|
Business Oulu Quarterly News
Business Oulu – Where bio meets nano and IT
Product development that combines tiny technology with biomedical and IT, produces big business opportunities.
Oulu, Finland is a dynamic, growing city known worldwide for its balance of technology, R&D, business services and education. With success stories such as Nokia, Polar Electro and WiPro Technologies, Oulu is often recognized for producing innovative technology that results in countless business opportunities.
What you might not know is that Oulu has a thriving HealthBio sector that combines expertise in different technologies such as bio, nano and IT, offering almost limitless opportunities for applications and uses in life sciences. Growth is based on several global trends, including ageing, increasing use of personalized and translational medicine, a growing emphasis on food safety and even global warming.
The expanding markets of the life sciences industry will be dominated by companies that are already investing in strong product and technology development and can combine expertise in various technologies to produce products and services that bring genuine benefits to consumers. Oulu offers excellent partners for such companies thanks to the region’s robust and broad expertise.
Big Business Opportunities
Combining technologies often leads to inspiring efforts with applications that have tremendous potential. Examples include personalized and translational medicine, food quality control, pharmaceutical services, and analytics of processes such as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), which are used to produce molecules.
Specifically, Biosilta (http://www.biosilta.com/) has developed an advanced EnBase cell culture solution for recombinant protein production that leaves researchers more time for research and saves costs. MTT Multantiv, a privately owned company in Oulu, is applying and commercializing science-based methods of multivariate measurement and calibration for the pharmaceutical industry.
“Products based on enabling technologies can be used in healthcare services, eHealth and various environmental applications,” said Tuula Palmén, program director at Oulu Innovation, who works in HealthBio development. “They offer new business opportunities not only to life sciences companies but also to electronic device manufacturers and the IT industry,”
Come to Oulu for a Competitive Edge
Oulu’s HealthBio expertise and companies were showcased in December, 2008 at the “Bio Meets Nano and IT (BMNIT)” conference organized by Oulu Innovation. Held in Oulu, the conference was attended by almost 250 companies and other organizations from more than 20 countries that came to find partners and learn about Oulu’s highly educated and skilled workforce and impressive track record in R&D. Participants from major corporations including Agilent Technologies, GE Healthcare and Roche Diagnostics gathered to discuss potential for applications provided by combining technologies and the resulting business opportunities.
Oulu’s life sciences expertise is based on research, education and training, conducted and provided by the University of Oulu, Biocenter Oulu, Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District, Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT and MTT Agrifood Research Finland.
Oulu’s Key HealthBio Benefits:
Leading-edge research based services to streamline drug development and support customer’s go/no-go decisions;
Use of decision analysis paradigms, modeling and simulation to support drug development;
Restructuring of enzymes or other molecules to improve drug-like properties or facilitate production to reduce risks or production costs;
Development and optimization of production processes;
cGMP production for APIs;
Development and implementation of wireless real-time monitoring procedures;
Implementation of clinical studies;
Cohort sample bank with 40-year follow-up from birth;
Printed intelligence – new generation diagnostics;
Technology Healthcare Center and Wireless Hospital to pilot new products and healthcare services;
and PanOulu - public access network in Oulu, an enabling test environment.
Learn more about Oulu’s HealthBio sector and the Oulu Advantage by visiting http://www.businessoulu.com
|
