Since March we have all been affected by the pandemic in one way or another. Safety and health have been top of mind for most people and organizations. The importance of medical research, production of new drugs and the need for a good innovative healthcare system are more than ever under the microscope – as is the need for new innovations and discoveries reaching patients as quickly as possible. This is something we work hard at realizing, every day, here in the Testa Center.
When we built the Testa Center two years ago we had a clear vision of what kind of environment we wanted to create and nurture. It was to be an “open house” – modern, flexible and crowded with people with new ideas and innovations on the way to be tested, up-scaled and verified – and in that sense becoming a world-leading global testbed for manufacturing of biological products. Over the past two years, we have had around 20 projects running; from universities and companies big and small. We also have had the opportunity to show this fantastic house to more than 2,500 visitors. After a fully booked Q3 and Q4 in 2020, we now look forward to welcome Lund and Linköping universities through our doors. This is a much-welcomed geographical spread of academic projects. And while this year we have focused on the Nordic region, next year we will concentrate more on the growing interest from European and international clients.
Despite the pandemic, a lot of things are going on here at Testa Center, as always. Last week, we ran the Testa Challenge for the first time. This was a super-exciting week where we welcomed six new companies; two from Sweden, two from Denmark, and one from England and the US respectively. We not only scaled up our offering by a factor of six (!), we are now also better geared to understand what kind of services, technical and digital customers desire from us. The potential for technological and digital innovations in bioprocessing is huge and I truly believe that this can have a massive impact on the way we manufacture biological products in the future. If you are interested, check out some of the clips and quotes from the participants on our website and via our social media channels.
To fully develop the potential that exists in new ideas and new innovations we need to work together and that is really what Testa Center is all about – simply put – with joint efforts we do it better. I love science and I love welcoming new people to the Testa Center. It is such a joy to meet all the researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs that come here. To be a part of their next steps and share their journey through challenges and success. Some of their stories we also share with you in our Testa Testimonials published on our webpage or social media. We try to keep you updated of what´s going on. Another story to share is from a seminar that we recently held during the Innovation week. Check out our interview with researchers Sara Mangsbo and Albert Mihranyan from Uppsala university, and hear Karin Stensjö and Peter Lindblad thoughts around research and education that the university has done here in the Testa Center.
We will continue to share our story – stay tuned and safe!
All the best
Jesper Hedberg
Director of Testa Center
