers in Sweden to launch strategic research programs focusing on early and individualized drug therapies. The article was also highlighted in Dagens Medicin.

Breast cancer mainly affects middle-aged and older women. The median age of onset is 64 years old. In total, more than 61,000 cancer diagnoses are made each year in Sweden. Of these, over 9000 are breast cancer diagnoses. This means that 20 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every day.

Earlier detection is vital to win the battle with all types of cancer. Lao Saal and his co-workers at CREATE Health show in their study that it is possible to detect metastases from breast cancer on average eleven months before they are detected with other methods, and in some cases 3 years before. They quantify circulating tumor DNA using a blood test to detect the metastatic disease. These results were highlighted on Swedish news channel TV4: http://tinyurl.com/saal-tv4-mp4

The study was funded by CREATE Health, Cancerfonden, Vetenskapsrådet, Gunnar Nilssons Cancerstiftelse, Gyllenstiernska Krapperupsstiftelsen and fru Berta Kamprads Stiftelse and others.

The Cancer Crosslinks conference took place on 14th of October at Medicon Village, Lund University, and was a great success. It was fully booked and participants could enjoy initiated lectures from various research facilities, both from commercial laboratories and from university. The theme was personalized medicine and immuno-oncology and how we can facilitate that research will reach clinical application more quickly. During the day there were many opportunities for networking and collaborative discussions.

The US research institute, Rogosin Institute,  invests in the Lund-based research program and CREATE Health cooperator Make a Difference (MAD) for Cancer. The agreement gives the cancer research at Lund University new funds. Rogosin Institute has developed a general method to stop tumor growth, and the approach is to contain the tumor cells in particles of sugar and thereby produce proteins that stops the growth of tumor cells. Rogosin Institute is involved in this cooperation with  MAD for Cancer to be able to map the mechanisms underlying treatment.  - For us it is very flattering and a very good rating for cancer research in Lund, says Carl Borrebaeck, Professor at Immunotechnology and Director at CREATE Health.

It is mainly the MAD for Cancer technology for protein analysis, led by Professor Peter James, that Rogosin Institute is interested in. - We have better equipment and more experience here in Lund than Rogosin themselves.

The first phase of the collaboration will be completed within a year and  MAD for Cancer receives funding of between two and three million Swedish kronor. - If ithis goes well, we will go on with the cooperation and the next phase gives us a much larger investment, says Carl Borrebaeck.

Professor Barry Smith, CEO of Rogosin Institute says; – MAD for Cancer is especially attractive for Rogosin becuause of it´s multifaceted approach to cancer system biology. This is an exciting and important opportunity for cooperation since we are going to be able to further develop our cancer project through this agreement. We feel priviliged to work with the team behind MAD for Cancer.

The program MAD for Cancer  was started by Carl Borrebaeck almost two years ago and brings together cancer research from four faculties at Lund University.

Read the Swedish news here.
Read more about Rogosin Institute here.

Make A Difference for Cancer (MAD for Cancer), is collaborating with CREATE Health, and has now gone live with their website. To read more about the research and Principal Investigators involved in this multifocal cancer program at Lund University, go here.

Professor Carsten Peterson was awarded The Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala (Kungliga Vetenskapssamhället i Uppsala) prize for his interdisciplinary work.  

The prize was parted at its annual ceremony in October 2014. He recieved the prize of 75.000 SEK for his “theteoretical physics based research that provides new knowledge about complex systems in molecular biology and medicine”. At the award ceremony Carsten held his laureate lecture "From stem cell to mature cell - a theoretical physicist´s perspective".

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Carl Borrebaeck has been awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, IVA, Gold Medal.

The justification is "his fundamental and pioneering research in applied immunology" and "his great entrepreneurship."

He will receive his medal on Friday, 28th of October at the Stockholm Concert Hall , from the Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf during IVA’s 93rd Celebration Gathering.

http://www.iva.se/press/Pressmeddelanden/IVAs-Guldmedalj-till-Lundaprofessorn-och-vicerektorn-Carl-Borrebaeck/