BioTalentum Ltd. Hungary Prof. András Dinnyés Director Foto a cég épületéről Novel Transgenic Animal Models, Cellular Models and Stem Cell Systems for Biomedical Research and Drug Testing Fourth EUA CDE Workshop, Mobility and Collaboration in Doctoral Education international and inter sectorial, Budapest 20 21 January, 2011
Who we are and what we do BioTalentum is a leading technology provider in Central & EasternEuropeinthefieldofdiscoveryanddevelopmentofnew transgenic animal models, cellular models and stem cell systems for biomedical research and drug testing. The company provides these R&D tools to academic research groups and the related trainings to pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry worldwide. 1. 2. 3. 4. Services Stem cell laboratory services: Full range of embryonic stem cell based transgenesis, differentiation, marker analysis of cell lines or pre implantational embryos, and in vitro cell based assays and tests from knock out or transgenic stem cell lines; cellular models Animal facility services: Full transgenic and knock out mouse generation services with state of the art cryopreservation technologies to keep mutant mouse stock in a safe place for long term Molecular biology services (various) Other services: Molecular biological analyses, training and advisory, grant project writing/management Resources Human: 30 personnel (10 with Phd) in Gödöllő, Hungary Infrastructure: 450 sqm lab and animal facility space in Gödöllő, Hungary Fully equipped cell culture, molecular biology, embryology and micromanipulation laboratories & SPF mouse facilities Intellectual property: Stem cell and transgenic cell line and animal production technology know how Stem cell patent for drug testing BioTalentum is very active in European research: full research partner in 4FP6 projects and in 10 FP7 projects; in 7of these BioTalentum is the coordinator of the project. 2
Our references and R&D projects References / Animal facility, stem cell laboratory and molecular biology services References / Other services Our projects Richter Gedeon Plc., Budapest, Hungary Ludwig Maximilians Universitat, Munchen, Germany Csertex Ltd., Budapest, Hungary Abiol Ltd., Debrecen, Hungary Szent Istvan University, Gödöllő, Hungary EGIS PLC (Servier Group), Budapest, Hungary Department of Physiology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Universita degli Studio di Milano, Bicocca, Italy Karolinska Institutet, Sweden ThalesNano Inc., Budapest, Hungary HAS Agricultural Research Inst., Hungary HAS Chemical Research Center, Hungary EU FP7 EU FP6 InduStem IAPP AGLAEA PartnErs IAPP ARTEMIS STEMCAM IAPP CLONET InduVir IRG MedRat InduHeart IRG RabPStem ERG IDPbyNMR ITN PluriSys NAD Resolve National ES2HEART Kozma Chinese Hungarian Bilateral 3
Ongoing IAPP project: PartnErS EU FP7 THE PEOPLE PROGRAMME Industry Academia Partnerships and Pathways Project full title: Comparative embryonic stem cell research in mammalians Project acronym: PartnErS Duration of the project: 48 months List of Beneficiaries: BioTalentum Ltd., coordinator - Kobenhavns Universitet, Faculty of Life Sciences, Denmark - Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Thailand Main goals: - Generation of new pluripotent cell lines in mouse and pig - In vitro differentiation of pluripotent cell lines towards neural and/or cardiac lineage in mouse, pig and human - Many European PhD student exchanges between Denmark and Hungary mostly from HU to DK - 2 yr Thai PhD student in Hungary enrolled in Thai university, sandwich program with Hungarian SME 4
The BioTalentum team and our daily collaborators 5
Benefits of PhD students for BioTalentum Ltd and the Univ. Additional personnel resources for companies- NOT FREE (training is costly by material and human resources so longer stays are better) Testing and convincing researchers for long term carrier at the SME International mobilisation and training for own students by MC actions Potential problems and solutions: Salary levels Hungary vs. EU (only in company the salaries are sufficient to counteract brain drain) Shortage of bench money for students at Univ no problem in industry Mostly soft money short term employees in Academia companies prefer long term employees Clonet MC RTN (4 yr, 16 students: only Biotalentum employed some (5: 2 HU, 1 RO, 1 Thai, 1 Indian) 60% of new jobs at SMEs in EU (although many not R/D intensive) main future employer sector, the students should see it from inside as early as possible 6
Suggestions, open questions for actions Sandwich programs with industry (large or SME) (1 year co-supervisors from industry: with scientific degree, publications but not with 5-10 yr teaching experience) Universities could create much more spin-offs and incubate them no as an investment, but as part of an integrated training and business strategy for cofinancing education and research at the Univ. International students at every level would be attracted to different school of thoughts more international training income for Univ and new connections for business, too Hungarian Biotechnology Association runs biotech manager trainings, oversubscribed by students Research/elite univ status including criteria on industrial collaborations More complementary skill trainings - although the first hand experience is the best.. Quality control follow up: employment data collection of post-docs, mobility international/sectorial, salary levels, length of employment 7