Jan Ellenberg has been the Director of SciLifeLab since July. In this interview, he shares his views of what he believes will be contributary for SciLifeLab. He also reflects on the strengths and challenges facing the Swedish life science industry.
What does your SciLifeLab benefit from the most from your experiences?
– I hope to bring a strong European perspective to SciLifeLab, having held several leadership positions for scientific projects across Europe. In my previous role as a faculty member at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), I headed the Unit for Cell Biology and Biophysics. Additionally, I also coordinated setting up the Euro-BioImaging ERIC and EMBL Imaging Centre, promoting open access research infrastructure as well as technology development at the European level.
– One of my goals at SciLifeLab is to develop a comprehensive benchmarking model for research infrastructure, innovation, and training. Such a model would ensure continuous improvement and set standards for excellence across the research community. By establishing such benchmarks, we can better assess the performance of research infrastructures, promote innovation, and ensure that our training programs align with the scientific landscape's needs.
What do you consider to be the Swedish life science industry's greatest strengths?
– The life science industry benefits greatly from Sweden’s strong research excellence and well-established national research infrastructure, SciLifeLab. I also believe a key factor contributing to the success of the ecosystem is the collaborative nature across sectors and disciplines. The ability to bring together academia, industry, and healthcare creates an environment where innovation and practical applications based on fundamental research discoveries thrive.
What do you consider to be the Swedish life science industry's biggest challenges?
– We are now at a turning point in history, where comprehensive quantitative data of all molecular components of living systems becomes available, increasingly with spatial and temporal context. This is a new quality of data that allows life science to harness the AI revolution in computer science and has huge potential to significantly drive research and innovation forward. This opportunity comes with the challenge of effectively producing, managing and analyzing vast amounts of data. Ensuring that this data treasure is accessible, secure, and interoperable across different technologies and importantly allows to integrate life science and medical data across all of Sweden is absolutely crucial. The life science sector in both academia and industry thus needs to create an advanced data infrastructure that is AI ready, develops new advanced data analysis tools and attracts skilled data science and AI experts to realize the full potential of this data-driven era.
Which is your favorite spot in Hagastaden?
– My favorite spot is of course SciLifeLab, the thriving hub for interdisciplinary life science research and technology.