Combining Artificial Intelligence with Well-being Gathers Leading International Experts to Turku

07.03.2019

The international Life Science Live event will gather medical and health care research communities and the business world to Finland in May. The cutting edge event will be arranged in the Turku Fair Center and keynote speakers include e.g. Karen Madden, Vice President of Perkin Elmer; Andrew Fried, Director of global Life Science Industry at IBM; and Dipak Kalra, President of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data organisation.

Arranged in Turku Fair Center from 15–16 May 2019, Life Science Live is an international event for professionals that brings together medical and health care research communities and the business world. There will also be international investors present. The main theme for the event is artificial intelligence and its applications in healthcare, pharmaceutical development and biotechnology. The professionals are looking into the future with focus on development measures.

The two-day Life Science Live event comprises of a scientific programme (Science Track), the HealthBIO seminar, i~HD conference, and an exhibition with the latest innovations of the field. All keynote speakers of Life Science Live are highly regarded experts in the industry. Andrew Fried, Director of global Life Science Industry at IBM will speak at the opening.

Networking with Finland’s leading Life Science players

One of the programmes in the event is the HealthBIO seminar which has emerged as the most important annual gathering of Life Science players in Finland. The event has grown more international year by year. Of this year’s speakers, Ph.D., Vice President Karen Madden from PerkinElmer will talk about the innovations of individual drug diagnostics, and Hadean Ventures partner Walter Stockinger will focus on the changing role of equity investors. On the second day of the HealthBIO seminar there will be a matchmaking event for companies and a pitching competition arranged by Business Finland.

i~HD focuses on health data

The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD) will bring an international i~HD conference to Life Science Live. The main theme is maximal utilisation of health data. Conference topics include the globally interesting GDPR and privacy protection. One of the most anticipated speakers of the conference is Dipak Kalra, President of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data organisation

Science Track introduces the latest solutions in health technology

The two universities in Turku with focus on health care and biotechnology, the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, will bring to Life Science Live their own scientific programme that highlights the latest IT solutions related to health and medical research. Speakers include e.g. Moncef Grabbouj, Professor of Signal Processing at the Tampere University of Technology, and several guests from Great Britain. Professor Martin Cowie from the Imperial College London specialises in health technology, particularly in care of cardiac patients. Professor Jason Swedlow from the University of Dundee was one of the founders of the Open Microscopy Environment project.

Turku – home of world class Life Science expertise

The Life Science Live event is produced by the University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, and Turku Science Park Ltd as part of the HealthTurku leading edge development work.

- Turku is a perfect place for this world class event, as it is one of Finland’s most important Life Science clusters with more than 100 life science companies and two universities focusing on health and biotechnology, says Kalervo Väänänen, Rector of the University of Turku.

Turku, home of the Finnish life science expertise cluster, has about 20% of its industrial workforce in the life science sector. Pharmaceutical and diagnostics development have been the strong suit of the cluster since the early 1980s. Today, the companies operating within the cluster produce more than half of Finland’s total net revenue in pharmaceutical sales. While the drug development and diagnostics sectors have traditionally been the cornerstones of HealthTurku, the overall expertise cluster is much broader, covering different aspects of healthcare and technology.

HealthTurku is the home of Finland’s first operational biobank. Approximately one million samples are stored in the Auria Biobank and used for medical research. The cluster also includes Turku PET Centre – a Finnish National Research Institute for the use of short-lived positron emitting isotopes in the field of medical research. In imaging studies, Turku BioImaging is an interdisciplinary science and infrastructure umbrella that aims to unite bioimaging expertise in Turku and elsewhere in Finland. Outside imaging studies, the HealthTurku cluster also hosts a comprehensive care centre for cancer.

Created 07.03.2019 | Updated 07.03.2019