But what has this to do with biology, or journalism, or indeed any of the usual topics of this blog? Showing that biotechnologists are not above taking advantage of the networking opportunities offered by the Olympics, the canton of Zurich organised a very interesting Life Science Day at the House of Switzerland on 30 July. The Day, more precisely a long afternoon, was divided into three sessions. The first, organised by the EU HealthTIES consortium, presented some of the most important scientific and technical advances that are likely to affect healthcare in the next decades.
The HealthTIES consortium links biotech and health organisations in five European regions - Zurich (of course); Oxford ans its environs; BioCat in Catalonia, Spain; Medical Delta in the Netherlands; and Ëszak-Alföld in Hungary - aiming to promote innovation in technology for healthcare through collaboration. The first session brought together experts from Zurich, Oxford and Hungary to discuss some of these innovations and their implications for policy and ethics. It was particularly interesting for me to hear Hagan Bayley from the University of Oxford, whose academic research I had recently reported on for the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology at Birkbeck and UCL, wearing his entrepeneurial hat to discuss the promise and implications of the $1000 Genome. Highlights from other UK speakers included Lord Brennan QC describing his own heart attack as a preface to a talk on health policy and Peter Walton's presentation of the clinical benefits of the UK's Adult Cardiac Surgery Database.
The second session brought the focus more firmly on to Switzerland, with presentations from five companies located in the Zurich region. Four of these were biotechs: EMPA, which manufactures biodegradable "plastics" from chemicals synthesised by micro-organisms; INSPHERO develops three-dimensional cell cultures for drug testing; Xeltis is developing methods to grow heart valves and blood vessels from a patient's own cells, and Virometrix is involved in vaccine design. The fifth presentation was by a finance company, SIX Swiss Exchange.
The final session was badged as part of the UK co-organiser One Nucleus' BioWednesday series of informal discussions and networking meetings. One Nucleus is a membership organisation for biotech companies and professionals in the greater London and Cambridge areas. This "BioWednesday on a Monday" took the form of a discussion of the characteristics and benefits of a successful biotech cluster, taking Zurich and London / Cambridge as examples. The combined London / Cambridge cluster is about twice the size of the one centred on Zurich, with 167 biotech companies compared to Zurich's 87. A lively discussion led by panellists from both countries cited features of successful clusters that included quality of life (with one Swiss panellist describing his whole country as "a biotech cluster with recreational add-ons"); communication links; and a mixture of different types of company with universities and teaching hospitals. Not surprisingly, the one negative feature of the locations much cited by delegates from both countries was their high costs.
An excellent "standing dinner" with wine brought this very worthwhile meeting to its close before we all braved the Olympic traffic home.
