Local countermeasures for global challenges Not a long time ago the world heard the alert of the spreading Zika virus. In order to combat the disease, a research team led by professor Andres Merits compiled the genome of the virus and is developing a vaccine against Zika. ‘The first vaccine candidates are already on clinical trial,’ tells Reet Kurg, director of the institute. In her words this is a good example how networked today’s science is: ‘We might not have this problem here, but we have interlinked experts from the world’s various ends and we can unite their forces to solve the problem.’ Kurg’s colleague Mart Ustav is behind the remarkable story of spin-off Icosagen. Starting as a diagnostics lab researching Human Papillomavirus, Ustav and his team built the successful health-tech company Icosagen, which develops novel technologies and provides research services to academia and to the bio-pharma and bio-tech industries. In 2016, Icosagen Cell Factory was awarded 1.2 million euros within the framework of Horizon 2020 to develop a novel platform for mammalian cell line development, in order to reduce the length and cost of biological drug development. The company has almost 50 employees today, half of them have a PhD. Diagnostics − or to be precise − selfdiagnostics is yet another example of how knowledge, a good business idea and patience combined with hard work pays off. Since 2010, the company known as Selfdiagnostics has closely cooperated with the institute to revolutionize the sexually transmitted disease (STD) multi-test for use at home. It helps to discover diseases faster and start treatment sooner while saving money. ‘While developing the product and building our company (with headquarters in Tallinn and an office in Leipzig) our mission is to do very good science,’ says co-founder Indrek Tulp. The company has seen three PhD theses successfully defended in the last eight years and attracted remarkable investments.
Hannes Kollist
Perhaps one common feature among the people active at UT Institute of Technology is that most of them are a bit bull-headed, driven to make their projects thrive and never giving up. ‘They don’t despise small and simple problems. However, they always think big and their great visions may reach out from the ordinary person’s perspective,’ describes Kristel Reim, head of the UT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. ‘Our first success story is that we have been very open to all scientists with good and crazy ideas. We wish they could apply for grants themselves and we do not send anyone back, rather we advise,’ adds Kurg. And the scope of the areas is wide. In the environmental technologies professor Hannes Kollist’s Plant Signal Research Group explores the response of plants to environmental changes. ‘Thanks to his initiative a very unique apparatus was built that measures the gas exchange from the leaves of plants,’ says Kurg. Group works at models that try to forecast the climate changes impact on the vegetation.
Mart Ustav
44
LI F E I N ESTON IA N o 48